Write Every Time (Or Is That 'Right'?)

Every name is called a noun,

As field and fountain, street and town.

In place of noun the pronoun stands

As he and she can clap their hands.

The adjective describes a thing,

As magic wand and bridal ring.

The verb means action, something done –

To read, to write, to jump, to run.

How things are done, the adverbs tell,

As quickly, slowly, badly, well.

The preposition shows relation,

As in the street, or at the station.

Conjunctions join, in many ways,

Sentences, words, or phrase and phrase.

The interjection cries out, “Hark!

I need an exclamation mark!”

Through poetry, we learn how each

Of these make up the parts of speech.

It often doesn’t matter where you put an adverb in a sentence because its meaning still stays the same:

She spoke hesitantly.

Hesitantly, she spoke.

She hesitantly spoke.

You use grammar every time you read or write or speak. Grammar gives you all the rules about how to put words together in sentences. Using the right grammar helps other people to understand what you mean.

English cats may ‘purr’, but French cats go ‘ron-ron’; and German cats go ‘schnurr’.

words in place of ‘speak’, for instance?

chatter

gabble

grumble

jabber

these in place of ‘run’?

bound

dash

hurtle

lope

rush

scamper

scarpe

a business of ferrets

an intrusion of cockroaches

a descent of woodpeckers

a labour of moles

a pod of dolphins

a shiver of sharks

a wake of buzzards

an unkindness of ravens

a storytelling of rooks

a murder of crows

an ostentation of peacocks

Only I gave my brother a pencil.

I only gave my brother a pencil.

I gave only my brother a pencil.

I gave my brother only a pencil.

“Get lost,” she snapped.

However, two negatives in a sentence contradict each other. ‘I don’t like running neither,’ for example, means you do like running. This is known as a double negative and should be avoided.