The Elements of Style William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White Glossary by Robert DiYanni Prepared by...

The Elements of StyleWilliam Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White

Glossary by Robert DiYanni

Prepared by David Ambrose, 2010For use by all MHS Humanities Faculty

A word that names a… ◦ Person◦ Place◦ Thing◦ Idea

Most nouns have two forms: ◦ Plural◦ Possessive

Verbs can act as nouns sometimes, if you add an “-ing” – that’s called a “gerund.”◦ Swimming is my favorite sport.◦ Hiking is fun.

A word that takes the place of a noun. The noun that the pronoun takes the place of is

known as the antecedent. Subjective Case: I, you, he, she, they, we Objective Case: me, you, him, her, them, us Possessive Case: my, your, his, her, their,

our Relative/Interrogative Pronoun: who,

whom, what, when, where, why, which Indefinite Pronoun: anyone, anybody,

anything, someone, somebody, something

A word or group of words that expresses the action or indicates the state of being of the subject.

Verbs activate sentences.

A verb that combines with the main verb to show differences in tense, person, and voice.

Also known as a “helping verb.” The most common auxiliaries are forms of

be, do, and have. ◦ I am going.◦ We did not go.◦ They have gone.

A word that modifies, quantifies, or otherwise describes a noun or pronoun.◦ Drizzly November◦ Midnight dreary◦ Only requirement

A special type of adjective. The words a, an, and the, which signal or

introduce nouns. The definite article the refers to a

particular item: the report. The indefinite articles a and an refer to a

general item or one not already mentioned: an apple.

A word that modifies or otherwise qualifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.◦ Gestures gracefully◦ Exceptionally quiet engine

Many adverbs end in “-ly,” but not all do. Also, sometimes adjectives can end in “-ly”

(as we’ve seen on a previous slide).

A word that relates its object (a noun, pronoun, or –ing verb form) to another word in the sentence.◦ She is the leader of our group.◦ We opened the door by picking the lock.◦ She went out the window.

Think about how you can relate to a chair.◦ You can be on, in, behind, over, under, with, beside,

beneath, by a chair.

NOTE: The “-ing verb form” is known as a “gerund,” and acts as a noun.

A word that joins words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.

Coordinating conjunctions:◦ and, but, or, nor, yet, so, for

Correlative conjunctions:◦ both…and◦ either…or◦ neither…nor

Hey, are you wondering what an interjection is?

Oh, you don’t know? Man, you must be dumb. Ouch! Sorry, I just stubbed my toe. Yo, you still don’t know what an interjection

is? Well, to be honest, I’m not sure I can help

you then. Dude, why don’t you go look it up?

Any questions? Guided Practice:

◦ Identify the parts of speech of all words in each of the practice sentences.