Exploring Language
Daily Language Investigations for English Language Arts
Lesson 1.9 Word Categories
downloadable worksheet
Words in languages fall into two types: Content Words are those that have a clear meaning and are the categories that we add new words to; Function Words convey more grammatical meaning and we do not typically add new words to these categories.
Here is a chart with examples of each type.
Come up with more Content Words to add to the Noun, Verb, Adjective, and Adverb lists above. Think of some slang words or other new words (maybe words that have to do with technological innovations). Determine which part of speech category each belongs to. Remember to check the nouns using the tests from Lesson 1.2, the verbs using the tests from Lesson 1.4, and the adjectives using the tests from Lesson 1.3. (Adverbs are a little harder to test, and we don’t get new ones very often either.)
What about Interjections such as ouch! or oh no! Are these content or function words? Do we come up with new interjections very often? Can you make up some right now?
Here is this lesson as a pdf.
key words: noun, verb, adjective, adverb, determiner, numeral, quantifier, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, degree, auxiliary, modal, interjection, content, function
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.3.1a Explain the function of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs in general and their functions in particular sentences.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.4.1a Use relative pronouns (who, whose, whom, which, that) and relative adverbs (where, when, why).
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.1a Explain the function of conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections in general and their function in particular sentences.
CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.5.1e Use correlative conjunctions (e.g., either/or, neither/nor).