Kwame Nkrumah University of

Science & Technology, Kumasi, Ghana

PARTS OF SPEECH
OBJECTIVES
By the end of the lesson, the student will be able to :
1. Identify the various parts of speech in the English language
2. Explain the form, positions and functions of the various
parts of speech in English sentences
3. Use these parts of speech to form correct sentences in
English
 Nine main parts of speech are going to be
discussed in this lesson.

 They are: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs,

Prepositions, Pronouns, Conjunctions, Determiners
and Interjections.

 They have been categorized into lexical items and

non-lexical items.

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• The lexical items are going to be discussed before the non-
lexical items.

• The lexical items are those that carry semantic content. This
means they have meaning in them even when they stand
alone.

• They are also called open class items, meaning that, they
accept new members.

• The lexical items are: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives and

Adverbs.

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 Each lexical item can be defined based on its form, its
positions in sentences and its functions.

 By form, we mean the shape that it can take, how it is

built up and the changes that it can undergo.

 By position, we mean the kind of words that it occurs

with in sentences.

 By function, we mean its usage or its role in a sentence.

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 NOUNS
 Traditionally, nouns have been identified as words that
name people, places or things.
Identification of nouns according to form/structure
 Nouns and some suffixes: Generally these suffixes are
associated with nouns and so words that end with these
suffixes are identified as nouns:
-er ..............teacher, preacher, player, writer
-ion..............nation, consultation, meditation
-or................doctor, pastor, mentor, actor
-ness.............Fitness, dryness, foolishness, etc.
-hood...........womanhood, childhood, neighbourhood, etc.
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• Nouns and number: Nouns can also be identified based on
how they are built up according to number. Number refers
to the distinction between singular and the plural.

• Most count nouns form their plural by adding ‘s’. E.g.

Book-books, pen-pens, dog-dogs, etc.

• Nouns which end in ‘y’ that follow a consonant form their

plural by dropping ‘y’ and adding ‘ies’. E.g. Lady-ladies,
country-countries, baby-babies, pantry-pantries, etc.

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• Nouns ending in ‘o’, ‘ss’, ‘sh’, ‘ch’, or ‘x’ form their
plural by the addition of ‘es’. E.g. Mango-mangoes, kiss-
kisses, brush-brushes, church-churches, box-boxes, etc.
There are however some exceptions such as photos,
pianos, etc.
• Some non-count nouns retain their form whether singular
or plural. E.g. news, luggage, knowledge, etc.
• Nouns and possession: Nouns can also be identified
based on the inflection they take to indicate possession. A
noun which indicates possession shows that it is the owner
of thing(s) or person(s).

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• Singular nouns which end in ‘s’ or not indicate
possession with an apostrophe sign and an ‘s’. For
example: John’s bag, James’s bag, etc.

Plural nouns which end in ‘s’ indicate possession with

the addition of only an apostrophe sign. For example:
The players’ ball

Plural nouns which do not end in ‘s’ indicate

possession with the addition of an apostrophe sign and
an ‘s’. For example: The children’s ball

NB: Read on Types of Nouns and other ways by which

certain nouns form their plurals. (Afreh 2006)www.knust.edu.gh
 Identification of nouns based on their positions in
sentences
• Nouns can be identified based on their positions in
sentences.
• In sentences, nouns come after determiners (a, an, the, his,
hers, etc.)
• Proper nouns do not take determiners unless in certain
instances where they are accompanied by dependent
clauses. E.g. She is the Ama I met yesterday.
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 Identification of nouns based on their functions in
sentences
• There are four main functions of nouns in sentences. A noun
can function as a subject, object, complement or appositive.
A noun as a subject
• According to its position in a sentence, a noun functions as a
subject when it comes before the main verb of the sentence.
E.g. Kwame goes to school
S V

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• Based on the meaning it conveys, a noun functions as a
subject of a sentence when:
- It is the performer of an action.
E.g. Esi writes slowly.
- It is the possessor or recipient of an action.
E.g. Kwasi has a car.
- It designates places.
E.g. Rooms are always stuffy.
- It indicates time.
E.g. Yesterday was his birthday.
- It indicates events.
E.g. Parties are always lovely.
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• Other items can also function as the subject of a sentence.
These are:
• Noun phrases: e.g. The woman in white is my mother.
• Noun clauses: e.g. The woman that came here is my
mother.
• Pronouns: e.g. She is my mother.

