Parts of Speech and Punctuation

An understanding of parts of speech and punctuation marks will help improve your writing.

The eight parts of speech and five most common punctuation marks are the glue that holds sentences together. All grammar begins with an understanding of how a sentence is built. In writing, once you learn the basics, you can experiment with more advanced parts of speech and punctuation marks.

Nouns and Adjectives

A comma is a useful way to separate ideas and indicate a pause in a sentence. A comma can be used to separate two unrelated adjectives describing a noun. For example: "He is a very strong, handsome man." A comma is also used to separate nouns and word groups in a series of three or more, using a final serial comma depending on the style guide that is being followed. For example: "Please bring me the ball, towel, and hat" (the serial comma being retained in this case).

Conjunctions

A coordinating conjunction joins two dependent clauses or one dependent clause and one independent clause. "And," "but," "or," "for" and "nor" are the five most common coordinating conjunctions. An independent clause can stand alone as a complete sentence. A dependent clause is a phrase that cannot stand alone as a complete sentence and when added to a dependent clause, no comma is used. For example, "He was extremely tired but did not have time to take a nap."

Interjections

Interjections are expressions of emotion or exclamation, such as: "hey," "oh," "well" and "yes." There are two ways to punctuate interjections. First, if emotion is to be emphasized in the meaning of the sentence, a exclamation mark may follow an interjection. The word that follows the interjection should be capitalized. For example, "Hey! Don't run over there." Second, a comma can separate an interjection that is more subdued. For example, "Well, I am not sure if I will be able to come."

Capitalization

Proper usage of nouns and pronouns includes understanding capitalization rules. A proper noun, defined as a person, place or thing, must be capitalized. For example, "He decided to take a trip to San Francisco" or "She enjoyed her trip to the Natural Museum of History." You would also capitalize the title of a person being addressed in a sentence. For example, "Is there anything that can be done, Doctor?"

References

• Enchanted Learning: Grammar: Parts of Speech
• EnglishClub: Punctuation