Lewis Carroll, author of "Jabberwocky," loved to write brainteasers. See if you can solve some of Carroll's puzzles.

The same piece of lumber could serve as a stud or a rafter. The difference lies in how the lumber is used. It's equally important to know where to place the support beams. Would you want to live in a house built by someone who didn't know the difference between a floor joist and a window sill? No way! The entire house could fall down around you.

Language works the same way. Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, and prepositions are the building blocks of English. You can write without knowing the parts of speech, but you run the risk of faulty construction. If you know the basics, your writing will be much stronger.

Once you have a handle on the parts of speech, you will begin to understand how words work. Almost any word can be more than one part of speech, depending on its purpose in a particular context. Recognizing a specific word as a noun or an adjective means understanding how it functions in the sentence.

Jabberwocky

	'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe. "Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!"

Read Lewis Carroll's "Jabberwocky" in its entirety.

Notice that there seem to be different parts of speech.

In the poem, toves are obviously things, or creatures, and so are raths. And because those raths outgrabe, "outgrabe" must be a verb. "Brillig," "mimsy," and "frumious" sure sound like adjectives. In other words, readers sense that "fish" could not replace "brillig," but it could replace "toves."

Here's a challenge. Think of an acceptable substitute for every nonsense word in "Jabberwocky." As you substitute, you are determining how the words function in their contexts. Watch:

"'Twas sunny and the slimy fish ..." or "'Twas ragged and the hairy weightlifters ..."

Jabberwocky Mad libs Now substitute your own words for these from Lewis Carroll's poem. Be sure to use the right parts of speech!

You already have a sense of how words work in context. Next we will zero in on the parts of speech and focus on how to use them effectively in your writing.