• Grammatically, the subject of a sentence agrees in number

and person with the main verb of the sentence.
NB: Subject-verb-agreement will be treated in detail in another
lesson.

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Nouns as objects of sentences
• Based on their positions, nouns can function as objects of
sentences when they occur after action verbs.
E.g. Kofi eats rice.
• Based on the meaning they convey, nouns function as
objects of sentences when:
- They are the entities that are affected by the action of the
verb. E.g. The man beats his wife.
- They indicate location. E.g. Kofi climbed the mountain.
- They are results of the activity indicated by the verb.
E.g. Mummy prepares rice.

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• There are two main types of objects. These are the direct
and indirect objects.
• Both can be used in a sentence and when both are used, the
indirect object is preceded by a preposition in certain kinds
of sentences.
E.g. Kofi gave the book to Mary.
DO P IO

• In other instances, the indirect object comes before the

direct object.
E.g. Kofi gave Mary the book.
IO DO
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A noun as a complement

•Nouns as well as other items such as noun phrases, noun clauses,

adjectives or adjective phrases can function as complements in
sentences.
•These items are called subject complements when they follow a
copular or linking verb and describe the subject of a clause.
E.g. My father is a farmer.

They are also called object complements when they directly follow
and modify the direct objects of sentences.
E.g. They consider their puppy their baby.

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A noun as an appositive

A noun, a pronoun, a noun phrase or a noun clause set

beside another noun or pronoun to rename, explain or
identify it is termed as an appositive.
E.g. Nana Akufo Addo, the President of Ghana, is a brave
man.

There are other instances where the appositive precedes

the word that it renames, explains or identifies.
E.g. The president of Ghana, Nana Akufo Addo, is a
brave man.

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 VERBS
 Traditionally, verbs have been identified as action words or
doing words.
Identification of verbs according to form/structure and their
functions
• Verbs can also be identified based on their form or the structural
changes they undergo usually to indicate tense. Tense can be said
to be the shape a verb takes to indicate distinctions in time.
• There are instances where the verb does not undergo any
structural change and this is referred to as the verb in its bare
form. This form of the verb is used with the first person singular
or plural and the third person plural as subjects of sentences.
E.g. The woman and her son / they eat.

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• Verbs also form their simple present tense with the
addition of –s, -es or –ies. This depends on the type of
verb and it is used with the third person singular subjects.
e.g. Esi / she carries the bag.
• The simple present tense is used to express present events,
habitual events, universal truths, actions simultaneous
with the present moment, future time and past time.

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• Regular verbs form their simple past tense with the addition
of –d or –ed depending on the type of verb.
• Irregular verbs form their simple past tense by going
through other structural changes. Eg. Come – came, sit –
sat, run – ran, etc.
• Verbs also add –ing, -d or –ed to together with a helping
indicate the aspect. this is used to show whether an action
that takes place at a particular time is progressive or
completed.
E.g. She is going to school.
she has gone to school.

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• Verbs are used to indicate future time. It does this with the
auxiliaries ‘will’ and ‘shall’ and the bare form of the verb.
E.g. She will go to school.

Identification of verbs based on their positions

• Verbs usually come after the subject of sentences and begin
the predicate of that sentence. (It happens only in active
sentences which will be treated in another lesson)
• In this instance, even if an item looks like a different word
class, it can still be considered a verb.
E.g. The chairman tabled the motion before the house.

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Identification of verbs based on their functions in
sentences
Verbs can express three main functions in sentences
and these are states, actions and processes
Verbs as expressing states
Some verbs in English express the states or
conditions of people or things. Such verbs include the
forms of the verb to be(is, are, was, were, etc.), seem,
taste, appear, look, etc.
Eg. He is a good man.
The woman looks beautiful.

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Verbs as expressing actions
Some verbs express actions and are therefore referred to
as action words. Examples are talk, eat, dance, jump,
etc.
E.g. She sweeps the compound everyday.

Verbs as expressing processes

Some verbs express processes. These are series of
changes, especially the ones that happen naturally or
unconsciously. Examples are grow and digest
E.g. Babies grow

NB: Read on other types of verbs

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 ADJECTIVES
• Traditionally, they are identified as words that describe a
noun or a pronoun in a sentence.
Identification based on form
• Many adjectives can be identified by their suffixes. Some
adjective forming suffixes are:
-ic – romantic
-ful – faithful
-al – logical
-ous – famous
-ive – attractive

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Many adjectives use the suffix –er and –est to mark
comparative and superlative degrees respectively.

