The Eight Parts of Speech

Every single word belongs to one of eight word groups or parts of speech. We use
thousands of words, and they can all be separated into just eight groups! 

NOUNS
What Is a noun?
A noun is a word, not the actual thing that the word represents. It is first and
foremost a word
Nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas. They are not actually people,
places, things, or ideas.
Now, your task is to memorize the following definition :
Nouns are words that name people, places, things, or ideas.

The Noun Jobs

Nouns can do lots of things in sentences. They are probably the most overworked of
alleight of the parts of speech.Nouns have the ability to perform different functions, or
jobs, in sentences. Each time a noun is performing one of these jobs, it still fits the
answer to the question, What is a noun?
Let's look at some of the noun jobs.
1. Subjects are nouns that tell us whom or what a sentence is about.Ex :Mary kicked the
ball.
2. Direct objects are nouns that receive the action of certain kinds of verbs
(transitive active verbs).Ex: Mary kicked the ball.
3. Indirect objects are nouns that receive the direct object.Ex :Mary kicked Jimmy
the ball.
4. Objects of prepositions are nouns that come after prepositions in prepositional
phrases.Ex :Mary kicked the ball to Jimmy.
5. Predicate nouns ("predicate nominatives") are nouns that rename the subject.
They come after linking verbs.Ex :Mary is a soccer player.
6. Object complements are nouns that complete the direct object.Ex :They named
the baby April

Types of Nouns

Here are the different ways to describe or classify nouns. Note that nouns can fit into
more than one of these categories. For example, the word cat is a common, concrete,
countable, singular noun.

1. Common: These name general, nonspecific people, places, things, or ideas. Theystart
with a lowercase letter unless they begin a sentence. Example : writer, city, park,
religion
2. Proper: These name specific people, places, things, or ideas. They always start witha
capital letter. Example : David Beckham, Paris, Disneyland, Christianity
3. Abstract: These are the opposite of concrete. They name something that you cannot
perceive with your five senses - something that does not physically exist. Example :
happiness, freedom, Christianity
4. Concrete: These name something that you can perceive with your five senses -
something that physically exists. Example : cat, chocolate, Martha

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5. Collective Nouns: These are singular nouns that refer to a group of things as one
whole. Example : family, class, audience, swarm
6. Countable: These can be counted, and they use both the singular and the plural forms.
Anything that you can make plural is a countable noun. Example : clock/clocks,
David/Davids, poem/poems
7. Uncountable: These guys cannot be counted. Since they cannot be counted, they only
use the singular form. Example : milk, rice, water
8. Compound: These are made up of two or more smaller words. Example : tablecloth,
haircut, applesauce
9. Singular: These refer to one person, place, thing, or idea. Example :box, face, road,
ball
10.Plural: These refer to more than one person, place, thing, or idea. They generally
end in with an s.Example :boxes, faces, roads, balls
11. Possessive Nouns: These show ownership.Example :Dad's car, the student's book,
Marc's hat.

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 VERBS
What is a verb? A word used to describe an action, state, or occurrence, and forming the
main part of the predicate of a sentence. A verb is one of the main parts of a sentence
or a question in English. In fact, you can’t have a sentence or a question without a verb!
That’s how important these “action” parts of speech.Verbs divided into :

1. Finite Verbs
A finite verb is a verb that has a subject, this means that it can be the main verb in a
sentence. It shows tense (past/present etc) or number (singular/plural).
For example :I live in Germany.
I is the subject - live describes what the subject does- live is a finite verb)
2. Auxiliary Verbs
An auxiliary verb is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause
in which it appears – for example, to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis,
etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany a main verb. The main verb provides the
main semantic content of the clause. An example is the verb have in the sentence I
have finished my dinner. Here, the main verb is finish, and the auxiliary havehelps to
express the perfect aspect. Some sentences contain a chain of two or more auxiliary
verbs. Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs, helper verbs, or (verbal)
auxiliaries. They may be glossed with the abbreviation AUX. Verbs that (can)
function as auxialiaries in English, are :
be (am, is, are, was, were, being, been), can, could, dare, do (does, did), have (has,
had, having), may, might, must, need, ought, shall, should, will, would.

