5. Retell the text. Parts of speech

A complete list of grammatical terms, including such arcane ones as ablative absolute and non-finite subordination, has no place in a guide to English in the 1990s. Mostly it is only grammarians who are aware of them: for many others they are, at best, echoes of distant thunder from their schooldays. This is not to say they do not have a place in the academic study of form and structure of language, but it is to say they are not part of using English creatively and effectively.

It is useful to be clear about what are referred to as the eight parts of speech, for one of these terms applies to nearly every word we use, and they provide the rudiments for talking about language. Those in bold type in the following list have a more detailed entry in ‘The Good English Guide’:

A noun is a word for a person, an object, a place, an action or a concept: ‘woman, book, town, walking, imagination...’

A verb is a word for any kind of action or activity: ‘walk, talk, think, love...’

An adjective is referred to as a descriptive word, because it describes a noun: ‘good, bad, large, small, beautiful...’

An adverb is to a verb what an adjective is to a noun that is it describes an action: ‘to walk slowly, to think quickly, to do well...’

A pronoun takes the place of a noun. The most common ones are ‘she, he, it’. ‘I saw the woman, as she left the house’; ‘the train was late but it arrived eventually’.

A preposition is a word defining the relationship between two other parts of speech: ‘she went into the house’; ‘he stood before her’; ‘wine goes well with cheese’.

A conjunction links two words or two groups of words together. The most common one is and: ‘Jack and Jill went up the hill’; ‘Jack clever but Jill is pretty’; ‘Do you want tea or coffee?’

An interjection is anything from a howl (Ouch!), to a greeting (Hello!), to any word used to express irritation, frustration or any other emotion (Oh dear! Ha! Ha!). A more logical term is exclamation, since interjections are always followed by exclamation marks.