The comparative is used when two items are being

compared. E.g. Esi is bigger than Ama.

The superlative is used when three or more items are

being compared. E.g. Esi is the biggest of them all.

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Identification based on position to indicate function
• Based on position, adjectives can occur attributively. This
means that they can appear inside a noun phrase and modify
that noun phrase.
E.g. A hardworking player was on their team.

• Adjectives can also occur predicatively. This means they can

appear outside the noun phrase that they modify. Here, they
usually follow a linking verb.
E.g. He is hardworking.

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 ADVERBS
• Traditionally, adverbs have been defined as words that
modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs and answer the
questions how, where, why or when an action takes place.
Identification based on form
• Just like adjectives, some adverbs also use the suffixes –er
and –est to indicate comparative and superlative degrees
respectively.
E.g. He is faster than you.
He is the fastest of them all.
• Some adverbs are also identified with the suffix –ly.

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• In terms of their positions in sentences, adverbs have the
property of mobility and can therefore begin the sentence,
end the sentence or in some instances, come immediately
after the subject of the sentence as indicated in the examples
below.
E.g. Usually, we go on holidays.
We go on holidays usually.
We usually go on holidays.
However, when adverbs are not properly placed, they can
cause ambiguity. When it happens like that, it is advisable to
place the adverb next to the headword it is intended to
modify.
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Identification based on function

It must be indicated that adverb phrases can also

perform all these functions. Again, these functions
that adverbs perform are what lead to the types of
adverbs.

1. Adverbs are used to indicate time.

E.g. The alarm went off yesterday.

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2. They are used to indicate manner.
E.g. Present your case carefully.
3. They are used to indicate place
E.g. Here, the situation is different.
4. They are used to indicate frequency.
E.g. She comes here often.
5. They are used to indicate reason.
E.g. As it’s Friday, you can stay up another hour.
6. They are used to indicate degree.
E.g. She is not as poor as she could have been.

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• Now, let us turn our attention to the non-lexical items.

The non-lexical items do not carry semantic content. This

means that, they do not make meaning on their own. They
get their meaning mainly from the lexical words in context.

They are also called closed class items, meaning that they
do not accept new members.

The non-lexical items are: prepositions, pronouns,

conjunctions, determiners and interjections.

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Form of Closed word Classes

NB: It must be noted that the closed word classes do not

have a specific form. This means there are no specific
suffixes or affixes that can be used to identify them.

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Prepositions

Prepositions are words that link nouns, pronouns and phrases

to other words in a sentence.

A word or phrase that a preposition introduces is called the

object of the preposition.

For example in the sentence, “The book is leaning on the

table”, “the table” is the object of the preposition “on”.

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The Positions of Prepositions

Prepositions normally precede their objects.

Sometimes, the preposition is separated from its
complement as in:
The man whom we gave the book to – instead of
The man to whom we gave the book.

NB: The word complement is being used here in a

literal sense to refer to whatever completes or comes
after the preposition.

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Prepositional phrases tend to be built the same: a
preposition followed by a complement.

This is usually referred to as the object of the

preposition.

The complement may be a pronoun, noun phrase or a

gerund (a verb in its –ing form).
Some examples are:
I bought a bag for him (prep+pronoun).
The cat is under the table (prep+noun phrase).

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Functions of Some Prepositions

Prepositions fall into different types. These types have

different uses in phrases or clauses.

Some of the types and their uses are presented in the

following slides.

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Prepositions of Time: At, On, and In

We use at to designate specific times.

E.g. The will leave at 4:00am tomorrow.

We use on to designate days and dates.

E.g. My father is coming on Monday.

We use in for non-specific times during the day, month,

season, or year.
E.g. He started the job in 1982.

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Prepositions of Place: At, On, and In

We use at for specific addresses.

E.g. The ceremony will be held at Bomso L/A Primary.

We use on to designate names of streets, avenues, etc.

E.g. Her house is on Ridge Road.

We use in for the names of land-areas (towns, countries,

states, and continents).
E.g. She lives in Kumasi.

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Prepositions of Movement: to and No Preposition

We use to in order to express movement towards a

place.
E.g. They were walking to school together.

Toward and towards are also helpful prepositions to

express movement.

