Word classes / Part of speech

English Grammar

1. Word classes (or parts of speech)
What is a word class?
Every word belongs to a word class, which summaries the ways in
which it can be used in grammar.
There are four major word classes: verb, noun, adjective, adverb.
There are five other word classes: determiners, preposition,
pronoun, conjunction, interjection.
So there are nine word classes (or parts of speech) in total. Here
are some examples of the different word classes that you might
come across:
• Verbs are action or state words like: run, work, study, be,
seem.
• Nouns are words for people, places or things like: mother,
town, Rome, car, dog.
• Adjectives are words that describe nouns, like: kind, clever,
expensive.
• Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives or other
adverbs, like: quickly, back, ever, badly, away generally,
completely.
• Determiners are a word that introduces a noun. It always
comes before a noun, not after, and it also comes before any
other adjectives used to describe the noun. E.g. The bunny
went home, or I ate the chocolate cookie for dessert.
• Prepositions are words usually in front of a noun or pronoun
and expressing a relation to another word or element,
like: after, down, near, of, plus, round.

2. • Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns, like: me,
you, his, it, this, that, mine, yours, who, what.
• Conjunctions are a word that joins words, phrases, clauses or
sentences, like: but, and, yet, or, because, nor, although,
since, unless, while, where.
• Interjections have no grammatical value - words like: ah, hey,
oh, ouch, um, well
• All words belong to categories called word classes (or parts of
speech) according to the part they play in a sentence. The main
word classes in English are listed below.
• Noun
• Verb
• Adjective
• Adverb
• Pronoun
• Preposition
• Conjunction
• Determiner
• Exclamation


Noun
A noun is a word that identifies:
a person (man, girl, engineer, friend)
a thing (horse, wall, flower, country)
an idea, quality, or state (anger, courage, life, luckiness)
1. Common Noun: Cow, country, …..
2. Proper Noun: Ram, Nepal,…..
3. Collective Noun: Group, Team…

3. 4. Material Noun: Sugar, Stone,…..
5. Abstract Noun: Love, Hate,…….
6. Compound Noun: headache, classroom, girlfriend,…….

Verb
A verb describes what a person or thing does or what happens. For
example, verbs describe:
an action – jump, stop, explore
an event – snow, happen
a situation – be, seem, have
a change – evolve, shrink, widen

1. Auxiliary Verb: used with main verb (is/am/are……) 24
2. Main Verb: denote action, state or event (teach, write, search….)

• Transitive: takes an object ; answering the question, What?
Or Whom? Or both. I have heard the news. He loves Hari.
• Intransitive: Does not take any object: The old man died
• Linking: takes a complement to complete its meaning: Sita is
beautiful. My friend has a car.

Adjective
An adjective is a word that describes a noun, giving
extra information about it. For example:
an exciting adventure
a green apple
a tidy room
Types:

4. 1. Qualitative adjectives:
2. Colour Adjectives:
3. Classifying adjectives:

Adverb
An adverb is a word that’s used to give information about a verb,
adjective, or other adverb. They can make the meaning of a verb,
adjective, or other adverb stronger or weaker, and often appear
between the subject and its verb (She nearly lost everything.)
Types:
1. Manner adverbs: (how) slowly, badly, loudly…..
2. Place Adverbs: (where) here, there…….
3. Time Adverbs: (when) now, today, ago, …..
4. Frequency Adverbs: (how often) always, often, normally, …..
5. Degree Adverbs: (to what extent something happen) almost,
completely, quite, fully….
6. Certainty Adverbs: (how certain we are about something)
surely, no, not, clearly, maybe …..
7. Interrogative Adverbs: (used asking question) when, how,
where, why
8. Relative Adverbs: (used to introduce relative clauses) when,
where, why
9. Viewpoint/Attitude Adverbs: (make our judgement or attitude
about something clear) bravely, frankly, honestly…..
10. Conjunctive Adverbs: (link the ideas or cluses in spoken or
written text) further, next, in contrast
11. Focus Adverbs: (used to focus particular word) all, both,
even, just.

5. Pronoun
Pronouns are used in place of a noun that is already known or has
already been mentioned. This is often done in order
to avoid repeating the noun. For example:
Laura left early because she was tired.
Anthony brought the avocados with him.
That is the only option left.
Something will have to change.
Personal pronouns are used in place of nouns referring to specific
people or things, for example I, me, mine, you, yours,
his, her, hers, we, they, or them.
They can be divided into various different categories according to
their role in a sentence, as follows:
1. Personal Pronoun: I, We, you, he, she, it, they, me, us, him, her,
them, one, ones
2. Possessive Pronoun: mine, ours, yours, his, hers, its, theirs
3. Reflexive Pronoun: (They refer back to the subject later in the
sentence) myself, ourselves, yourself, yourselves, himself,
herself, itself
4. Demonstrative Pronoun: (They refer to people or things in
terms of space or within a text or dialogue) eg. This, that, these,
those
5. Indefinite pronoun: some, none, no one, someone, somebody,
something, anyone, anybody, anything, everyone, everybody,
nobody, somewhere, everywhere, anything else etc.
6. Interrogative Pronoun: (ask questions) eg. Who, whom, which,
what
7. Relative Pronoun: (introduce relative clause) eg. Who, whom,
which, that

