Parts of Speech

By Dr Mungungu-Shipale
 Traditional grammar
/ Traditional grammar consists of
prescription.
/ Traditional grammarians prescribed
grammar by giving specific names and
definitions to parts of speech.
/ Traditional grammarians made sure
that all words served a single purpose.
 Traditional grammar
/ The main element of traditional
grammar was to give names to ideas,
concepts or notions by naming them
parts of speech.
/ Traditional grammar is, therefore,
also called a notional grammar.
 Sentence analysis
/ The important factor of analysing
sentences is the identification of the
subject and predicate within a
sentence.
/ Traditional Grammar focuses on the
prescription of the various components
within a sentence.
 Sentence analysis cont. …
/ One of the most important tools in
sentence analysis was sentence parsing.
/ This is a process of identifying the
various components within a sentence.
/ Then it explains why each part of
speech was labelled as such.
 Parts of speech
/ In order to understand a sentence
fully, we need to decide what work a
certain word is doing in that particular
sentence.
/ This is why an understanding of the
parts of speech and the jobs they do is
so important.
 Parts of speech
/ Every word in a sentence ties up with or
is connect to another one.
/ If we can find the connection, we can
label each word with its part of speech.
The two key parts of speech are nouns
and verbs. Nearly all the others can be
identified from their connection with
one or other of these two.
The Nine Parts of Speech
/ Verb
/ Noun
/ Pronoun
/ Adjectives
/ Adverbs
/ Prepositions
/ Conjunctions
/ Interjection
/ Articles
 More Details
/ Each part of speech explains not what
the word is, but how the word is used.
In fact, the same word can be a noun
in one sentence and a verb or
adjective in the next.
 The word water
/ What part of speech is each of the
word ‘water’ used in the following
sentences?

/ There is no enough water in the water

tank. So, we cannot water the plants
today.
 Let’s Take a Closer Look!
/ Verb
/ A verb “is what you
do!”
/ I will run, hop, and
skip down the
track.
Adverbs
/ Adverb
/ An adverb can modify
a verb, an adjective or
another adverb.
/ The lady is carefully
carrying the clay pot.
What about the Adjectives?
/ Adjectives
/ An adjective modifies a
noun or pronoun by
describing, identifying,
or qualifying words.
/ A beautiful baby is
wearing a green
headscarf.
 Here come the nouns!
/ Noun
/ A noun is a person
place or thing.
/ Ms Katuta is going
to a party tonight.
 Types of nouns
 Proper nouns: Nelly, Otavi, May, Monday
 Common nouns: lady, son, chair, country
 Collective nouns: team, family, flock
 Compound nouns: sunlight, handbook
 Concrete nouns: car, door, person, heat
 Abstract nouns: love, company, trust
 Countable nouns: bed, pen, dog, house
 Types of nouns
 Uncountable nouns: rain, food, music, water
 Singular nouns: cat, toy, class, man
 Plural nouns: cats, toys, classes, men
Pronouns
/ Pronoun
/ A pronoun can
replace the noun or
another pronoun.
/ Which primary
school did you
attend?
 Additional Pronouns
/ Personal Pronouns / Possessive Pronouns
/ A personal pronoun / A possessive pronoun
refers to specific indicates that the pronoun
is acting as a marker of
person or thing and
possession and defines who
changes its form to owns a particular object or
indicate person, person.
number, gender, and / (mine, yours, hers, his, its,
case. E.g. he, she, I, we ours, theirs)
/ Those sweets are yours.
 Possessive adjectives
/ Can you come to our house this afternoon?

/ Possessive pronouns vs possessive Adjectives

/ My car is faster than hers.

/ Our country is cleaner, unlike yours.
Interrogative Pronouns
/ An interrogative
pronoun is used to ask
questions.
/ (who, whom, which,
what and the
compounds formed with
suffix “ever”).
/ Who are these people?
Home / Whomever you invite
should pay.
 Relative pronouns
/ Relative pronouns also called conjunctive
pronouns relate one part of a sentence to
another.
Example: This is the lady who helped me
yesterday.
There comes the boy that I told you about.
 Still More Pronouns!
/ Demonstrative Pronouns
/ A demonstrative pronoun
points to and identifies a
specific noun or pronoun.
/ (this, that, these, and
those) They stand alone as
pronouns.

/ That is a friendly girl.

/ I like this!
 Demonstrative adjectives!
/ The demonstrative
adjectives are the same
words as the
demonstrative pronouns
(i.e., this, that, these, and
those). They modify nouns
or pronouns.

/ That girl is friendly.

/ Please buy those beautiful
shoes.
 Reflexive pronouns
These pronouns reflect back to someone
or something else in the sentence.

 He injured himself.
 You should blame yourself.
 We spoiled ourselves with some
goodies.
 Intensive pronoun
/ The intensive pronouns (also called
emphatic pronouns) are: myself,
yourself, herself, himself, itself,
ourselves, yourselves, and themselves.
/ She will do it herself.
N.B.: You can test if it's an intensive
pronoun by removing it and seeing if you
get the same effect
 -Indefinite pronoun
Example: someone, nobody, something,
everyone

-Reciprocal pronouns
Example: each other and one another
 Conjunctions
/ You can use
Conjunctions to link
words, phrases, and
clauses.
/ I saw a zebra and a
hyena when I visited
Etosha!
Home
Prepositions
/ Prepositions
/ A preposition links
nouns, pronouns, and
phrases to other
words in a sentence.
/ (on, against, over, etc)
The penguins are
looking at one another.
What is an Interjection?
/ Interjections
/ An interjection is a
word added to a
sentence to convey
emotion.
/ (Wow! Ouch!, Hey!)
/ E.g. Wow, aren’t those
flowers beautiful?
Parts of Speech Poem
by Kim Vetter
/ A noun’s the name of anything,
/ As house or garden, hoop, or swing.
/ Instead of nouns the pronouns stand-
/ The book is yours but the pen is mine.
/ Adjectives tell the kind of noun,
/ As great, small, pretty, white, or brown.
/ Verbs tell of something to be done-
/ To read, count, sing, talk, laugh, or run.
/ How things are done the adverbs tell,
/ As slowly, quickly, ill, or well.
 Poem Continued
/ Conjunctions join the words together,
/ As men and women, wind or weather.
/ The preposition stands before a noun,
/ as in or through a door.
/ The interjection shows surprise,
/ As Oh! How Pretty; Ah! How wise.
/ That’s why we learn the parts of speech
/ For reading, writing, speaking and listening to make sense.
/ ‘Cause grammar needs to be correct
/ To help you earn the world’s respect.
 Identify parts of speech of all the
words in the following sentences:

/ Books are made of ink, paper, and

glue.
/ Debbie waits patiently while Penda
books the tickets.
 Identify parts of speech of all the
words in the following sentences:

/ Our school enrols many students.

/ School kids get excited when it is
school holidays.