Parts of Speech

ENGLISH GRAMMAR ESSENTIALS

Understanding Parts of Speech

  Think of parts of speech – as like – job

Is just the name given to a word -
titles.
based on the job that it does in a
 Just like a person can be a teacher or a
sentence.
doctor or a lawyer…

 A word can be a verb, an adjective, a

noun etc… depending on the job it
does in a sentence.
An overview

Part of Speech Its Job

Noun Name given to a person, place, animal, thing, feeling, idea

Pronoun Replaces a noun

Adjective Gives information – noun or a pronoun

Verb Action / state

Adverb Gives information – a verb, adjective or another adverb

Preposition Shows relationships in time, place and position

Conjunction Helps to connect two sentences and ideas

Interjection Helps us to show sudden emotion / exclamation

 Verbs
Verbs are probably the most important words in
the English language.
Eg: Sheena dances three times I am an engineer
For 2 reasons… a week

1. Every sentence in English must have a

Talking about physical action Not about physical action. ‘am’
verb.
is a state / situation
2. Only verbs have tenses (that’s how we
talk about different time and state / a
situation)
Nouns

Name given to person, place, animal, thing, feelings and idea

For eg: Rosie went to Malta on vacation with her family last year

Rosie Name of a person

Malta An Island in Europe

vacation Name given to the trip taken

family Group of people

year 365 days

Kinds of Nouns
Concrete - everything you can experience with your Abstract – These are ideas and feelings. We
Concrete and five senses: smell, touch, sight, hearing, or taste. cannot touch or see.
Abstract
A strawberry milkshake that tastes sweet and feels cold Honesty is the best policy.

Common and
Common - generic name for a person, place, or thing in Proper - name of a particular person, place,
Proper
a class or group. or thing and that usually begins with a
capital letter.

Collective nouns names for a collection or a number of people or things

Countable – can be counted in numbers

Uncountable – that cannot be counted in
Countable and
Uncountable books, bottles, chairs etc… numbers.
Air, water, coffee, salt, sugar, love, anger,
advice…
 Common and Proper nouns
man Devi Prasad
woman Julia Roberts
city Bangalore
country India
university University of Bangalore
company Google
restaurant McDonald
religion Buddhism
language Indian / Italian
day Friday
month December
All common nouns in small letters All proper nouns in Capital letters.
Collective Nouns examples players team

employees Staff

students Class

criminals Gang

Soldiers Army

onlookers Crowd

wolves Pack

bees Swarm

Keys Bunch

Shoes Pair

stairs flight

Knowing collective nouns makes your communication

stylish
Countable Nouns Un countable Nouns

We use a/ an / plurals We do not use a/an – no plurals

We use units of measurement – pounds, kilograms, ounces,
liters

To ask questions – How many? How much?

For small numbers - few A little

Pronouns

Replaces noun / pronoun takes the place of a noun.

How does it feel if you read something like this? Raj is in the movies with Raj’s girlfriend. Raj really
enjoys spending time with Raj’s girlfriend.

Subjective pronouns – I, you, we, they he, she, it Objective pronouns – me, you, us, them, him, her, it
Adjectives

Gives information about a noun / pronoun

‘They drive an amazing big red sports car.’ Car is the noun

If you look at sentence closely – all adjectives are answering to questions like:

What color? What size? What type? etc

Adjective “amazing” gives your opinion about the car

‘A/ an / the’ are called Articles. They are also adjectives because they give information about the nouns that
come after them.
Adverbs
Adverbs gives information about a verb, adjective and an another adverb

An adverb usually answers questions like: When? Why? How? In what Way? etc.

Eg. “Yesterday evening, we walked somewhat slowly in a very beautiful garden”

Yesterday – evening Shows us when the action happened

slowly Shows us how the things happened

Beautiful How the garden is

Notice you can ask further question – how slowly did you walk? How beautiful the garden was…

‘Somewhat’ (informs about an adverb) and ‘very’ (informs about an adjective)

Prepositions

Prepositions are words like : In, on, at, by, from, with, before, besides, after etc.

These words help us to show relationships in time, place and position

e.g. I’ll see you at the office on Monday At shows place/ position, ‘on’ shows the time
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are words like “and, but, or, so, and, because etc.

They help to connect sentences and ideas

“Clara and Jasmin are best friends”

I didn’t go school today (result) because I don’t feel very well ( reason)

Because is a conjunction. You can also say – “I don’t feel very well today so I didn’t go to school”.
‘As’

 In the English language, the word “as”

can be used for a variety of purposes.

 It can be used as
a conjunction ,preposition, or adverb
depending on the context.
 As
Conjunction Preposition Adverb

used to indicate that something
happens during the time when
something is taking place
• Peter watched her as she walked
through the crowd.
In comparison…
• They all felt as Dave did.
to indicate the time of being, or the role of a
person or object.
• Lisa had been stubborn as a teenager.
refer to the function someone or something
has.
• She got a job as a sales Manager.
the word “as” is also used to show
comparison or equivalence
Her hair is as soft as silk.
used in comparisons to refer to the extent or
degree of something

during the time of being: The world's biggest bull is as big as a small
Because; since • Ram had often been sick as a child. elephant.
• I must prepare now as I have to go to
school.
 Interjection

Wow! Excitement, surprise or

amazement
Words that have no real meaning but they help
us to show sudden emotion or exclamation.
Argh! Frustration. Anger – like
you are trying to open a
tight jar.

Oops / ouch / hey / hi ….etc.

A quick recap
Part of Speech Its Job

Noun Name given to a person, place, animal, thing, feeling, idea

Pronoun Replaces a noun

Adjective Gives information – noun or a pronoun

Verb Action / state

Adverb Gives information – a verb, adjective or another adverb

Preposition Show relationships in time, place and position

Conjunction Help to connect two sentences and ideas

Interjection Help us to show sudden emotion / exclamation