3. Linking Verbs
A linking verb is a verb which connects a subject to its predicate without expressing
an action. A linking verb is used to re-identify or describe its subject. The word,
phrase, or clause which follows a linking verb to to re-identify or describe the subject
is called the subject complement. The most common linking verb is the verb to be.
Other common ones relate to the five senses (to look, to feel, to smell, to sound, and
to taste). The list of common linking verbs, are : to be (in all its forms, e.g., am, is,
are, was, were, will be, was being, has been), to appear, to be, to become, to feel, to
look, to seem, to smell, to sound, to taste.
4. Transitive Verbs
A transitive verb is a verb that can take a direct object. In other words, it is done to
someone or something. Most verbs are transitive. A transitive verb contrast with an
intransitive verb. Intransitive verb cannot have a direct object. Transitive verbs are
very common. They even appear inside the direct objects of other transitive verbs.
Example :He read a book
(Read (from to read) is a transitive verb. In this example, the direct object is a book.
To read is transitive because you can read something. You can read a poem, a story,
a face, a horoscope, etc.)Transitive verbs are very common. They even appear inside
the direct objects of other transitive verbs. Remember, to prove they are transitive,
find the verb and then ask ‘what?’ or ‘whom?’ to find the direct object.

5. Intransitive Verbs
An intransitive verd is one that does not take a direct object. In other words, it is done
to someone or something. It only involves the subject.
For example :He snores.

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 (Snores (from to snore) is an intransitive verb. It has no direct object. You cannot
snore something)

6. Regular Verbs
A verb that forms its past tense and past participle by adding -d or -ed (or in some
cases -t) to the base form. Also known as a weak verb. The majority of English verbs
are regular. These are the principal parts of regular verbs :
- base form : the form found in a dictionary (for example, walk and talk)
- -s form : used in the singular third person, present tense (walks and talks)
- -ed form : used for the past tense and past participle (walked and talked)
- -ing form : used for the present participle (walking and talking)

7. Irregular Verbs
An irregular verb is one that does not conform to the usual rule for forming its simple
past tense and its past participle. For example : write – wrote - written

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 ADJECTIVES
Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words. They can identify or quantify
another person or thing in the sentence. Adjectives are usually positioned before the noun
or pronoun that they modify. We use adjectives to describe nouns.
Most adjectives can be used in front of a noun.
Example :
1. They have a beautiful house.
2. We saw a very exciting film last night.
or after a link verb like be, look or feel.
Example :
1. Their house is beautiful
2. That film looks interesting.

Following are kinds of adjectives :

A. Proper Adjectives
Proper adjective is an adjective that is formed from a proper noun and that is usually
capitalized in English.
Example :
1. A Chinesse businessman
2. The Indonesian language
3. Persian cat
4. A Buddhist temple
5. The Moslem world
6. Christian faith
7. Balinesse Hinduism

B. Descriptive Adjectives
An adjective that describes to its noun the value of an attribute of that noun or
pronoun.
Noun : - a young lady Pronoun : - He is very clever
- a wild cat - She looks so beautiful
- a new house
- fresh air

C. Quantitative Adjectives
An adjective which show the quantity of a thing. This kind of adjective used to
answer the question “ how much “. Example :
1. She ate the whole apple.
2. You have no sense.
3. There is enough water in the canal.
4. He has a little knowledge.
5. He spent all his money.
The words all, much, some, any, etc., known as a quantitative adjective, always
placed in front of uncountable noun, to show the quantity.

D. Numeral Adjectives
An adjective which express the number of person or things.

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 Example :1. There are two table in the next room
2. I saw many children playing in the park.
In this kind of adjective, we have 3 (three) main groups
1. Definite Numeral Adjective
2. Indefinite Numeral Adjective
3. Distributive Adjective
E. Demonstrative Adjectives
An adjective that used to point out specific people or things. The demonstrative
adjectives are :this, that, these, and those.
 This and that for singular nouns. This and that are used to modify singular nouns.
This is used to point out something closed by. For example : This plate is very
hot.
That is used to point out something farther away. For example : Can you see the
ranch ?
 These and those for plural nouns. These and those are used to modify plural nouns
These is used to point out something close by. For example : These flower smell
nice.
That is used to point out something farther away. For example : Do not approach
those dogs.

