Parts of Speech
Chapter 1 Introduction
Chapter 1 Introduction
Learning about
the parts of speech is the first step in grammar study
just as learning the letters of the alphabet is the first step to being able to
read and write. From learning the parts of speech we
begin to understand the use or function of words and how words are joined
together to make meaningful communication. To understand what
a part of speech is, you must understand the idea of
putting similar things together into groups or categories.
Let's look at some examples of categories.
COLORS
|
FRUITS
|
DRINKS
|
LANGUAGES
|
blue
|
banana
|
milk
|
Spanish
|
red
|
apple
|
water
|
Arabic
|
yellow
|
orange
|
soda
|
Japanese
|
green
|
grape
|
beer
|
English
|
black
|
lemon
|
coffee
|
Korean
|
Colors, fruits, drinks,
and languages are categories. If I tell you
that Grebo is a language, you would
understand exactly what Grebo is. If we did not have the category language,
it would be hard to explain what is meant by the word Grebo. It is very convenient to have categories to
talk about similar things. Let's look at some more examples of categories.
In the list below, which does not belong with the others?
a) violin
b) hammer
c) drums
d) piano
e) guitar
b) hammer
c) drums
d) piano
e) guitar
If you chose hammer,
you are right. Violin, drums, piano,
and guitar are used to make music, but a hammer is not used to make music. Hammer doesn't
fit with the other words because it is a tool and all of the
others are musical instruments.
Let's try another
example. Which of these does not belong with the others?
a) hammer
b) saw
c) violin
c) screwdriver
d) wrench
b) saw
c) violin
c) screwdriver
d) wrench
This time, the
word violin does not belong because it is not a tool.
It is very useful to have categories like musical
instruments and tools to organize our ideas.
The parts of speech are categories used to
organize or classify words according to how they are
used. We use parts of speech as a way to make it easier
to talk about language.
The philosopher
Aristotle and later scientists studied animals and classified them
according to what they have in common. For example, eagles, robins and sparrows are kinds of birds; sharks, salmonand tuna are
kinds of fish; and dogs, horses and elephants are
kinds of mammals. Aristotle and others also studied language
and classified words according to what they have in
common. We usually use 8 categories or parts of speech to classify all
the words we use in English. This classification is not
perfect. Sometimes it is hard to tell which category a
word belongs in. The same word may belong in different categories depending
on how it is used. There may be better ways to classify English
than by using the 8 parts of speech. But this classification has
been used for a long time and many grammar books use it, so it is easier to
keep on using it. It is possible to speak or learn a language
without knowing the parts of speech, but for most of us, knowing about parts
of speech makes things easier.
Here is an example
of how it can be helpful to know about the parts of speech. Look at the sentence: The man surreptitiously entered the
room. You probably
don't know the meaning of the wordsurreptitiously, but if you know about parts of speech, you will
recognize that it is an adverb and that it tells you something about how the
man entered the room. You may still not understand the exact meaning of
the word, but you can understand the whole sentence better than if you did not
know about parts of speech.
When you look up a
word in a dictionary, you will find not only the meaning of the word but also
what part of speech it is. This information is very
helpful in understanding the full meaning of the word and knowing how to use
it.
The 8 parts of
speech that are used to describe English words are:
Nouns
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Pronouns
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Articles
Verbs
Adjectives
Adverbs
Pronouns
Prepositions
Conjunctions
Articles
Parts of Speech
Chapter 2 - Nouns
Chapter 2 - Nouns
A noun is
often defined as a word which names a person, place or thing.
Here are some examples of nouns: boy, river, friend, Mexico, triangle, day, school, truth, university,
idea, John F. Kennedy, movie, aunt, vacation, eye, dream, flag, teacher, class,
grammar. John F. Kennedy is a noun because it is the name of a
person; Mexico is a noun because it is the name of a
place; and boy is
a noun because it is the name of a thing.
Some grammar books
divide nouns into 2 groups - proper nouns and common
nouns. Proper nouns are nouns which begin with a
capital letter because it is the name of a specific or particular person place
or thing. Some examples of proper nouns are: Mexico, John F. Kennedy, Atlantic Ocean,
February, Monday, New York City, Susan, Maple Street, Burger King. If you see a word beginning with a capital
letter in in the middle of a sentence, it is probably a proper noun.
