Homework Help Forum: English (8th Grade)

Posted by Leez on Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:07pm.

I can only figure about half of this one out: Your assignment is to go back and label the parts of speech of each word in this paragraph. The only ones which you do not know are articles (a/the) and determiners (these/those/this/that). There are: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, and conjunctions. The Sentences: She strode to a door in the far corner of the office, opened it, and called a name. A boy appeared in the doorway. He sat down at one end off the table. He was brown like us, a plump kid with shiny black hair combed straight back, neat, cool, and faintly obnoxious. I only know what nouns, verbs, and adjectives are, and have a vague idea on pronouns, adverbs, and conjunctions. No clue what prepositions are. Could someone explain them to me? I tried Google but it doesn't make much sense.... Thanks in advance....

• English (8th Grade) - Ms. Sue, Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:13pm

  The first site gives good descriptions of all of the parts of speech. http://eslus.com/LESSONS/GRAMMAR/POS/pos.htm The definition of preposition is difficult to understand. I suggest you keep a list of the common prepositions handy. Then learn to recognize prepositional phrases; they start with a preposition and end with a noun or pronoun. Examples: to me by the back door from Harry and Peggy under the rose bush toward a strange woman Here's a list of prepositions: http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/prepositions-list.htm

  
  

• English (8th Grade) - Writeacher, Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:15pm

  The best way to understand what prepositions are is simply to memorize the words. Fortunately that's pretty easy! http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/prepositions.htm Notice all the words in blue in the quoted paragraph. Here's another article that explains them well: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/prepositions.htm Mainly pay attention to the words in the first paragraph. http://members.cox.net/lenco1/grammarpractice/ This should help with various types of words that you've been assigned to identify. And another: http://www.leasttern.com/Grammar/humbuggrammar.html And yet another: http://www.chompchomp.com/terms.htm

  
  

• English (8th Grade) - Leez, Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:17pm

  Thank you so much!

  
  

• English (8th Grade) - GuruBlue, Thursday, October 22, 2009 at 12:28pm

  A quick suggestion about prepositions. I used to tell my student, "Any word that shows the relationship between a rabbit and a hill." Examples: the rabbit "on" the hill, "by" the hill, "near" the hill, "below" the hill, "under" the hill. etc. This is just a little "trick" that helps remember.

  
  

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