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Pronouns
Pronouns are anaphoric elements used to replace nouns.
E.g. The lady opened the refrigerator.
She opened it. (The pronoun she replaces ‘the lady’, and
the pronoun it replaces ‘the refrigerator’)

Position of Pronouns
Pronouns can occur as subjects or as objects.
Example of a pronoun as a subject:
She is happy

Example of a pronoun as an object

Kofi gave the book to me.
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Functions of Pronouns
They are used to identify nouns, they show possession,
they designate places, etc. It must be noted that there are
many other functions of pronouns which are all linked
to the types of pronouns. The types of pronouns have
therefore been discussed below.

Types of Pronouns
Pronouns have been grouped into several types. These
are: personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns,
relative pronouns, interrogative pronoun, indefinite
pronouns , reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns.

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Personal Pronouns
Personal pronouns refer to specific people or things and
change their forms to indicate person, number, gender,
and case.

Person
English indicates three types of persons – first
person ,second person and third person.

“I” and “We” are the first person pronouns in English.

“I” is the singular first person pronoun and “They” is
the plural first person pronoun.
E. g. I am happy.
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“You” is the second person pronoun in English. It can
either be used as singular or plural.
E.g. You are my friend.

“He”, “She”, “It” and “They” are the third person

pronouns in English.
“He”, “She” and “It” are the singular third person
pronouns in English whilst “They” is the plural third
person pronoun in English.

E.g. She is a lecturer.

They were writing.

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Demonstrative Pronouns

A demonstrative pronoun points to, and identifies a

noun or a pronoun.
The demonstrative pronouns are this, that, these and
those.
Examples are:
This tastes good.
That phone is mine.
Those are my friends.
These cakes are delicious.

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Interrogative Pronouns

The interrogative pronouns introduce questions.

The interrogative pronouns are the wh-words. These
are: what, which, who, whom, when and whose.

Whereas “who” and “whom” are used to refer to people,

“which” and “what” are used to refer to things or to
animals.

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Examples of interrogative pronouns used in sentences:

What did he say to you?

Who asked the question?
What is that?
Who will buy me a pen?
Which do you prefer?

Reading Assignment

Read on relative pronouns, indefinite pronouns,

reflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns.

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Determiners

Determiners “are those little words that precede and

modify nouns.” (Afreh 2006: 149).
Examples are: the, a, that, a bit of, etc.

Position

Determiners precede nouns and noun phrases.

As a result of the position they take in a noun phrase,
determiners are said to mark nouns. That is, determiners
are always followed by nouns.

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Functions of Determiners

1. They specify nouns

E.g. The cat is mine.

2. They show possession.

E.g. That was her.

3. They show quantity.

How many books are they?

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Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that are used to join

similar grammatical units like words and words, clauses
and clauses or phrases and phrases.

Some examples of conjunctions are but, or, while,

before, or, yet, and, so .

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Functions
1. Conjunctions are used to join words, phrases and
clauses.
Examples of such conjunctions are but, and, or, so, yet
and, for
Examples:
The boy and the girl.( phrase and noun )
The girl is good but the boy is naughty. (clause and
clause)

2. Conjunctions show contrast between two

grammatical units.
Examples of such conjunctions are but and yet
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3. Conjunctions are used to indicate subordination in
clauses.
Examples of such conjunctions include because, while,
if and since.

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Interjections

Interjections are words used to express strong emotions

or excitement.
An interjection can be just one word or a group of words.

Because they express strong emotions, they are identified

in sentences with exclamations.
Examples of interjections include ouch!, hey!, shhh!

Position
Like adverbs, interjections are very mobile.
Their positions in sentences can change.
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Functions

They are used to demand or request something, usually

in a forceful manner.

They are used to express emotions like disgust.

They are used in greetings

tings. E.g. Hello!

They mark hesitation. E.g. Errm!

They express surprise. E.g. Wow!

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• The actual part of speech of a word is realised when
that word is in context. Therefore, for example, for a
word to be identified as a verb in a sentence, it has to
take the form that a verb should take, it has to take the
position that a verb should take. It has to also function
as a verb. This explains why we can have a sentence
like:
They chair the occasion.

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Assignment

Identify the parts of speech of “up” in the following

sentences

1. He looked up and saw the stars.

2. The time is up.

3. The list is full of some ups and downs.

4. He has just been upped to the position of a

president.
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