Words Have Jobs

Every word in a sentence has a job to do. Nouns name things: people, places, animals, and ideas. In the sentence the dog chased the ball, the words dog and ball are nouns - they name who and what the sentence is about.

Verbs are the action. They tell what the nouns do: run, jump, think, sleep. Take the verb out of a sentence and everything freezes - the dog the ball makes no sense because nothing happens. Verbs are the engine of every sentence.

Adjectives are the describers. They answer questions like what kind, how many, and which one: the fluffy dog, three balls, the red ball. Learning to spot these three jobs - naming, acting, describing - unlocks almost every sentence you will ever read.