F. Interrogative Adjectives
An adjective which describe or qualify noun by ask question. The interrogative
adjectives are :Whose, which, and what.
Example : Whose car is that?, Which pen do you take?, What colour is your house?

G. Possessive Adjectives
An adjective which used to show possession or ownership of something. The
possessive adjectives in English are :

Possessive
Subject
Adjectives
I My
You Your
He His
She Her
It Its
We Our
You (Pl) Your
They Their

ADVERBS

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 What is an adverb?

Adverbs modify (or "describe") verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs

Adverbs are describing words. Let's look at some examples of them describing
verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

We will eat there.

There is an adverb describing the verb will eat.

Your face is extremely red.

Extremely is an adverb describing the adjective red.

The baby crawled very slowly.

Very is an adverb describing the adverb slowly.

The Adverb Questions

Knowing these adverb questions will help you know for certain whether any word is
acting as an adverb.

Adverbs answer one of these adverb questions.

1. How? (happily, really, quite, peacefully...)

2. When? (tomorrow, now, yesterday, never...)

3. Where?(here, there, everywhere...)

4. To what extent? (very, so, too, quite, rather...)

5. Why? (because he wanted soup) Adverbs that answer this question are
typically adverbs that are made up of more than one word, such as an adverb clause

The Adverb Questions At Work

Let's look at some examples of how the adverb questions work.

First, let's look at some examples of adverbs

modifying the verb flew.

1. The bird flew crazily. (How?)

2. Yesterday, the bird flew. (When?)

3. The bird flew here. (Where?)

4. The bird flew because it neededfood.(Why?)

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 Here is an adverb modifying the adjective green.

1. The bird is dark green. (How green?)

Here is an adverb modifying the adverb quietly.

1. The bird flew very quietly. (How quietly?)

Diagramming Adverbs

Sentence diagramming is a way to show how the parts of a sentence are related.
Sentence diagrams of adverbs show us that adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other
adverbs because they go on slanted lines underneath the verb, adjective, or adverb
that they are modifying! Check out this sentence diagram.

PRONOUNS

What is a pronoun?

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.

Examples: he, she, it, they, someone, who

Pronouns can do all of the things that nouns can do. They can be subjects, direct
objects, indirect objects, object of the prepositions, and more. The word pronoun even
has the word noun in it!

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 Let's look at a few examples.

 Erik Weihenmayer is a blind mountain climber. (noun)

 He is a blind mountain climber. (pronoun)

Do you see how the pronoun he took the place of the noun Erik Weihenmayer? We
can also put the noun and pronoun in the same sentence.

 Not only is Erik Weihenmayer a mountain climber, but he is also a motivational

speaker.

If we didn't have pronouns, we would have to write that sentence like this.

 Not only is Erik Weihenmayer a mountain climber, but Erik Weihenmayer is also
a motivational speaker.

That doesn't sound good! If we didn't have them, we would have to keep saying Erik
Weihenmayer every time that we wanted to refer to him.

Antecedents

What's missing from the following example?

He said, "I'm a great believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I
have of it."

You should be asking yourself WHO is HE? You don't know because I have not
given you the antecedent.An antecedent is the noun that a pronoun is replacing or
referring to.

Thomas Jefferson was the third President of the United States. He said, "I'm a great
believer in luck, and I find that the harder I work, the more I have of it."

Now you should know whom I am talking about because I have provided the
antecedent for he, Thomas Jefferson.

Do you want to hear something strange? Not all pronouns have antecedents!
Sometimes we don't know whom exactly we are talking about.

Someone broke my vase!

You might be able to use that to your advantage.

Mom, someone broke your vase.

