A Conjunction, An Adverb and Preposition--What do These Have to do with Writing?

The other day someone sent me an email in response to something I had written. He said I was an encouragement to him and he was looking forward to reading more from me. No harm here, this made me feel good. The problem is he went on to tell me that I was a prolific writer.

What in the heck is that? I had to ask someone at work the other day, because I was too lazy to pull out my dictionary. Sure, I have heard this word before and though it is somewhat of a sophisticated word, it never applied to me, so why look it up? Now that I know it means abundant, or continuous, or more of--is it even a compliment?

This was three days ago and I haven't been able to get it off my mind. It is time for me to confess; I have no business writing. What was I thinking? I mean really, I don't even know the basics.

What is a preposition? What is a conjunction? Should these words be capitalized? Let's see, noun equals person, place or thing-okay, well the last time I checked prepositions and conjunctions were "things", so I suppose I should have capitalized them.

The only thing I remember about conjunctions is the old Saturday morning cartoon, "Conjunction-junction, what's your function….something, something…phrases and clauses." What is a clause? Does it have something to do with Santa?

Have I mentioned that I failed English class three times? It was the teacher's fault, I'm sure. The tests were ridiculous--seriously; allow me to give you an example:

Instructions: Please breakdown the following sentence.

"Hector was outside playing with his brown Chi-Wawa."

Um, well, there is this boy and his name is Hector and um, he is outside playing with his brown Chi-Wawa.

I got an F. What other way can you breakdown this sentence? What didn't I get?

Eventually I passed the class--thanks to Tim, who sat in front of me, and willingly shared his answers in exchange for a back rub. It was a small price to pay.

So here I am, all these years later. What is the deal? If I would have known then, what I know now. Would I pass the test today? Um, well, I think his name is still Hector, and unless he went inside, he is still playing outside with his brown Chi-Wawa. Although, Hector is probably an old man by now and his Chi-Wawa must be dead, so does it really matter?

Okay, fine--I won't be lazy. Let's see what my trusty dictionary has to say.

Conjunction = A joining; or being joined together; union; association."

What? This sounds like marriage to me. What does this have to do with proper grammar? No wonder I failed.

As for an adverb, "Any of a class of words used generally to modify a verb, an adjective, another adverb, a phrase, or a clause…"

Gee, thanks Mr. Webster, of the New World, it's all making sense now.

Finally, the preposition "In some languages, a relation or function word, as English in, by, for, with, etc."

So let me see if I have learned anything new:

Hector = Noun

Was = Preposition

Outside = Adjective

Playing = Verb

With = Preposition

His = Pronoun

Brown = Adjective

Chi-Wawa = Dog


How did I do? What can I say, writing is a gift.



© Teresa Ortiz