THE PARTS OF SPEECH

ENGLISH 1
INTRODUCTION
The English language has over one million words.
All those words can be classified into one of eight
categories: the parts of speech.

They are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives,

adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and
interjections.

The parts of speech are building blocks to good

Standard English writing.
NOUNS
 A noun is a word that names a person, a place, a thing, an animal, a
feeling or quality .

 A person – boy, girl, man, woman, student, worker, mother, father,

Rose, Daniel…

 A place – city, bedroom, school, country, Windhoek, Lingua College,

Namibia…

 A thing, an activity and an event – window, car, flower, birthday,

vacation, holiday, exam

 An animal – cat, dog, cow, sheep, goat, bird, tiger, jaguar, leopard…

 A feeling or quality – loyalty, gratitude, love, hate, joy, hope, faith,

rejection, friendship…
 Categories of nouns
 Common nouns: are generally things that you can see
and touch. Common nouns do not begin with a capital
letter. Examples: dog, car, girl, city, book…

 Proper nouns: name specific people, places, animals and

things. Examples: Scurfy, Toyota, Maria, Windhoek, Basics
of Grammar.

 Collective nouns: refer to a group of people, animals, or

things. Example: crowd, herd, class, flock, army, luggage,
furniture, school etc.

 Abstract nouns: names of feeling or quality that cannot be

physically touched. Examples: fear, love, friendship, hope,
loyalty, faith, anger, joy etc.
Exercise: Identify the nouns in the
following paragraphs:
 1. Rosalia is a plumber. She told Festus that her last customer, Josiah Hamunyela,
was cheap. He wanted to pay her less than Thomas Kalola did, and Thomas is a
poor man.

 2. In Canada, which is a large country in North America, he often visits Montreal,

a beautiful city on the Saint Lawrence River, near Mont Tremblant, a great
place to ski.

 3. Nouns can also name activities and events. See whether you can identify the
nouns below:
 Nearly everyone who enjoys crafts buys glue, crayons and cloth to make
decorations for holidays and other celebrations, such as Halloween and
Thanksgiving.

 4. Nouns also name emotions, belief systems and causes. Identify the nouns in
the following:
 He was filled with happiness when she explained her thoughts on freedom,
because he also worked to bring about justice and equality in society. He was
also pleased to find that she practiced Catholicism.
 PRONOUNS
 Pronouns are words that replace nouns. Replacing nouns with pronouns
avoids repetitions of nouns which may render your writing clumsy and
difficult. Take a look at the passage below:

 Tangeni took Tangeni’s best friend, Ndeshi, to Ndheshi’s house after the
party. Tangeni asked Ndeshi if Ndeshi would give Tangeni the recipe for
the cookies Tangeni and Ndeshi had eaten at the party. Ndeshi gave
the recipe to Tangeni.

 What do you notice about this piece of writing? Now take a look at the
change:

 Tangeni took his best friend, Ndeshi, to her house after the party. He
asked her if she would give him the recipe for the cookies that they had
eaten at the party. She gave it to him.

 So much better, right? All the words in bold are pronouns. They replace
the nouns Tangeni and Ndeshi.
 Classes of pronouns
 Personal pronouns: they replace the name of, or refer back to a person.
Examples: I, me, you, it, itself, he, she, we, us, they, them.

 Possessive pronouns: are words that express possession; belonging to. Examples:
my, mine, your, yours, his, hers, its, ours, their, theirs.

 Demonstrative pronouns: refer to, or point to something specific. Pronouns can

point to items in distance or time. Examples: this, that, these, those, such, none,
neither.

 Reflexive pronouns: are words ending in -self or -selves. They are used when the
subject and the object of a sentence are the same. There are nine reflexive
pronouns in English: oneself, myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves,
yourselves and themselves.

 Relative pronouns: are words used to refer to nouns mentioned previously. The
previously mentioned nouns may be people, places, things, animals, or ideas.
Relative pronouns may also be used to join to sentences. The relative pronouns
are who, whom, whose, which, whoever, whomever and that.
Exercise:
 Fill in the blanks with the correct pronouns (we,
me, I, myself, ourselves, our, us).

 ……am going to work now.