It certainly wasn't YOU, right?

Types of Pronouns

There are many different types of pronouns. Below you will find a short description
and a few examples of each.

1. Personal Pronouns

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 Here are the personal pronouns.
I, me, we, us, you, she, her, he, him, it, they, them
For each of these pronouns, we can tell the...

 Person (Who is speaking?)

 Number (Is the pronoun singular or plural?)
 Gender (Is the pronoun masculine, feminine, or neuter?)

For instance, she is third person (the person being spoken about), singular,
feminine while we is first person (the people speaking), plural, neuter.

2. Relative Pronouns

This is the cookie that I want to eat.

This refers to the noun cookie, and it introduces the relative clause that I want
to eat.

3. Demonstrative Pronouns

There are only four demonstrative pronouns!

this, that, these, those

We use these to point out particular people or things.Sometimes, those words

are used before nouns. In those cases, they are adjectives, not pronouns.(Remember,
adjectives describe nouns.)

Bring me that book. (adjective)

Bring me that. (pronoun)

4. Indefinite Pronouns

The prefix in- means not. Indefinite pronounsare not definite. We don't know
whom or what these refer to!

anyone, something, all, most, some

Someone yelled my name. (Who? We don't know.)

Everyone looked at me. (Who exactly? We don't know.)

When indefinite pronouns are used before nouns, they are actually acting as
adjectives, not pronouns.

Both people smiled at me. (adjective)

Both smiled at me. (pronoun)

5. Reflexive & Intensive Pronouns

These two types of pronouns end in -self or -selves.

himself, herself, myself, itself

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 Those words have different names depending on how they are being used.

A reflexive pronoun is used to refer to the subject of the sentence.

I will go to the school myself. (reflexive)

An intensive pronoun is used to emphasize another noun.

He himself visited the school. (intensive)

6. Interrogative Pronouns

These are pronouns that are found in questions. Another name for a question
is an interrogative sentence. Interrogative pronouns often begin interrogative
sentences.

what, whom, whose, who, which

Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?

Which jacket should I wear?

7. Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns show ownership. Another word for ownership is

possession.

his, hers, your, theirs

When possessive pronouns are used before nouns, they are actually being
used as adjectives, not pronouns.

Our family has vacation next week. (adjective)

That car is ours. (pronoun)

PREPOSITIONS
Prepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and
some other word or element in the rest of the sentence, such as: in, on, at, up, inside,
through, within, beside, down, below, etc.

Pay attention to the example below :

She swam across the lake.

Across connects the noun lake with the verb swam. It tells us where she swam. Do
you see how the preposition tells us the relationship between lake and swam?

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 The cupcake with sprinkles is mine.

In this example, the preposition with is showing the relationship between the noun
sprinkles and the noun cupcake. It tells us which cupcake is hers.

Sentence diagram :

Sentence diagrams show us how the parts of sentences are related. You can see in the
sentence diagram above that prepositions hook nouns (called objects of the
preposition) to the rest of the sentence.

Prepositional Phrases

One ultra-important thing that you need to know about prepositions is that they are
always in prepositional phrases.

A phrase is a group of words that lacks either a subject or a verb and functions as a
single part of speech.A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition plus a noun or
pronoun (the object of the preposition).

Object of the preposition is just a fancy name for the noun or pronoun that that follows
the preposition.

What's in a prepositional phrase?

These prepositional phrases include only the necessary ingredients (preposition +

object of the preposition).

with nuts, near water, with food

These prepositional phrases start with prepositions and end with nouns, but they
also contain adjectives and/or adverbs.

above such foolishness

onto the floor

up the very steep mountain

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 CONJUNCTIONS
A conjunction is a word that joins two or more words, phrases, or clauses.Think of them
as gluing words. They glue words, phrases, and clauses together.If you would like to
have your friend bring music and snacks to your party, it's pretty hard to do it without
a conjunction.

You could say, "Bring music. Bring snacks."

But it's more efficient to say, "Bring music and snacks."

And it's more polite to say, "Please bring music and snacks." :)

Do you see how the conjunction and glues the words music and snacks together?

