“Parts of speech” is a fancy way of saying that every word in the English language can be put into one of eight categories, depending on how it is used. Of these eight parts of speech, only 7 are tested on the Writing SAT and on ACT English.
Understanding the different parts of speech is absolutely essential to having a firm grasp of English grammar, and in succeeding on the SAT and ACT. Unfortunately, nowadays many schools no longer focus on teaching this type of grammar.
Are you a bit unsure about what, exactly, a preposition is, or can’t tell the difference between an adjective and adverb? Feeling a bit rusty after learning this years ago? This article will provide the foundational information you need before moving on to more complex grammatical concepts. I'll also go over a few important SAT/ACT grammar rules.
This guide is designed to help you brush up on the basics before you tackle some of the more complicated grammar guides that we have written for the SAT and ACT.
Many of the concepts covered here are things you'll already know if you've studied grammar in school. Even if you haven't, many (but not necessarily all) of them will seem natural to native English speakers.
However, if you haven't studied grammar extensively, you can use this as a reference to help understand the basic ideas that our other guides will not cover. Check back here if you come across some terms you're unfamiliar with, or if you need to remind yourself of what something means.
Many of the concepts in this guide are not directly tested on the ACT and SAT. Instead, these concepts are building blocks that are important for understanding the why? behind the concepts that are tested. Therefore, do not worry about memorizing the names of the grammar terms in this guide, just use the concepts.
The seven parts of speech that are tested on the SAT and ACT are: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions.
Once you understand the different rules for each Part of Speech, you will see that these are relatively straightforward concepts, and they can be used to help you understand more difficult concepts.
Nouns are words that are people, places, things, or ideas.
If you are not sure if something is a noun or not, try putting "a" or "the" in front of it and see if it sounds correct. If it does, then it's probably a noun.
Examples
"A cat" and "the cat" sound correct. Therefore, "cat" is a noun.
"A him" and "the him" sound incorrect. Therefore, "him" is not a noun.
Common Nouns refer to non-specific people, places, or things.
Proper Nouns refer to specific people, places, or things.
Examples
Common nouns: girl, city, bridge, university, company
Proper Nouns: Mary, San Francisco, Golden Gate Bridge, University of Notre Dame, PrepScholar
Concrete Nouns are people, places, or things that you can physically touch.
Abstract Nouns are thoughts, subjects, games, or ideals. These are things, but they cannot be touched.
Love is an abstract noun.
Examples
Concrete nouns: water, air, street, person, concrete
Abstract nouns: freedom, love, justice, hockey, biology
Nouns have several possible functions in a sentence. They can be used as the subject, predicate nominative, appositive, direct object, indirect object, or object of the preposition. There are other uses for nouns, but we won't go into them now.
Note: Remember that it is not important that you know the names of these functions. But it is important to understand how nouns can be used, so you can recognize when one is being used incorrectly.
The subject of the sentence is the person or thing that is doing the action of the verb.
Example
Mary went to the store.
Mary is the subject of the sentence because she is doing the action.
A predicate nominative comes after a linking verb (see the verb section for more info) and re-states the subject of the sentence.
Example
Mary is a great friend.
Mary is the subject. Friend is the predicate nominative. In this sentence, Mary and friend are the same thing, or Mary = friend.
An appositive is a noun that re-states or gives more information about another noun in a sentence. Unlike a predicate nominative, it does not come after a linking verb. Instead, it's usually right next to the noun it's describing, and is set off by commas.
Because appositives are set off by commas from the rest of the sentence, it usually works to remove the appositive and still have a grammatically correct sentence.
Example
My friend, Mary, is an exceptional human being.
Here, Mary is an appositive because it gives more information about who the friend is.
If you remove the appositive the sentence still makes sense:
My friend is an exceptional human being.
A Direct Object is a noun that receives the action of a transitive verb (more on these here)
Example
I got a perfect score on the SAT.
Ask yourself: I got what? Got a score. Therefore, score is the direct object.
An Indirect Object is a noun that receives the Direct Object.
Being the indirect object of brownies is always a good thing.
Example
I made Kim some brownies.
Ask yourself: I made what? Brownies. Therefore, brownies is the direct object.
Who received the brownies? Kim. Therefore, Kim is the indirect object.
All prepositional phrases consist of at least a preposition (see below) and a noun. The noun that comes after a preposition is called the object of the preposition.
Example
I got a perfect score on the SAT.
Here, the preposition is on. On what? On the SAT. Therefore, SAT is the object of the preposition on.
This is another concept that is not directly tested on the SAT and ACT, but occasionally you will need to recognize if a noun is singular or plural in order to match it with the correct verb.
Examples
cat + -s = cats
donkey + -s = donkeys
Examples
fox + -es = foxes
buzz + -es = buzzes
brunch + -es = brunches
Examples
pony → ponies
fly → flies
Examples
leaf → leaves
life → lives
Examples
mouse → mice
child → children
man → men
goose → geese
foot → feet
Examples
deer → deer
fish → fish
sheep → sheep
The people of Leeds are appropriately passionate about misused apostrophes.
The possessive is how we show ownership.
To form the possessive of a singular noun, always add -'s.
Examples
Bob's, mouse's, donkey's
To form the possessive of a plural noun that ends in -s, just add an apostrophe.
Examples
purses', monkeys', dogs'
To form the possesive of a plural noun that is irregular and does NOT end in -s, add -'s.
Examples
children's, women's, mice's
Are you a grammar pro? If you already knew all of the above about nouns, here are a few special categories of noun you may have been unaware of!
The -ing form of a verb can be used as a verb as long as it has a helping verb. But did you know that if it's standing on its own, it's called a gerund and is used as a noun?
Example
Baking is a pleasurable hobby.
Here, baking is a noun and is the subject of the sentence.
Similarly, the infinitive form (the "to" form) can be used as a noun.
Example
He likes to run.
Here, "to run" is the direct object of the verb "likes". Therefore, it is being used as a noun.
This man loves to run. for president.
Pronouns are words that can replace nouns. Unlike nouns, pronouns have different cases.
This means that the form the pronoun takes can change depending on what purpose it has in the sentence. Above, we saw that nouns can be used either as a subject/nominative, or as several different types of objects. Personal pronouns have one form when they are used as a subject or predicate nominative, and another form when used in any of the object functions (direct object, indirect object, or object of preposition).
NOTE: This actually is tested on the ACT!
Nominative case (subject)
Singular
Plural
First Person
Second Person
