Quote:
Originally Posted by Hopper  What are Verbs, Nouns, Adverbs, Adjectives and the other thingys that I never got the grasp of?
I would like to learn Spanish and I feel it would be a lot easier for me if I understood the make up of English sentences properly so that I could then break down Spainsh Words into similar groups and have a better chance of formulating sentences in Spanish. |
You're absolutely right that it helps to understand grammar to learn a new language. It makes the difference between learning single words and being able to string sentences together.
This could be a really useful thread, so I'm moving it to the Learning Spanish section to start with.
I also don't want to insult you, so don't want to make assumptions about the level you're asking this question at. So to start at the very beginning ...
Verbs: doing words, like run, talk, type. These "conjugate", so the full "conjugated" verb of "to talk" is:
I talk (1st person singular)
you talk (2nd person singular)
he/she/it talks (3rd person singular)
we talk (1st person plural)
you talk (2nd person plural)
they talk (3rd person plural)
The actual verb is "to talk", which is what is known as the Infinitive.
Nouns: called "substantives". These are
things, like dog, chair, ball.
Adverbs & Adjectives: these are describing words, the difference being that adjectives describe Nouns, and Adverbs describe Verbs.
So in the sentence "I hit the red ball firmly", "hit" is the verb, "ball" is the noun, "red" describes the noun, so it's an adjective, and "firmly" describes the way in which I hit the ball, i.e. it describes the verb, so it's an adverb. Adverbs usually end in -ly.
OK so far? Or far too basic??