It helps to know the names of your tools. Imagine trying to fix something in your house when you’re not sure of the difference between an Allen wrench and a Phillips head screwdriver (some of us may not have to remember…)
For writers, words of all kinds are our tools, and it pays to know the parts of speech. Steve Kowit makes this easier by putting them in rhyme in his poem The Grammar Lesson (quoted here from the Library of Congress website):
A noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.
An adjective is what describes the noun.
In “The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz”
of and with are prepositions. The’s
an article, a can’s a noun,
a noun’s a thing. A verb’s the thing it does.
A can can roll—or not. What isn’t was
or might be, might meaning not yet known.
“Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz”
is present tense. While words like our and us
are pronouns—i.e. it is moldy, they are icky brown.
A noun’s a thing; a verb’s the thing it does.
Is is a helping verb. It helps because
filled isn’t a full verb. Can’s what our owns
in “Our can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.”
See? There’s almost nothing to it. Just
memorize these rules…or write them down!
A noun’s a thing, a verb’s the thing it does.
The can of beets is filled with purple fuzz.
I hope you find this poem as handy as a can opener…or as a trash can with a quick to open lid, when you find yourself holding a can of purple fuzz.
Non-fuzzy beets courtesy of Christina Rumpf on Unsplash
Steve Kowit’s book In the Palm of Your Hand: The Poets Portable Workshop (Bookshop.org) is on my list of recommended reading for its advice about word choice, metaphor, the selection of precise detail, and the process of writing and revision. Its chapter on “Awful Poems” teaches a lot about imperfect prose, too!