A Few Parts of Speech
This page is a brief guide to the parts of speech you will be asked
to provide for the Wheel of Time word games. This is fairly elementary
stuff, and I make few claims toward being a linguist.
- Noun
- As your elementary school teacher probably said, "A noun is a
person, place, or thing." Nouns are the things we talk about; they're
the subjects and objects of our sentences. For example, "That leaf
is green" or "I sat upon the chair." Unless directed otherwise,
use a singular noun.
- Plural Noun
- Pluralize the noun.
- Abstract Noun
- Abstract nouns are things that are... well, abstract. Things like
"Truth", "Dishonesty", and "Democracy".
- Verb
- A verb describes an action, an occurrence, or a state of being.
Unless otherwise asked, provide a verb in the third-person plural
form (eg, "People eat food.")
- Verb ending in "s"
- This is a non-technical way of asking for a verb in third-person
singular form, eg. "My sister eats food." Notice how, in English,
most verbs of this sort have a terminal 's'.
- Gerund
- A gerund is a form of a verb that works like a noun. In English,
these end with 'ing'. For example, "Running is good exercise"
or "Mike began jumping."
- Adjective
- An adjective modifies a noun. It can describe size, quality, or
number, just to name a few characteristics.
- Superlative adjective
- A superlative adjective describes something as being extreme
in its quality. For example, "Jane is the tallest person"
or "Fred is my least-favorite singer."
- Adverb
- An adverb modifies an adjective, verb, or another adverb. For example,
"It is very hot today" or "He strode triumphantly."
- Other Types of Words
- Sometimes you will be requested to give a particular type of
word, for example a number, a date, or a WoT character.
The questions will be specific.
Go back to the Word Games page.
Bill Garrett
garrett@cs.unc.edu