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 Words, Phrases, & Clauses

 Words: silver and gold

 Phrases: over the river and through the woods
 Clauses: Marianne planted a flower, and she watched it grow.

In all of those examples, we used the conjunction and, one of the most common
conjunctions.But, of course, there are many more conjunctions out there. All
conjunctions perform the same basic function (gluing things together), but there are
three types of conjunctions, and you'll be learning about them next!

1. Coordinating Conjunctions

2. Subordinating Conjunctions

3. Correlative Conjunctions

1. Coordinating Conjunctions

There are only seven of these!

for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

Some people remember these with the acronym FANBOYS. They glue together
sentence elements that are the same.

 Two words: pie or cake

 Two phrases: in the car or on the bike
 Two independent clauses: You must study, or you won't learn grammar.

2. Subordinating Conjunctions

These conjunctions glue dependent adverb clauses to independent clauses.

A dependent adverb clause is group of words with a subject and a verb that
functions as a single adverb.

Subordinating Conjunctions (Adverb Clauses)

unless you are allergic

whenever I see your cat

since you are coming

Those are not complete sentences. They all have subjects (you, I, you) and verbs
(are, see, are coming), but since they cannot stand alone, they are subordinate
clauses.

An independent clause is also a group of words with a subject and a verb. But,
unlike a subordinate clause, an independent clause can stand alone.

Independent Clauses

I will bring my cat.

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 I sneeze.

I won't bring my cat.

These are all complete sentences. They all have subjects (I), verbs (will bring, sneeze,
won't bring), and they can stand alone.Subordinating conjunctions let us join
subordinate adverb clauses with independent clauses.

I will bring my cat unless you are allergic.

Whenever I see your cat, I sneeze.

Since you are coming, I won't bring my cat.

3. Correlative Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are used in pairs (either...or, both...and), but they have
the same function as coordinating conjunctions. That means that they join things
that are the same.

Both David and I are allergic to cats.

Either Mom or Dad will pick you up.

He is both intelligent and good-natured.

INTERJECTIONS

An interjection is a word that shows emotion. 

It is not grammatically related to the rest of the sentence.

Interjections are usually one to two words that come at the beginning of a
sentence.They can show happiness (yippee), sadness (aww), anger (grr), surprise (holy
cow), or any other emotion.

  Interjections are not grammatically related  to the rest of the sentence.  means that
unlike all of the other parts of speech, the interjection does not interact with any other
words in the sentence.It does not modify anything, and it does not get modified by
anything. It does not play the role of subject or verb.

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 Punctuation

Interjections are punctuated with an exclamation mark or a comma.Use an

exclamation mark if the emotion is very strong.

Wow! I won the lottery!

Use a comma if the emotion is not as strong.

Wow, I have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch.

Don't get fooled into thinking that all introductory words followed by an exclamation
point or a comma are interjections. They're not!Let's take a look.

Maria! Come and see the lion!

Names like this one are not interjections. They are nouns because they name people.
When you say someone's name when you talk to them, it is called direct address.Names
also don't fit our definition of an interjection because they do not show emotion. The tone
of voice that you say them in may show emotion, but the name itself does not.

Stop! The lion will eat you!

Stop is not an interjection. It is a verb because it shows action.Although the sentence

as a whole does convey a sense of urgency (Who wants to get eaten by a lion?), the word
stop is not showing emotion.

ASSIGNMENTS

Do this assignment within two weeks!

1. What are the principal parts of regular verbs?
2. There are three kinds of numeral adjectives, mention it and give a short
explanation!
3. Explain what do you know about : adverb of manner, adverb of time, adverb of
manner, and adverb of frequency!
4. Try to make sentences by using the coordinating conjunctions! (at least 5)
5. Complete the following paragraph:
Interjections are usually _____to two words that _____at the __________of a
sentence. ____________ are not grammatically __________ to the rest of the
____________. The interjection does not __________ with any other
_________ in the sentence.

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Submit this assignment on February 20th, 2021!
Email :[email protected]

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