How to write

NOUNS - The name of anything.

Words are grouped according to their similarities in use, or office, in the sentence. We find that they all fall into eight classes, which we call Parts of Speech.

We find that many words name things–are the names of things of which we can think and speak. These we place in one class and call them Nouns Latin nomen, a name, a noun.

PRONOUNS - A word used for a noun.

I, you, my, me, what, we, it, he, who, him, she, them, and other words are used in place of nouns, and are, therefore, called Pronouns Lat. pro, for, and nomen, a noun.

By means of these handy little words we can represent any or every object in existence. We could hardly speak or write without them now; they so frequently shorten the expression and prevent confusion and repetition.

The principal office of nouns is to name the things of which we say, or assert, something in the sentence. Every subject of a sentence is a noun, or some word or words used as a noun. But not every noun in a sentence is a subject.

Proper, or individual, names and words derived from them begin with capital letters. Abbreviations generally begin with capital letters and are always followed by the period.

When a class name and a distinguishing word combine to make one individual name, each word begins with a capital letter; as, Jersey City. [Footnote: Dead Sea is composed of the class name sea, which applies to all seas, and the word Dead, which distinguishes one sea from all others.]

But, when the distinguishing word can by itself be regarded as a complete name, the class name begins with a small letter; as, river Rhine.

VERBS - A Verb is a word that asserts action, being, or state of being.

We have had to use another class of which tell what the things do, or assert that they are, or exist. When we say “Clocks tick”, tick is not the name of anything; it tells what clocks do: it asserts action.

When we say “Clocks are”, or “There are clocks”, are is not the name of. anything, nor does it tell what clocks do; it simply asserts existence, or being.

All words that assert action, being, or state of being, we call Verbs Lat. verbum, a word. The name was given to this class because it was thought that they were the most important words in the sentence.

There are, however, two forms of the verb, the participle and the infinitive that express action, being, or state of being, without asserting it.

A verb may consist of two, three, or even four words; as, “is learning”, “may be learned”, “could have been learned”. [Footnote: Such groups of words are sometimes called verb-phrases.

As verbs are the only words that assert, every predicate must be a verb, or must contain a verb.

ADJECTIVE - A word used to modify a noun or a pronoun.

The subject noun and the predicate verb are not always or often the whole of the structure that we call the sentence, though they are the underlying timbers that support the rest of the verbal bridge. Other words may be built upon them.

Things resemble one another and differ from one another. They resemble and they differ in what we call their qualities. Things are alike whose qualities are the same, as, two oranges having the same color, taste, and odor. Things are unlike, as an orange and an apple, whose qualities are different. It is by their qualities, then, that we know things and group them.

“Ripe apples are healthful.”
“Unripe apples are hurtful.”

In these two sentences we have the same word apples to name the same general class of things; but the prefixed words ripe and unripe, marking opposite qualities in the apples, separate the apples into two kinds–the ripe ones and the unripe ones.

If we say the, this, that apple, or an, no apple, or some, many, eight apples, we do not mark any quality of the fruit; but the, this, or that points out a particular apple, and limits the word apple to the one pointed out; and an, no, some, many, or eight limits the word in respect to the number of apples that it denotes.

These and all such words as by marking quality, by pointing out, or by specifying number or quantity limit the scope or add to the meaning of the noun, modify it, and are called Modifiers. A Modifier is a word or a group of words joined to some part of the sentence to qualify or limit the meaning.

Words that modify nouns and pronouns are called Adjectives Lat. ad, to, and jacere, to throw.

When two or more adjectives are used with a noun, care must be taken in their arrangement. If they differ in rank, place nearest the noun the one most closely modifying it. If of the same rank, place them where they will sound best–generally in the order of length, the shortest first.

“Two honest young men were chosen.”

“A tall, straight, dignified person entered.”

Young tells the kind of men, honest tells the kind of young men, and two tells the number of honest young men; hence these adjectives are not of the same rank. Tall, straight, and dignified modify person independently–the person is tall and straight and dignified; hence these adjectives are of the same rank.

Notice the comma after tall and straight; and may be supplied; in the first sentence and cannot be supplied.

ADVERBS - A word used to modify a verb, an adjective, or an adverb.

You have learned that the subject may be modified; let us see whether the predicate may be.

If we say, “The leaves fall”, we express a fact in a general way. But, if we wish to speak of the time of their falling, we can add a word and say, “The leaves fall early”; of the place of their falling, “The leaves fall here”; of the manner, “The leaves fall quietly”; of the cause, “Why do the leaves fall?”

We may join a word to one of these modifiers and say, “The leaves fall very quietly”. Here very modifies quietly by telling the degree.

“Very quietly” is a group of words modifying the predicate. The predicate with its modifiers is called the Modified Predicate. Such words as very, here, and quietly form another part of speech, and are called Adverbs Lat. ad, to, and verbum, a word, or verb.

Adverbs may modify adjectives; as, “Very ripe apples are healthful.”
Adverbs modify verbs just as adjectives modify nouns–by limiting them. “The horse has a proud step” = “The horse steps proudly.”

The Predicate with its Modifiers is called the Modified Predicate, or Logical Predicate.

Source: Kellogg, Brainerd and Reed, Alonzo: Higher Lessons in English, 1896