The 8 parts of speech: A refresher

I remember that there are nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions, but what’s the eighth?

Interjections. Oh, yes!

It’s been way too long since I’ve watched “Schoolhouse Rock”:

As professional writers and editors, we sometimes focus so much on word choice, sentence structure and clear writing that we may forget the basics.

Here’s a review of the eight parts of speech:

1. Nouns

Common nouns refer to a person, place or thing.

Proper nouns refer to a specific person, place or thing. Proper nouns (Aunt Sheila, the Taj Mahal, King George) are capitalized.

Example: Maybe we should test the elevator pitch in an elevator?

2. Pronouns

Pronouns take the place of a noun (my, me, you, she, he, his, her).

Example: If she doesn’t show up, I will call her.

3. Verbs

Verbs are action words. They show action or state of being and indicate the time of that action or state—past, present or future.

Example: The plot thins.

4. Adjectives