PARTS OF SPEECH

CH.ARUNA

LECTURER IN ENGLISH

HINDU COLLEGE GUNTUR

• In this chapter you will review or learn about:
• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• Conjunctions
• Interjections
• Nouns
• Prepositions
• Pronouns
• Verbs

• In this chapter, you’ll review parts of speech so that you have a standard way to describe how words are put together to create meaning.
• The parts of speech are arranged in alphabetical order for easy reference.
• In later chapters, you will learn how to correct errors caused by misusing these parts of speech.

• English is a very flexible language. A word’s meaning is derived not only from how it is spelled and pronounced but also from how it is used in a sentence. As you review the parts of speech, remember that the way a word is used in a sentence determines which part of speech it is. For example:
• Noun: I ate a fish for dinner.
• Verb: We fish in the lake on every Tuesday

.

• Adjectives are words that describe nouns and pronouns. Adjectives answer the questions: What kind? How much? Which one? How many? For example:

• There are four kinds of adjectives: common adjectives, proper adjectives, compound adjectives, and indefinite adjectives.
• Common adjectives describe nouns or pronouns.
• strong man
• green plant
• beautiful view

• Proper adjectives are formed from proper nouns.
• California vegetables.
• Mexican food.
• Compound adjectives are made up of more than one word.
• far-off country
• teenage person

• Indefinite adjectives don’t specify the specific amount of something.

• Follow these guidelines when you use adjectives:
• Use an adjective to describe a noun or a pronoun.
• Jesse was unwilling to leave the circus.
• Use vivid adjectives to make your writing more specific and descriptive.
• Take a larger slice of the luscious cake.
• Use an adjective after a linking verb. A linking verb connects a subject with a descriptive word. The most common linking verbs are

be, seem, appear, look, feel, smell, sound, taste, becom e, grow, remain, stay, and turn.

• Chicken made this way tastes more delicious.

• Predicate adjectives are adjectives separated from the noun or pronoun by a linking verb. Predicate adjectives describe the subject of the sentence.
• The weather was cold all week.

• Articles are words that combine with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by the noun. There are three articles: a, an, the.
• The is called a “definite article” because it

refers to a specific thing.

• A and an are called “indefinite articles” because they refer to general things. Use a with consonant sounds; use an before vowel sounds.

• Adverbs are words that describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs answer the questions: When? Where? How? or To what extent?

• When?
• Where?
• How?

left yesterday fell below happily sang

begin now move up danced badly

• To what extent? partly finished eat completely

• Most adverbs are formed by adding -ly to an adjective. For example:

• Here are some of the most common non-ly adverbs:

• Follow these guidelines when you use adverbs:
• Use an adverb to describe a verb.
• Experiments using dynamite must be done carefully.
• Use an adverb to describe an adjective.
• Sam had an unbelievably huge appetite for chips.
• Use an adverb to describe another adverb.
• They sang so clearly.

• Conjunctive adverbs are used to connect other words and to link ideas and paragraphs.

• Conjunctions connect words or groups of words and show how the words are related. There are three kinds of conjunctions:
• coordinating conjunctions
• correlative conjunctions
• subordinating conjunctions.

• Coordinating conjunctions link similar words or word groups. There are seven coordinating conjunctions:
• for and nor but or yet so
• Use this mnemonic to help you remember the seven coordinating conjunctions:
• FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so).

• Correlative conjunctions also link similar words or word groups, but they are always used in pairs. Here are the correlative conjunctions:
• both…and
• either…or
• neither…nor
• not only…but also
• whether…or

• Subordinating

conjunctions link an independent

clause (complete sentence) to a dependent clause (fragment). Here are the most often used subordinating conjunctions:

• Interjections show strong emotion. Since interjections are not linked grammatically to other words in the sentence, they are set off from the rest of the sentence with a comma or an exclamation mark. For example:
• Oh! What a shock you gave me with that gorilla suit.
• Wow! That’s not a gorilla suit!

• A noun is a word that names a person, place, or thing. Nouns come in these varieties: common nouns, proper nouns, compound nouns, and collective nouns.

• Common nouns name any one of a class of person, place, or thing.

always capitalized.