Most nouns are common nouns and do not begin with a
capital letter.
Many nouns have
a special plural form if there is more than one. For
example, we say one book but two books. Plurals are usually formed by adding an -s (books) or -es (boxes) but some plurals are formed
in different ways (child
- children, person - people, mouse - mice, sheep - sheep).
Parts of Speech
Chapter 3 - Verbs
Chapter 3 - Verbs
A verb is
often defined as a word which shows action or state of being.
The verb is the heart of a sentence - every sentence must have
a verb. Recognizing the verb is often the most
important step in understanding the meaning of a sentence. In the sentence The dog bit the man, bit is the verb and the word which shows the action
of the sentence. In the sentence The man is sitting on a chair, even
though the action doesn't show much activity, sitting is the verb of the sentence. In the
sentence She is a smart girl, there is no action but a state of being
expressed by the verb is. The word be is different from other verbs in many
ways but can still be thought of as a verb.
Unlike most of the
other parts of speech, verbs change their form.
Sometimes endings are added (learn - learned) and sometimes the word itself becomes different (teach-taught). The different forms ofverbs show
different meanings related to such things as tense (past,
present, future), person (first person, second person, third
person), number (singular, plural) and voice (active,
passive). Verbs are also often accompanied by verb-like words
called modals (may, could, should, etc.)
and auxiliaries(do, have, will, etc.) to give them different meanings.
One of the most
important things about verbs is their relationship to
time. Verbs tell if something has already happened, if
it will happen later, or if it is happening now. For things happening
now, we use the present tense of a verb; for something that
has already happened, we use the past
tense; and for something
that will happen later, we use the future tense. Some
examples of verbs in each tense are in the chart below:
Present
|
Past
|
Future
|
look
|
looked
|
will look
|
move
|
moved
|
will move
|
talk
|
talked
|
will talk
|
Verbs like those in the chart above that form
the past tense by adding -d or -ed are
called regular verbs. Some of the most common verbs are
not regular and the different forms of the verb must be
learned. Some examples of such irregular
verbs are in the chart
below:
Present
|
Past
|
Future
|
see
|
saw
|
will see
|
hear
|
heard
|
will hear
|
speak
|
spoke
|
will speak
|
The charts above show
the simple tenses of the verbs. There are
also progressive or continuous forms which
show that the action takes place over a period of time, and perfect forms
which show completion of the action. These forms will be discussed more
in other lessons, but a few examples are given in the chart below:
Present Continuous
|
Present Perfect
|
is looking
|
has looked
|
is speaking
|
has spoken
|
is talking
|
has talked
|
Simple
present tense verbs have
a special form for the third person singular. Singular means "one" and plural means "more than one." Person is
used here to show who or what does the action and can have the following forms:
1st person or the self (I, we)
2nd person or the person spoken to (you)
3rd person or a person not present (he, she, it, they)
The third person singular forms are represented by the pronouns he, she, it. The chart below shows how the third person singular verb form changes:
1st person or the self (I, we)
2nd person or the person spoken to (you)
3rd person or a person not present (he, she, it, they)
The third person singular forms are represented by the pronouns he, she, it. The chart below shows how the third person singular verb form changes:
Singular
|
Plural
|
||
1st Person (I)
|
see
hear come |
1st Person (we)
|
see
hear come |
2nd Person (you)
|
see
hear come |
2nd Person (you)
|
see
hear come |
3rd Person (he, she, it)
|
sees
hears comes |
3rd Person (they)
|
see
hear come |
A verb must
"agree" with its subject. Subject-verb agreement generally
means that the third person singular verb form must be
used with a third person subject in the simple present tense. The word be - the
most irregular and also most common verb in English - has
different forms for each person and even for the simple past tense. The
forms of the word be are given in the chart below:
Number
|
Person
|
Present
|
Past
|
Future
|
Singular
|
1st (I)
|
am
|
was
|
will be
|
2nd (you)
|
are
|
were
|
will be
|
|
3rd (he,
she, it)
|
is
|
was
|
will be
|
|
Plural
|
1st (we)
|
are
|
were
|
will be
|
2nd (you)
|
are
|
were
|
will be
|
|
3rd (they)
|
are
|
were
|
will be
|
Usually a subject comes
before a verb and an object may come after it. The subject is what does the action of the verb and
the object is what receives the action. In the
sentence Bob ate a humburger,Bob is the subject or
the one who did the eating and the hamburger is the object or what got eaten.
