PARTS OF SPEECH

PARTS OF SPEECH

Nouns:
Names of persons, places or things. In German and English the usually inflect for singular and plural
Example
I have one book. I have two books. Books changes with the number, it is a noun.

Verbs:
Action words: usually inflect for time
Example
Today I go to school. Yesterday I went to school. “Go” becomes “went” so these are the verbs

Adjectives
: Generally describe (modify) a noun. The red book is here. “Red” is the adjective since it describes the noun “book”

If the adjective occurs before the noun it is a prenominal adjective. If it occurs alone after the verb it is called a predicate adjective. The book is red. “Red” is a predicate adjective. In English possessive pronouns often have a different for when they are pronominal as opposed to predicate adjectives.

This is my book. (“My” is a prenominal adjective)

This book is mine (“mine” is a predicate adjective)

In some older forms of English “mine” was used in both places:

“Mine eyes have seen the glory….”

Adverbs:
Adverbs modify verbs.

The man ran quickly. Quickly is an adverb

Pronouns
Words which stand for nouns

Cases: (used for nouns and pronouns)

The man’s	friend	sent	the mayor	a telegram
GEN (POS)	NOM (SUB)	VERB	DAT ( IO)	ACC ( DO)

The forms any word can take constitute a paradigm

The forms a noun takes make up a declension (One declines a noun by indicating all its forms)

The forms a verb takes make up a conjugation. (One conjugates a verb by showing all its forms)

Persons (all examples in the nominative case)

First person: the speaker (I, we)
Second person: person spoken to (you)
Third person: person spoke about (he, she, it, they

Number

German has grammatical gender in which the gender of the noun determines the article it takes, but has no relationship to the real world. Masculine nouns have as the efinite article “der” while feminine nouns have “die” and neuter nouns have “das”. While Mann (man) is masculine and Frau (woman) is feminine make the gender look as though it is natural other words show it is not. Das Kind (child) is neuter. Der Bleistift (a pencil) is masculine, and das Mädchen (the girl) is neuter.

Agreement

Nouns must agree with verbs in person and number Mascuoline nouns use the pronoun “er” Feminine nouns use the pronoun “sie” and neuter nouns use the pronoun “es”