 ……told……that……must hurry, because……boss
told……that lateness is a problem.
 ……spoke with my friends in the office.
 ……all agreed that……want….boss to
leave……alone.
 ……prefer to be by……
VERBS
 Verbs are being and doing words. They describe
what is happening around us. They also indicate
past, present and future in a sentence. Below are
some examples. All the verbs are in bold. Notice how
they express action or states of being.

 Ndeshi is extremely tired

 She climbed a hill.
 Tangeni and Ndeshi will run many marathons.
 You train for long races.
 I sit when you train.
 Are you jealous?
 Stop and relax!
Exercise:
 Identify the verbs in the following sentences.
 Bock limped home
 He had fallen over a toy
 Bock’s mother was quite upset.
 She cleaned the cut on Bock’s knee.
 The bandage was too tight.
 Walk home before nightfall.
 You may hurt yourself.
 Does Bock obey his mother?
 I guess he will obey because his knee is really sore.
 No, he will not obey.
ADJECTIVES
 Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. They supply details and
further information. Adjectives give information about people, places
and things.

 Example: Maria parked her light blue Audi under the large oak tree. The
bold words are adjectives. They describe the colour of Maria’s car, and
the size of the oak tree.

 In order to find adjectives easily, look at a sentence or sentences and

ask three questions: how many? Which one? What kind? Look at the
passage below and identify the adjectives by using the three questions.
Remember to identify the noun or pronoun first.

 Three soft pillows were on the lumpy bed

 Every bill is unpaid and overdue
 Nothing bad will happen (tip: nothing is a pronoun. Remember that
adjectives describe nouns and pronouns)
ADVERBS
 Adverbs are words that describe verbs. They give you
important information about action or state of being,
specifically the how, when, where and under what
conditions.
 Example: Zelda sings.
 This is merely telling you what Zelda is doing. Zelda sings
beautifully. Zelda sings loudly. Zelda sings slowly.
Beautifully, loudly and slowly are all adverbs, which tell
you how Zelda sings. To find adverbs easily, ask the
following questions; how? When? Where? Why? Under
what conditions? Apply the technique below.

 Later, alone, Tim completely understood the reason for

Karen’s impolite comment (tip: understood is the verb).
 Sam recently moved away (tip: moved is the verb).
 PREPOSITIONS
 Prepositions are words that express position. They also link
and show the relationship between nouns or pronouns.

 Examples: in, behind, with, in front, next to, on, at, under,
above, along, among, around, below, beyond, into,
underneath, within, etc.

 Identify the prepositions in the following sentences.

 The horse jumped over the fence and ran across the finish
line
 Beyond the field, crowds gathered and watched the horse
run past the farm.
 He ran toward the mountains.
 Everybody climbed up the mountain next to the farm.
 The horse slid down the slope but did not go over the cliff.
CONJUNCTIONS
 Conjunctions are words that join ideas and add
meaning to sentences. They are joining words.
They are the glue that holds words, phrases and
clauses together.

 Examples: and, or, but, because, if, although.

Types of conjunctions
 Coordinating conjunctions: they are words that help
make short, boring sentences into fuller ones. There are
seven coordinating conjunctions. To remember them,
think of the acronym FANBOYS which represent
 For (explains reason or purpose),
 And (adds one statement to another),
 Nor, (presents an alternative negative to an existing
negative idea)
 But, (shows contrast)
 Or, (alternative or choice)
 Yet, (a contrasting idea that follows the preceding idea
in a logical manner)
 So (indicates effect, result, or consequence
Subordinating conjunction:
 they introduce a dependent clause, and tie it to
an independent clause.
 Examples: although, because, before, though,
until, whenever, while, whether, when, why, etc.
 Look at some examples in action below
 Because of them, I learned how to stand on my
own.
 Until you try, you will never know.
 I have been so happy since I started that diet.
INTERJECTIONS
 Interjections are words that often express
emotions. They are usually followed by an
exclamation point, but not always.

 Interjections add spice to your writing.

 Examples: Ah, oops, oh no, yikes, wow, etc.

THE END
SOURCES
 Yourdictionary.com
 Bull, L., & Dix, S. (1997). Business English. Ravan.
 Woods, G. (2017). English grammar for
dummies. John Wiley & Sons.