KINDS OF WORDS

Nouns are commonly defined as words that refer to a person, place, thing, or idea. How
can you identify a noun?

For example, the boy sounds like a unit, so boy is a noun. The chair sounds like a unit,
so chair is a noun. Compare these nouns to *the very, *the walked, *the
because. Very, walked, and because are not nouns. While you can easily
put the and very together (for example, the very tall boy), the very, by itself, does not
work as a unit while the chair does. So, chair is a noun; very is not.    

Some nouns are concrete: they can be perceived by our senses. They are things that we
can see, hear, smell, taste, or touch. Those nouns that are not concrete are abstract.

Here are some examples of concrete and abstract nouns:

What’s a verb? Verbs are words that usually express an action.

Sometimes a verb changes its form. Let’s look at the following sentences. The verb is
underlined in each one.

1. John should study.

2. John studied.

3. John is studying.

4. John studies.

You certainly can’t say John should studied, or John to studied, so how do we know
that studied is a verb? To test the word, you have to see if it can follow should or to in a
different form, not necessarily in the form that you see in a particular sentence. For
example, if you see John studied, ask yourself if there’s a different form of studied that
can follow should or to. In this case there is: John should study or John decided to study.
So study and all its forms are verbs.

The form of the verb that follows modals like should or to is called the base
form or infinitive form. The term infinitive is used to refer either to the base form alone
(for example, study), or to the to+base form (for example, to study).

Verbs that act on something are called transitive verbs. Typically, in statements,
a transitive verb is followed by the noun (or noun phrase) that it is acting upon. Other
verbs, such as sleep, die, and arrive, do not act upon something. In fact, these verbs can’t
have a direct object. Notice that you can’t say, for example: *I usually sleep the dog,
*They’ll arrive the book. Those verbs that do not act on something and appear in
sentences that do not have a direct object are called intransitive verbs.

An adjective is a word that refers to a characteristic of a noun. For example, since we can
say the tall boy, tall is an adjective. Similarly, we can say the silly boy, the interesting boy,
and the young boy. Therefore, silly, interesting, and young are all adjectives.       

A number of adjectives, all used in the phrase the boy, are listed below. The adjectives
are underlined:

1. the brilliant boy

2. the embarrassed boy

3. the blonde boy

4. the hungry boy

5. the delightful boy

Prepositions are words, usually small, that typically indicate information about direction,
location, or time. There is only a small number of prepositions in English. Some
commonly used examples are at, from, in, on, and to.

Adverbs generally indicate information about location, time, degree, and manner. They
provide extra information about the action in a sentence, about adjectives and about
other adverbs.

Many adverbs end in -ly (rapidly, innocently, sweetly, etc.). However, some adjectives also

end in -ly, for example lovely and friendly.