▪

Barbara

New York City

Rice-a-Roni

• Compound nouns are two or more nouns that function as a single unit. A compound noun can be two individual words, words joined by a hyphen, or two words combined.
• Individual words: time capsule
• Hyphenated words: great-uncle
• Combined words: basketball

• Collective nouns name groups of people or things.
• audience
• family
• herd
• crowd

• In grammar, possession shows ownership. Follow these rules to create possessive nouns.
• With singular nouns, add an apostrophe and an s.
• dog → dog’s bone
• singer → singer’s voice
• With plurals ending in s, add an apostrophe after the s.
• dogs → dogs’ bones
• singers → singers’ voices
• With plurals not ending in s, add an apostrophe and an s.
• men → men’s books
• mice → mice’s tails

• Here are the guidelines for creating plural nouns.
• Add s to form the plural of most nouns.
• cat → cats computer → computers
• Add es if the noun ends in s, sh, ch, or x.
• wish → wishes inch → inches box → boxes
• If a noun ends in consonant -y, change the y to i and add es.
• city → cities lady → ladies
• If a noun ends in vowel -y, add s. Words ending in -quy don’t follow this rule (as in soliloquies).
• essay → essays monkey → monkeys

• Prepositions link a noun or a pronoun following it to another word in the sentence. Use this chart to help you recognize some of the most common prepositions:

• A noun or pronoun always follows a preposition. A prepositional phrase is a preposition and its object. A prepositional phrase can be two or three words long.
• on the wing in the door
• However, prepositional phrases also can be much longer, depending on the length of the preposition and the number of words that describe the object of the preposition.
• near the violently swaying oak trees
• on account of his nearly depleted bank account

• A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun or another pronoun. Pronouns help you avoid unnecessary repetition in your writing and speech. A pronoun gets its meaning from the noun it stands for. The noun is called the antecedent.
• Although Seattle is damp, it is my favorite city.
• There are different kinds of pronouns. Most of them have antecedents, but a few do not.

• The word antecedent comes from a Latin word meaning “to go before.” However, the noun does not have to appear before the pronoun in a sentence. It often does, though, to keep sentences clear and avoid misreadings.

• Personal pronouns refer to a specific person, place, object, or thing.

• Possessive pronouns show ownership. The possessive pronouns are: your, yours, his, hers, its, ours, their, theirs, whose.
• Is this beautiful plant yours?
• Yes, it’s ours.

• Don’t confuse personal pronouns with contractions. Personal pronouns never have an apostrophe, while contractions always have an apostrophe. Use this chart:

• Reflexive pronouns add information to a sentence by pointing back to a noun or pronoun near the beginning of the sentence. Reflexive pronouns end in -self or -selves.
• Tricia bought herself a new car.
• All her friends enjoyed themselves riding in the beautiful car.
• Intensive pronouns also end in -self or -selves

but just add emphasis to the noun or pronoun.

• Tricia herself picked out the car.

• Demonstrative pronouns direct attention to a specific person, place, or thing. There are only four demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those.
• This is my favorite movie.
• That was a fierce rain storm.
• Relative pronouns begin a subordinate clause. There are five relative pronouns: that, which, who, whom, those.
• Jasper claimed that he could run the washing machine.
• Louise was the repair person who fixed the machine after Jasper washed his sneakers.

• Interrogative pronouns ask a question. They are: what, which, who, whom, whose.
• Who would like to cook dinner?
• Which side does the fork go on?
• Indefinite pronouns refer to people, places, objects, or things without pointing to a specific one. The most common indefinite

pronouns are listed in the chart on the next slide.

• Verbs name an action or describe a state of being. Every sentence must have a verb. There are three basic types of verbs: action verbs, linking verbs, and helping verbs.

• Action verbs tell what the subject does. The action can be visible (jump, kiss, laugh) or mental (think, learn, study).
• The cat broke Louise’s china.
• Louise considered buying a new china cabinet.
• An action verb can be transitive or intransitive. Transitive verbs need a direct object.
• The boss dropped the ball.
• The workers picked it up.
• Intransitive verbs do not need a direct object.
• Who called?
• The temperature fell over night.

• To determine if a verb is transitive, ask yourself “Who?” or “What?” after the verb. If you can find an answer in the sentence, the verb is transitive.

• Linking verbs join the subject and the predicate. They do not show action. Instead, they help the words at the end of the sentence name or describe the subject.
• The manager was happy about the job change.
• He is a good worker.
• Many linking verbs can also be used as action verbs.
• Linking: The kids looked sad.
• Action: I looked for the dog in the pouring rain.

• To determine whether a verb is being used as a linking verb or an action verb, substitute am, are, or is for the verb. If it makes sense, the original verb is a linking verb.

• Helping verbs are added to another verb to make the meaning clearer. Helping verbs include any form of to be, do, does, did, have, has, had, shall, should, will, would, can, could, may, might, must. Verb phrases are made up of one main verb and one or more helping verbs.
• They will run before dawn.
• They still have not yet found a smooth track.

• English has eight parts of speech:

• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• Conjunctions
• Interjections

Nouns Prepositions Pronouns Verbs

• The way a word is used in a sentence determines what part of speech it is.

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