You probably agree that one English word can carry out many functions, depend-
ing upon the meaning of the sentence.
Written Practice 2-2
In each of the following sentences, identify the underlined word as subject,verb,
object, or modifi er. The fi rst one is done for you.
- You should paint the room white. verb
- The paint comes in three shades of red.
- The salesperson gave us a paint chart from which we chose a color.
- Then she mixed the paint.
- Paint is an easy solution to a decorating problem.
- A comment appeared in our local newspaper.
- Then the losing candidate made a comment about the voting equipment.
- I don’t comment on other people’s parenting skills.
- You can nurse that bird back to health and then release it in the forest.
- A release regarding his decision appeared on his blog.
Nouns
You know nouns as words that stand for people, places, or things. People and places
are easy enough to recognize: Philip,Marcel,Pittsburgh, the Rosebowl,Radio City
Music Hall—and we could go on forever. Things are easy, too: table,pens,candy,
and TV are just a few. More diffi cult to recognize are the words we call abstract
nouns. These are ideas or qualities such as honor,love,loyalty, and determination.
A good rule of thumb for recognizing a noun is this: If you can put a,an, or the in
front of the word and it still makes sense, it’s a noun.
CHAPTER 2 Introduction to the Parts of Speech^29