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.