parts of speech

Grammar Module

Parts of Speech

It’s not necessary to study grammar to learn a language. We all learned our first language before we were toddlers without any knowledge of verbs and nouns. Also consider that people learn languages that have no written form and for which no grammatical rules have been formulated. and that people learned languages before the concept of grammar was ever devised. That being said, grammatical knowledge can offer support to language learners and make the process easier, as long as we’re careful not to let the idea of learning grammar take the place or get in the way of language acquisition. This module attempts to clarify the parts of speech and to make the language of textbooks more understandable.

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. Knowing the parts of speech helps us understand the use or function of words and how words are joined together for meaningful communication. To understand what a part of speech is, we 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 called 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 If you chose hammer, you are right. Violin, drums, piano, and guitar are used to make music, but a hammer is not (usually) 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 d) screwdriver e) 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, salmon and 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 the 8 parts of speech, but this classification is the established standard. You can 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 may not know the meaning of the word surreptitiously, but if you know about parts of speech, you may 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 Interjections In addition to these 8 categories, some people include a ninth category: Determiners (in this module we will look at one specific type of determiner, Articles) This set of lessons will teach you about each of the parts of speech and show how they are different from each other. They will help you recognize which part of speech each word in a sentence is and that will help you become a better reader. Review this lesson as many times as you want, and when you are ready, click the button below to check your knowledge.

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).

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 of verbs 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:

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. A verb which has no object is called an intransitive verb and some examples are go, come, sneeze, laugh. 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 called helping 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.

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 be as in The man is tall. More than one adjective can be used in this position as in the sentence The man is tall, dark and handsome. In later lessons, you will learn how to make comparisons with adjectives.

Most adjectives do 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 and plural forms. The common words this and that have the plural forms these and those. These words are called demonstrative adjectives because 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.

(Some people prefer to classify demonstrative adjectives and possessive adjectives as well as numbers and quantifiers as Determiners. but they can also be thought of as special types of adjectives. Just like a saw can be a tool or a musical instrument and can be classified in different ways, so can words.)

Person*	Singular	Plural
1st Person	my	our
2nd Person	your	your
3rd Person	his/her/its	their

*Person is 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).

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 exactly 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 an adverb 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.

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 lesson 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).

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 pronoun possessive and say That book is his. There are possessive adjective forms (such as my, your, his, her etc.) that are discussed with the other adjectives. Possessive pronouns can stand by themselves without nouns, but possessive adjectives, like other adjectives, are used together with noun, as in my book.

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 the intensive 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.

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. The preposition 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

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

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, the conjunction 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.

Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal and will be discussed more in another lesson. 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

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

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 sentence 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 demonstrative or 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 in the man or there may be adjectives and perhaps adverbs between the article and the noun as in the very angry, young man.

Interjections

There is one more group of words that are usually listed as a part of speech and that is the Interjections. Unlike the the other parts of speech, interjections do not interact with other words in the sentence. They stand alone by themselves and are separated by punctuation marks. Some examples of interjections are:

Hello
Goodbye
Cheers
Gee
Yeah
Aha
Oops
Oh
Wow
Hurrah
Alas
Ouch
Amen