Page 14 - WEBSTER Essential vocabulary

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PARTS OF SPEECH Introduction 3

Parts of speech are indicated by italicized abbreviations: adj. (adjective), adv.
(adverb), conj. (conjunction), n. (noun), pn. (pronoun), pr. (preposition), vi. (intran-
sitive verb), and vt. (transitive verb). To review a little grammar very briefly, a noun
is a person, place, or thing. An adjective modifies a noun. For example, a pretty girl
gets more attention than a plain girl. In the preceding sentence, both pretty and
plain are adjectives modifying two separate occurrences of the noun, girl.
A verb is an action word. If the verb is transitive, it carries the action to an object.
Consider the following sentence: Peter ate a grape. In that sentence, the grape
receives the action of the transitive verb, to eat (past tense, ate). The verb, to eat, can
also be intransitive, if nothing is receiving the action. For example, when I go to
dinner, I eat.

An adverb modifies a verb, another adverb, or an adjective. Look at the follow-
ing sentence: The boat moved quickly. Quickly is an adverb modifying the verb,
moved.