Appendix 1The basic partsof speech

English has eight parts of speech. Editors need to know them intimately because they are the tools of your trade. Here is a primer on these tools.

1. Nouns

Nouns name people and things. They come in four types:

image common (as the name suggests, these name everyday things. They are generally the words you set in lower case in body text)
image proper (these are the names of things such as people, cities and titles. You capitalize them in body text)
abstract (these are intangibles such as love, respect and justice. ...

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