Lectura de textos académicos en inglés III

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Profesor: César Tenorio Toro - Contacto: cesar.tenorio@correounivalle.edu.co

Word classes (or parts of speech)1

All words belong to categories called word classes (or parts of speech) according to the part they play in a
sentence.

1. Noun. A noun is a word that identifies:

 a person (woman, boy, doctor, neighbor)
 a thing (dog, building, tree, country)
 an idea, quality, or state (truth, danger, birth, happiness).

There are several different types of noun, as follows:

Common noun
A common noun is a noun that refers to people or things in general, e.g. boy, country, bridge, city, birth, day,
happiness.

Proper noun
A proper noun is a name that identifies a particular person, place, or thing, e.g. Steven, Africa, London,
Monday. In written English, proper nouns begin with capital letters.

Concrete noun
A concrete noun is a noun which refers to people and to things that exist physically and can be seen, touched,
smelled, heard, or tasted. Examples include dog, building, coffee, tree, rain, beach, tune.

Abstract noun
An abstract noun is a noun which refers to ideas, qualities, and conditions - things that cannot be seen or
touched and things which have no physical reality, e.g. truth, danger, happiness, time, friendship, humour.

Collective nouns
Collective nouns refer to groups of people or things, e.g. audience, family, government, team, jury. In American
English, most collective nouns are treated as singular, with a singular verb:

The whole family was at the table.

In British English, the preceding sentence would be correct, but it would also be correct to treat the collective
noun as a plural, with a plural verb:

The whole family were at the table.

1
Adapted from https://en.oxforddictionaries.com
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A noun may belong to more than one category. For example, happiness is both a common noun and an
abstract noun, while Mount Everest is both a concrete noun and a proper noun.
Count and mass nouns
Nouns can be either countable or uncountable. Countable nouns (or count nouns) are those that refer to
something that can be counted. Uncountable nouns (or mass nouns) do not typically refer to things that can be
counted and so they do not regularly have a plural form.

2. Verb. A verb describes what a person or thing does or what happens. For example, verbs describe:
 an action – jump, stop, explore
 an event – snow, happen
 a situation – be, seem, have
 a change – evolve, shrink, widen

The basic form of a verb is known as the infinitive. It is often preceded by the word ‘to’:

Molly decided to follow him / He began to run back.

Some forms are active and passive verbs, auxiliary verbs (be', 'do', and 'have'), participles, phrasal verbs,
regular and irregular verbs, verb tenses, among others.

3. Adjective. An adjective is a word that describes a noun, giving extra information about it. For example, a
sweet taste, a red apple, a technical problem, an Italian woman.

4. Adverb. An adverb is a word that is used to give information about a verb, adjective, or other adverb: they
sang loudly, she is very pretty, he writes really well.

Adverbials. An adverbial is a word (an adverb), phrase, or clause which modifies (changes, restricts or adds
to the meaning of) a verb. An adverbial can be a noun phrase (we met that afternoon), a prepositional phrase
(we met in the cafe), or a clause (we met because we needed to talk) as well as an adverb, but always
functions to modify the meaning of a verb. A sentence can contain just one adverbial or several.

We typically use adverbials to talk about:

 Where something happens (place): I put my bag on the floor / Don’t just sit there! / Could you let the cat
out?

 When something happens (time): We’re in Paris today, but where will we be tomorrow? / The rain
lasted all night / She’d been travelling for three days.

 The way in which someone does something or something happens or exists (manner): The abbey now
lies in ruins / You’re acting as if you were still a teenager / These shirts come in three sizes.

Positions of adverbs. Adverbs can be used in three positions in a sentence or clause:

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Front (perhaps they’ll arrive this evening)
Mid (she hardly knew him)
End (I left the bedroom and ran downstairs)

5. Pronoun. Pronouns are used in place of a noun that is already known or has already been mentioned.
This is often done in order to avoid repeating the noun. For example:

Laura left early because she was tired.

Anthony brought the avocados with him.
That is the only option left.
Something will have to change.

Personal pronouns are used in place of nouns referring to specific people or things, for example I, me,
mine, you, yours, his, her, hers, we, they, or them.

Subjective pronouns
The personal pronouns I, you, we, he, she, it, and they are known as subjective pronouns because they
act as the subjects of verbs:

She saw Catherine. We drove Nick home. I waved at her.

Objective pronouns
The personal pronouns me, you, us, him, her, it, and them are called objective pronouns because they
act as the objects of verbs and prepositions:

Catherine saw her. Nick drove us home. She waved at me.

SINGULAR PLURAL
Subjective objective subjective objective

first person I me we us
second person you you you you

third person he/she/it him/her/it they them

Notice that the personal pronouns you and it stay the same, whether they are being used in the subjective
or objective roles.

Possessive pronouns
The personal pronouns mine, yours, hers, his, ours, and theirs are known as possessive pronouns:
they refer to something owned by the speaker or by someone or something previously mentioned. For
example:
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 That book is mine. John’s eyes met hers. Ours is a family farm.

Reflexive pronouns
Reflexive personal pronouns include myself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, and
themselves. These are used to refer back to the subject of the clause in which they are used:

I fell and hurt myself. Daisy prepared herself for the journey. The children had to look after themselves.

6. Preposition. A preposition is a word such as after, in, to, on, and with. Prepositions are usually used in
front of nouns or pronouns and they show the relationship between the noun or pronoun and other words
in a sentence. They describe, for example, the position of something, the time when something happens,
or the way in which something is done.

 The position of something: Her bag was under the chair. / The dog crawled between us and lay down at
our feet. / His flat was over the shop.

 The time when something happens: They arrived on Sunday. / The class starts at 9 a.m. /Shortly after
their marriage they moved to Colorado.

 The way in which something is done: We went by train. / They stared at each other without speaking.

Some prepositions are made up of more than one word, for example:

They moved here because of the baby. / We sat next to each other. / The hotel is perched on top of a cliff.

7. Conjunction. A conjunction (also called a connective) is a word such as and, because, but, for, if, or, and
when. Conjunctions are used to connect phrases, clauses, and sentences. The two main kinds are known
as coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.
There are two main kinds of conjunction.
 Coordinating conjunctions. Coordinating conjunctions join items that are of equal importance in a
sentence: You can have ice cream or strawberries. He plays football and cricket.
 Subordinating conjunctions. Subordinating conjunctions connect subordinate clauses to the main clause of
a sentence: I waited at home until she arrived. He went to bed because he was tired.

8. Determiner. A determiner is a word that introduces a noun, such as a/an, the, every, this, those, or many
(as in a dog, the dog, this dog, those dogs, every dog, many dogs).
The determiner ‘the’ is sometimes known as the definite article and the determiner ‘a (or an)’ as the
indefinite article.
 Possessive determiners
Words like my, our, your, his, her, its, and their are known as possessive determiners. They come before
nouns and indicate ownership of the noun in question, as their name suggests:
My leg hurts. James sold his business. Bring your children with you.

Universidad del Valle

Ciudad Universitaria Meléndez Calle 13 No 100-00
PBX +57 2 3212100 A.A. 25360
Santiago de Cali – Colombia
Universidad del Valle
Ciudad Universitaria Meléndez Calle 13 No 100-00
PBX +57 2 3212100 A.A. 25360
Santiago de Cali – Colombia