6. 8. Reciprocal Pronoun: (used when two or more nouns are doing
or being the same to one another) eg. Each other, one another
• Don't get confused between pronoun and determiners
though many words can be the same.
• Pronouns always stand alone as they replace the nouns or
noun phrase, whereas determiners always precede nouns.
Eg: This is a boring book. (Pronoun)
This book is boring. (determiner)
The white car is mine. (Pronoun)
My car is white. (determiner)


Determiner
A determiner is a word that introduces a noun, such
as a/an, the, every, this, those, or many (as
in a dog, the dog, this dog, those dogs, every dog, many dogs).
The determiner the is sometimes known as the definite article and
the determiner a (or an) as the indefinite article.
Types:
1. Articles: a/an, the
2. Possessives: my, our, his, her, your, their, its, Ram's
3. Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
4. Numerals: one, two, five, first, second, fifth, next, last, other,
another
5. Quantifiers: some, any, enough, few, a few, little, a little, a lot of,
plenty of, much, many, more, most, all, half, twice, double,
both, several, each, every, either, no, neither
6. Multipliers: double, twice, three times, etc
7. Fractions: one-third, one-half, one-fifth, etc

7. 8. Partitives: glass of, slice of, bottle of, piece of, load of, litre of,
etc. .
9. Interrogative: what, which, whose (What day is it?, Whose coat
are you wearing?)
10. Relatives: which, whose, whatever, whichever, whosever,
whatever (I like the boy whose cap is red. You can use it for
whatever purpose you wish.)


Preposition
A preposition is a word such as after, in, to, on, and with.
Prepositions are usually used in front of nouns or pronouns and
they show the relationship between the noun or pronoun and other
words in a sentence. They describe, for example, the position of
something, the time when something happens, or the way in which
something is done.
Ram lives in Surkhet.
Single word: at, on, to, by, into, after, before, during, for, from, into,
of, over, then, through, under, with, without, etc.
Double words:
• Two-word prepositions: according to, out of
• Three-word Prepositions: in line with, on top of
• Four-word preposition: by the side of, in the course of

Conjunction
A conjunction (also called a connective) is a word such as and,
because, but, for, if, or, and when. Conjunctions are used to

8. connect phrases, clauses, and sentences. The two main kinds are
known as coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.
Eg: Sunita and Babita are friends.
He ran but the missed the bus.
Types:
1. Coordinating conjunction: (used to link or join two words or
phrases of equal importance or rank) for, and, nor, but, or, yet,
so (F-A-N-B-O-Y-S)
I told her to leave, for I was very tired.
There were then or twelve people in the room.
Her advice seems strange, yet I believe she's right.

2. Subordinating conjunctions: (used to join an independent
clause with a dependent clause.)although, though, since, until,
when, while, because if, etc
They are coming next week although I don't know which day.
3. Correlative conjunctions: (used in a sentence to join different
words or groups of words in a sentence together) eighter…. Or,
neither… nor, both….and, not only…..but also, whether….or,
rather….than, no sooner….than, if….than, just as…..as,
hardly…..when
She is not only beautiful but also intelligent.
I'd rather take tea than coffee.
Just as I love songs, so does my sister love music.


Exclamation/Interjection

9. An exclamation (also called an interjection) is a word or phrase that
expresses strong emotion, such as surprise, shock, delight pleasure,
or anger. Exclamations often stand on their own, and in writing they
are usually followed by an exclamation mark rather than a full stop.
Eg.
Oh! He fell off the ladder.
Ouch! That hurts!
Brave! You did well.
Hurrah! We've won.
Alas, she's dead now.
Kinds:
1. Interjections for greetings: Hello!, Hey!, Hi!, etc.
2. Interjections for joy/pleasure: Hurrah!, Hurray!, Wow!, Ah!, etc.
3. Interjection for approval: Bravo!, Brilliant!, Well done, etc.
4. Interjection for surprise: Ha1, Hey!, What!, Oh!, Ah!, Eh!, etc.
5. Interjection for grief/pain: Alas!, Ah!, Oh!, Ouch!, etc.

Multiple membership
Some words can belong to more than one class depending on
how they are used in a sentence. We call this multiple
membership of a word. Consider the following examples;
• Work: We work hard. (Verb)
▪ He is at work now. (noun)
• Play: They play chess together. (verb)
▪ I've been selected for the play. (noun)
• Fast: He has bought a fast car. (adjective)
▪ He runs fast. (adverb)
• Round: He was knocked out in the first round. (noun)
▪ He can round the tree on foot. (verb)
▪ I have a round table. (adjective)

10. ▪ When will you come round? (adverb)
▪ She walked round the building. (preposition)
• Laugh: We had a big laugh over his mistake. (Noun)
▪ Why do you laugh? (verb)
Conversion:
- Sometimes words primarily belonging to one class can
be converted into another class, which we call
conversion. For example, the word water primarily
belongs to the class of nouns, however it may be said to
be converted int a verb in contexts like;
Water (n)- Your eyes may water when you watch this
film. (verb)

Source: https://www.lexico.com/grammar/word-classes-or-parts-of-speech
And English Grammar Today (MS Saud)