Grammatical particle
A Particle is a word which is normally uninflected but has certain functions in a sentence or phrase. It may reflect the attitude or even the mood of the speaker or the narrator of the text on the one hand and on the other may act as a sentence connector to the previous sentence or clause.
Many linguists include adverbs and prepositions as particles. conjunctions may also count as particle as they relate to a previous or following clause within a 'sentence. A further part of speech are interjections which fall under the heading and very much express attitude, mood or state of mind. Lastly the word "to" in an infinitive is considered to be a particle.
As can be seen, the greater number of particles are relatively short words. Then again there are, as it were, "particle phrases", such as "of course", "as it were", etc., which remain unchanged and unrelated to other words within the sentence, although they contain inflected elements, such as "were".
List of Grammatical Particles:
- So (Sentence connector)
- Well (Sentence connector, as in "Well, that may be true")
- Still (Sentence connector)
- Yet (Sentence connector)
- (All these four examples very much reflect a state of mind or attitude on the part of the speaker)
- As (Sentence connector)
- Also (Sentence connector)
- Too (Sentence connector)
- Then (Sentence connector, but also Adverb)
- Nevertheless (Sentence connector)
- However (Sentence connector)
- Anyway (Sentence connector)
- Even (Adverb, not in the sense of "evenly" but "even the youngest of them")
Coordinating Conjunctions:
- for
- and
- nor
- but
- or
- yet
- so
You can remember this with the handy mnemonic FANBOYS.
Subordinating Conjunction:
- when
- They shouted when the team arrived. The independant clause 'they shouted' joined with 'when' to the independant clause 'the team arrived'.
- Although (Conjunction)
- Ah (Interjection, expressing pleasure, pain, etc.)
- H'm (Interjection, expressing doubt, hesitation, pleasure, etc.)
- Hum (Interjecting, expressing again doubt, hesitation, uncertainty, etc.)
- Oh (Interjection, expressing surprise, pain, etc.)
- (There are, of course, many more interjections)
- To (Infinitive, such as "to live", to make", etc.)