A verb which has an object is called a transitive verb and
some examples are throw, buy, hit, love. Averb which has no object is
called an intransitive verb and some examples are go, come, walk, listen.
As you can see in the
charts above, verbs are often made up of more than one word.
The future forms, for example, use the word will and the perfect forms use the word have. These words are calledhelping or auxiliary
verbs. The word be can serve as an auxiliary and will and shall are
also auxiliary forms. The chart below shows two other verbs
which can also be used as auxiliaries:
Number
|
Person
|
Present
|
Past
|
Singular
|
1st (I)
|
have
do |
had
did |
2nd (you)
|
have
do |
had
did |
|
3rd (he, she, it)
|
has
does |
had
did |
|
Plural
|
1st (we)
|
have
do |
had
did |
2nd (you)
|
have
do |
had
did |
|
3rd (they)
|
have
do |
had
did |
There is a type
of auxiliary verb called a modal which
changes the meaning of a verb in different ways. Words
like can, should, would,
may, might, and must are modals and are
covered in other lessons.
Parts of Speech
Chapter 4 - Adjectives
Chapter 4 - Adjectives
An adjective is
often defined as a word which describes or gives more information about
a noun or pronoun. Adjectives describe nouns in
terms of such qualities as size, color, number, and kind. In the
sentence The lazy dog sat on the rug, the word lazy is
an adjective which gives more information about the noun dog. We can add more adjectives to
describe the dog as well as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the rug. We can also add adjectives to
describe the rug as in the sentence The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the beautiful,
expensive, new rug. The adjectives do
not change the basic meaning or structure of the sentence, but they do give a
lot more information about the dog and the rug. As you can see in the example above, when more than one
adjective is used, a comma (,) is used between the adjectives.
Usually an adjective comes
before the noun that it describes, as in tall man. It can also come after a form of the
word beas in The
man is tall. More than
one adjective can be used in this position in the
sentence The man is tall,
dark and handsome. In later lessons, you will learn how to make comparisons
with adjectives.
Most adjectivesdo
not change form whether the noun it describes is singular or plural.
For example we say big tree and big trees, old house and old houses, good time and good times. There are, however, some adjectives that
do have different singular andplural forms.
The common words this and that have the plural forms these and those. These words are called demonstrative
adjectivesbecause demonstrate or point out what is being referred to.
Another common type
of adjective is the possessive adjective which
shows possession or ownership. The words my dog or my dogs indicate that the dog or dogs belong to me. I would use the plural form our if the dog or dogs belonged
to me and other people. The chart below shows the forms of possessive
adjectives.
Person*
|
Singular
|
Plural
|
1st Person
|
my
|
our
|
2nd Person
|
your
|
your
|
3rd Person
|
his/her/its
|
their
|
*Personis used here as a grammar word and has these
meanings:
1st person or the self (I, me, we),
2nd person or the person spoken to (you)
3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).
1st person or the self (I, me, we),
2nd person or the person spoken to (you)
3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).
Parts of Speech
Chapter 5 - Adverbs
Chapter 5 - Adverbs
We have seen that an
adjective is a word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun.
An adverb is usually defined as a word that gives more
information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and adverbs in terms of such
qualities as time, frequency and manner. In
the sentence Sue runs fast, fast describes how or the manner in which
Sue runs. In the sentence Sue runs very fast, very describes the adverb fast and gives information about how fast Sue runs.
Most, but not
all adverbs end in -ly as in But not all words that end
in -ly are adverbs (ugly is an adjective, supply and reply can
both be nouns or verbs). Many times an adjective
can be made into anadverb by adding -ly as in nicely, quickly, completely, sincerely.
Adverbs
of time tell when something happens and adverbs of frequency tell how
often something happens. Below are some common adverbs
of time and frequency which you should learn:
Adverbs of Time
|
Adverbs of Frequency
|
Do it now.
|
I always do my homework
|
I will see you then.
|
We sometimes get confused.
|
They will be here soon.
|
He usually gets good grades.
|
I can't meet you today.
|
I never went skiing.
|
Let's go tomorrow.
|
She rarely eats a big breakfast.
|
They told me yesterday.
|
He was once on TV.
|
Have you traveled recently?
|
He saw the movie twice.
|
Parts of Speech
Chapter 6 - Pronouns
Chapter 6 - Pronouns
A pronoun is
often defined as a word which can be used instead of a noun.
