This document provides an overview of basic grammar concepts including: 1. It defines the sentence as the largest independent unit of grammar that begins with a capital letter and ends with a punctuation mark. 2. It outlines the eight parts of speech - noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection - and provides examples of each. 3. It explains the basic parts of a sentence are the subject and the verb, with the subject usually being a noun and the verb identifying an action or state of being. Nouns can also function as objects that receive the action of the verb.

1. Communication Arts 1
SENTENCE
The largest independent unit of grammar: it begins with a capital letter and ends with a
period, question mark, or exclamation point.
The sentence is traditionally (and inadequately) defined as a word or group of words that
expresses a complete idea and that includes a subject and a verb.
PARTS OF SPEECH
The common name for a word class--a category into which words are placed according to the
work they do in a sentence.
PART OF
SPEECH
BASIC FUNCTION EXAMPLES
noun names a person, place, or thing pirate, Caribbean, ship
pronoun takes the place of a noun I, you, he, she, it, ours,
them, who
verb identifies action or state of being sing, dance, believe,
be
adjective modifies a noun hot, lazy, funny
adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb softly, lazily, often
preposition shows a relationship between a noun (or
pronoun) and other words in a sentence
up, over, against, by,
for
conjunction joins words, phrases, and clauses and, but, or, yet
interjection expresses emotion ah, whoops, ouch
SUBJECT-VERB-OBJECT
The basic parts of a sentence are the subject and the verb. The subject is usually a noun--a word
that names a person, place, or thing. The predicate (or verb) usually follows the subject and
identifies an action or a state of being.

2. See if you can identify the subject and the predicate in each of the following short sentences:
 The hawk soars.
 The widows weep.
 My daughter is a wrestler.
 The children are tired.
In addition to serving as subjects, nouns may also function as objects in sentences. Instead
of performing the action, as subjects usually do, objects receive the action and usually follow the
verb. See if you can identify the objects in the short sentences below:
 The girls hurled stones.
 The professor swigged coffee.
 Gus dropped the aquarium.
The objects-- stones, coffee, aquarium --all answer the question what : What was hurled? What
was swigged? What was dropped?
As the following sentences demonstrate, pronouns may also serve as objects:
 Before eating the brownie, Nancy sniffed it.
 When I finally found my brother, I kissed him.
The common object pronouns are me, you, him, her, it, us, and them .
THE BASIC SENTENCE UNIT
You should now be able to identify the main parts of the basic sentence unit: SUBJECT plus
VERB, or SUBJECT plus VERB plus OBJECT. Remember that the subject names what the
sentence is about, the verb tells what the subject does or is, and the object receives the action of
the verb. Although many other structures can be added to this basic unit, the pattern of
SUBJECT plus VERB (or SUBJECT plus VERB plus OBJECT) can be found in even the
longest and most complicated structures.

3. For each of the following sentences, identify the word in bold as a subject, a verb, or an object.
When you're done, compare your answers with those at the end of the exercise.
 Mr. Buck donated a wishbone to the Museum of Natural History.
 After the final song, the drummer hurled his sticks at the crowd.
 Gus smashed the electric guitar with a sledge hammer.
 Felix stunned the giraffe with a radar gun.
 Very slowly, Pandora opened the box.
 Very slowly, Pandora opened the box.
 Very slowly, Pandora opened the box.
 Thomas gave his moonpie to Bengie.
 After breakfast, Vera drove to the mission with Ted.
 Even though it rarely rains here, Professor Legree carries his umbrella wherever he goes.