English one

Throughout the course of English One, I have learned many of the English language components. Without learning how to properly use the English language a person may not be able to proper in life as they would like. A person must be grammatically correct when talking, using the English language to write a paper, or even using it to complete a job application or resume. Many of the topics we covered I was familiar with, but was unsure of how to properly use them. Some of the topics that I have learned included Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections.

The first topic we covered was nouns. A noun is defined as a word that names a person, place, a thing, or an idea. There are two major types of nouns; Common Nouns and Proper Nouns. A common noun is the general name for something such as dish, brother, and river. A proper noun is the specific name for a particular person, place, thing, or an idea such as Lassie, Brother John, Mississippi River, and Islam. Most Nouns can be singular or plural. Woman is an example of a singular common noun, while women is a plural common noun. A proper noun would be Sandra Day O'Connor.

There also three other types of nouns; Collective Nouns, Compound Nouns, Concrete Nouns and Abstract Nouns. A collective noun name a group. A few examples of collective nouns are navy, family, and team. A compound noun is made up of more than one word. Some compound nouns like drugstore, and doghouse are written as one word. Others, like disc jockey, Staten Island, and living room are written as two separate words. Still other compound nouns like brother-in-law and forget-me-not are hyphenated. A concrete noun names an object that occupies space or can be recognized by the senses. Tree, drum, and lightning are concrete nouns. An abstract noun names an idea, a quality, or a characteristic. Loyalty, elegance, and size are abstract nouns.

The next topic that was covered was Pronouns. We talked about eight types of pronouns. There are personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns, intensive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, interrogative pronouns, relative pronouns, and indefinite pronouns. A pronoun is defined as a word that takes the place of a noun, a group of nouns, or another pronoun. A personal pronoun refers to a specific person or thing; such as I gave it to them. There are also singular and plural personal pronouns. A few examples of singular personal pronouns would be I, me, you, he, him, she, her, and it. Some examples of plural personal pronouns would be we, us, you, they, and them. A possessive pronoun takes the place of the possessive form of a noun; such as My old room is now hers. There can be singular and plural possessive pronouns. Some examples of singular possessive pronouns are my, mine, you, yours, his, her, hers, and its. Some examples of plural possessive pronouns are our, ours, you, yours, their, and theirs. A reflexive pronoun refers to a noun or another pronoun and indicates that the same person or thing is involved such as; We did it for ourselves. Some examples of singular reflexive pronouns would be myself, yourself, himself, herself, and itself. Examples of plural reflexive pronouns are ourselves, yourselves, and themselves. An intensive pronoun adds emphasis to another noun or pronoun such as; He himself admitted it.

Demonstrative pronouns points out specific persons, places, things, or ideas. The demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these, and those. The word these in the sentence: These are facts from American History; is an example of a demonstrative pronoun in use. An interrogative pronoun is used to form questions. The interrogative pronouns are who, whose, whom, which and what. The word whose in the sentence: Whose was the presidency following Zachary Taylor's?; is an example of an interrogative pronoun in use. A relative pronoun is used to begin a special subject-verb word goup called a subordinate clause. The relative pronouns are who, whom, whose, which, and that. All the relative pronouns except that can also be used as interrogative. The word which in the sentence: Watergate was the event which created scandal during the Nixon administration. An indefinite pronoun refers to persons, places, or things in a more general way than a noun does. A few examples of indefinite pronouns are all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, and everybody.

Pronouns must also agree with their antecedents. An antecedent is the word or group of words to which a pronoun refers or which a pronoun replaces. A pronoun must agree with its antecedent both in number (singular or plural) and in gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter). Agreement is required whether the antecedent is a noun or an indefinite pronoun. An example of a pronoun antecedent agreement would be the sentence: Each of the daughters had her own room. When a singular antecedent may be either male or female, it is conventional to use a masculine pronoun. If you do not want to use a masculine pronoun, try to rephrase your statement in the plural. Examples of this would be; Each of the captains casts his vote. And All of the captains cast their votes.

There are also two different types of cases of personal pronouns. Use the nominative case if the pronoun is a subject or predicate nominative. The nominative pronouns are I, you, she, he, it, we, and they. A few sentence examples of a nominative case would be We girls entered a contest. The winners were they. Use the objective case if the pronoun is a direct or indirect object or the object of a preposition. The object pronouns are me, my, you, her, him, it, us and them. A few sentence examples would be The contest intrigued them. Our aunt sent Irene and me flowers.

Adjectives was another component of the English language that was covered. An adjective is defined as a word that modifies a noun or pronoun by limiting its meaning. Adjectives modify, or change, the meaning of a noun or pronoun by making more specific. Adjectives can modify nouns and pronouns in four different ways. Some adjectives describe. The describing adjectives answer the question what is it like. Some examples of this would be a rainy afternoon, it seems heavy, smooth surface. Some adjectives classify. The classifying adjectives answer the question what kind is it. Some examples of classifying adjectives would be female spiders, Siberian winters, and governmental regulations. Adjectives can also identify. The identifying adjectives answer the question which one. Some examples of identifying adjectives are this book, those horses, our party, and his car. Adjectives can also quantify. Quantifying adjectives answer the question how much or how many. Some examples of quantifying adjectives are an apple, three cents, several pounds, and