For example, instead of saying John
is a student, the pronoun he can be used in
place of the noun John and the sentence becomes He is a student. We use pronouns very often, especially so that we do not
have to keep on repeating a noun. This chapter is about the kind of pronoun called
a personal pronoun because it often refers to a person.
Like nouns, personal pronouns sometimes have singular and plural forms (I-we,
he-they).
Unlike nouns, personal
pronouns sometimes have different forms for masculine/male,
feminine/female and neuter (he-she-it). Also unlike nouns, personal pronouns have
different forms depending on if they act as subjects or objects (he-him, she-her). A subject is a
word which does an action and usually comes before the verb, and an object is
a word that receives an action and usually comes after the verb. For
example, in the sentence Yesterday Susan called her mother, Susan is the subject and mother is the object. The pronoun she can be used instead of Susan and
the pronoun her can be used instead of mother. The form of a personal pronoun also changes
according to what person is referred to. Person is used here as a grammar word and means:
1st person or the self (I, me, we),
2nd person or the person spoken to (you),
3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).
1st person or the self (I, me, we),
2nd person or the person spoken to (you),
3rd person or the person spoken about (he, she, him, her, they, them).
There is also a possessive form
of the pronoun. Just as we can make a noun possessive as
in the sentence That
is my father's book to
mean That is the book of
my father, we can make
the pronounpossessive and say That book is his. There are possessive adjective forms
(such as my, your, his, her etc.) that are discussed with other adjectives in chapter
4. Possessive pronouns can stand by themselves without
nouns, but possessive adjectives, like other adjectives, are used together with
nouns.
There is also an intensive form of the pronoun which intensifies or
emphasizes the noun that it comes after as in the sentence I myself saw him. The reflexive form of
the pronoun looks exactly like theintensive form
but is used when the subject and object of
a verb refers to the same person as in the sentence I saw myself in the
mirror.
All of this may sound
confusing, but if you study the chart below, it will be clearer:
Singular
Person
|
Subject
|
Object
|
Possessive
|
Intensive
Reflexive |
1st
|
I
|
me
|
mine
|
myself
|
2nd
|
you
|
you
|
yours
|
yourself
|
3rd
|
he/she/it
|
him/her/it
|
his/hers
|
himself/herself/itself
|
Plural
Person
|
Subject
|
Object
|
Possessive
|
Intensive
Reflexive |
1st
|
we
|
us
|
ours
|
ourselves
|
2nd
|
you
|
you
|
yours
|
yourselves
|
3rd
|
they
|
them
|
theirs
|
themselves
|
Notice that the
form you is the same for subject and object, singular and plural and
that there is no neuter singular possessive form.
There are also interrogative
pronouns (who,
which, what) used for asking
questions and relative pronouns (who, which, what, that) used in complex sentences which will be
discussed in another place. Some grammar books also talk about demonstrative
pronouns (this,
that, these, those) and indefinite
pronouns (some,
all, both, each, etc.)
which are very similar to adjectives and do not need to be discussed here.
Parts of Speech
Chapter 7 - Prepositions
Chapter 7 - Prepositions
A preposition is
a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence.
The relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount.
In the sentence She
went to the store, to is a preposition which shows direction.
In the sentence He
came by bus, by is a preposition which
shows manner. In the sentence They will be here at three o'clock, at is a preposition which shows time and
in the sentence It
is under the table, under is a preposition which shows place.
A preposition always
goes with a noun or pronoun which is called the object of the
preposition. The preposition is almost always before the noun or pronoun and
that is why it is called a preposition. Thepreposition and
the object of the preposition together are called
a prepositional phrase. The following chart shows the prepositions,
objects of the preposition, and prepositional phrases of
the sentences above.
Preposition
|
Object
of the Preposition
|
Prepositional
Phrase
|
to
|
the store
|
to the store
|
by
|
bus
|
by bus
|
at
|
three o'clock
|
at three o'clock
|
under
|
the table
|
under the table
|
Prepositional
phrases are like idioms and are best learned through
listening to and reading as much as possible. Below are some
common prepositions of time and place and
examples of their use.
