Educations and behavior put all upon a level. Words are often named according to how they are used in sentences. These names for the words are called their parts of speech. The eight parts of speech in the King’s English are: Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Nouns are the names of persons, places, things, feelings, or ideas. For example, love is not a tangible thing that can be seen or held, but clearly it exists, so it is also a noun. Nouns usually answer the questions who or what.

Nouns can be divided into two main categories: proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are the names of people or places that are capitalized (Cosumnes River College, Brice Harris, etc). Common nouns are names that do not require capitalization (book, chair, school, etc).

Verb is a word that describes action or a state of being. The second part of this definition is important, as many believe that verbs are always action words that can be visualized. This is true of action verbs: crawl, walk, run, play, jump, sing, scream, etc.

However, there are also linking verbs, and these types of verbs do not express action; instead, they express identity, classification, or existence. (The following are the most common linking verbs: is, am, was, were, are, and verb phrases ending in be, been, being.)

Verbs often change their form as different endings are added to them. These endings are changed to show a verb’s relationship to time. This is referred to as verb tense.

Finding the Subjects and Verbs

The most important words in sentences are those that make up its independent clauses, the subject and the verb. When you write a sentence, you write about something or someone. That is the subject. Then you write what the subject does or is. That is the verb.

Lighting strikes.

The word Lightning is the something you are writing about. It is the subject. Strikes tells what the subject does. It shows action in the sentence. It is the verb. However, most sentences do not include only two words—the subject and the verb. Yet, these two words still make up the core of the sentence even if other words and phrases are included with them.

Lightning strikes back and forth from the clouds to the ground very quickly.

Often lightning strikes people on golf courses or in boats.

When many words appear in sentences, the subject and verb can be hard to find. Because the verb often shows action, it is easier to spot than the subject. Therefore, always look for it first. For example, in the sentence:

The neighborhood cat folded its paws under its chest.

Which word shows the action? Folded. It is the verb. Now ask yourself who or what folded? Cat. It is the subject.

Study the following sentences until you understand how to pick out subjects and verbs.

Tomorrow our school celebrates its one-year anniversary. (Which word shows the action? Celebrates. It is the verb. Who or what celebrates? School. It is the subject.)

The team members ate several boxes of chocolates. (Which word shows action? Ate. Who or what ate? Members ate.) So the verb is ate. The subject is members.

Internet users crowd the popular services. (Which word shows the action? Crowd. Who or what crowd? (Users crowd.) So users is the subject and Crowd is the verb,

Often the verb does not show action, but merely tells what the subject is or was. Learn to spot such verbs—is, am, are, was, were, seems, feels, appears, becomes, looks, and so forth.

William Winchester is the best father and actor in the world. (First spot the verb is. Then ask who or what us? William Winchester is.) So is equals the verb and William Winchester equals the subject.

Every history has one quality in common with eternity. Begin where you will, there is always a beginning back of the beginning.

God, like planets, has both a visible and invisible history. The growing good of the World is partly dependent on unhistoric acts. The best teachers, Nature and Love.