What I have learned is that nouns, adverbs, verbs, and adjectives are not the same old terms I learned back in elementary school. In fact there is so much more to them. The “test” questions or sentences used to determine if the word is noun, verb, adjective, or adverb are new to me, but have sparked my interest because the “test” questions or sentences will come in handy. I am not sure who was bored enough back in the day to have to name every single word by another word, but at least there are simple ways to crack the code. I have also learned about adverbs being mobile words; how in a sentence the adverb can generally be placed anywhere and the meaning of the sentence is still the same.
The reminder of syntax was a nice refreshment. I can remember getting papers back with that word and I remember knowing what the word meant, but I did not know how to fix it. I know I will probably always have a problem when it comes to sentence perfection, but I am working on it!
Also, ever since looking at the newspaper and picking out the parts of speech, I have caught myself doing it on a regular basis. In fact, I’ve caught myself getting the newspaper in general. I think dissecting a piece of writing to find particular errors or demonstrations of particular grammar has helped me to retain the things we have learned so far.
A question that I do have is do the “test” questions or sentences always work when trying to figure out what part of speech a particular word is?
I have to admit that I don't think they would always work. I think that they are an excellent way of helping beginner students figure out the different parts of speech but practice is what is really going to help the students the most. I think they are good guidelines and that the more advanced the writing the more difficult it becomes for the student to figure out.
ReplyDeleteKasie,
ReplyDeleteI don't know exactly how to answer your question. I would guess that not all the rules work for figuring out every part of speech. In some instances a person might use the rules to figure out if a word is a verb, but in some cases that 'verb' could be being used as a noun in the sentence. So basically I think you have to use the rules, as well as look at the sentence structure and placement of words to figure out what parts of speech are being used as what. Because the English language is changing all the time there are always new rules and exceptions, so I would use a mix of rules and sentence coherency to find the part of speech for a word.
Margeux Nowack
you guys are exactly right. No, the test questions and other guidelines don't always work. The best way to "know" what word class a word is is by syntax. . . as we did with the Puzball activity.
ReplyDeletep.s. Kasie, please write in larger font, okay? I can barely read your blog!
thx.. . from an oldie...