Prepositions
of time:
at two o'clock
on Wednesday
in an hour, in January; in 1992
for a day
at two o'clock
on Wednesday
in an hour, in January; in 1992
for a day
Prepositions
of place:
at my house
in New York, in my hand
on the table
near the library
across the street
under the bed
between the books
at my house
in New York, in my hand
on the table
near the library
across the street
under the bed
between the books
Parts of Speech
Chapter 8 - Conjunctions
Chapter 8 - Conjunctions
A conjunction is a word
that connects other words or groups of words. In the sentence Bob and Dan are friends the conjunction and connects
two nouns and in the sentence He will
drive or fly, theconjunction or connects
two verbs. In the sentence It is
early but we can go, the conjunction but connects
two groups of words.
Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a
sentence. The most common ones are and, or, but, and so which are
used in the following ways:
and is used to join or add words together in the sentence They ate and drank.
or is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence He will be here on Monday or Tuesday.
but is used to show opposite or conflicting ideas as in the sentence She is small but strong.
so is used to show result as in the sentence I was tired so I went to sleep.
or is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence He will be here on Monday or Tuesday.
but is used to show opposite or conflicting ideas as in the sentence She is small but strong.
so is used to show result as in the sentence I was tired so I went to sleep.
Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal and
will be discussed more in another class. For now, you should know some of
the more common subordinating
conjunctions such as:
after
before
unless
although if until
as since when
because than while
although if until
as since when
because than while
Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together. In the
sentence Both Jan and Meg are good swimmers, both . . .and are correlative
conjunctions. The most common correlative conjunctions are:
both
. . .and
either . . . or
neither . . . nor
not only . . . but also
either . . . or
neither . . . nor
not only . . . but also
Parts of Speech
Chapter 9 - Articles
Chapter 9 - Articles
An article is a kind of adjective which is always used with and gives some
information about a noun. There are only two articles a and the, but they are used very often and are important for
using English accurately.
The
word a (which
becomes an when the
next word begins with a vowel - a, e, i, o, u) is
called the indefinite article because the noun it goes with is
indefinite or general. The meaning of the article a is similar to the number one, but one is stronger and gives more emphasis. It is possible
to say I have a book or I
have one book, but the second sententence
emphasizes that I do not have two or three or some
other number of books.
The
word the is known
as the definite article and indicates a specific thing. The difference
between the sentences I sat on a chair and I sat on the chair is that the second sentence refers to a particular,
specific chair, not just any chair.
Many
nouns, especially singular forms of countable nouns which you will learn about
later, must have an article.
In English, it is not possible to say I sat
on chair without an article,
but a demonstrativeor possessive adjective can be used instead of an
article as in the sentences I sat on that chair and I sat on his chair.
Whenever
you see an article, you
will find a noun with it. The noun may be the next word as inthe man or there may be adjectives and
perhaps adverbs between the article and the noun as in the very
angry, young man.
Parts of Speech
Chapter 10 - Identification of Parts of Speech
Chapter 10 - Identification of Parts of Speech
Now that you have
learned all the parts of speech, you can identify the words in a
sentence. This chapter will give you some clues that will make
identification easier.
First of all, a word
can be more than one part of speech and you have to look at
how the word works in a particular sentence to know what part of speech it
is. The chart below shows examples of words that have more than one part
of speech.
Word
|
Sentence
|
Part of Speech
|
can
|
I think I can do it.
|
verb
|
can
|
Don't open that can of beans.
|
noun
|
only
|
This is my only pen.
|
adjective
|
only
|
He was only joking.
|
adverb
|
his
|
That book is his.
|
pronoun
|
his
|
That is his book.
|
adjective
|
English
|
Can you speak English?
|
noun
|
English
|
I am reading
an English novel.
|
adjective
|
The verb is the heart
of a sentence, so it is a good idea to identify the verb first when looking at
a sentence. Verbs can be recognized through:
past tense ending (looked)
3rd person singular ending (says)
auxiliary verb (will see)
modal verb (can hear)
past tense ending (looked)
3rd person singular ending (says)
auxiliary verb (will see)
modal verb (can hear)
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