REVIEW OF THE PARTS OF SPEECH

The Parts of Speech

• Nouns• Pronouns• Verbs• Adjectives• Adverbs• Prepositions• Conjunctions• Interjections

What is a Noun?

What is a Noun?

• A word used to name a person, animal, place, thing and abstract idea.

• Types of nouns:- common nouns - proper nouns- concrete nouns - abstract nouns- countable nouns - non-countable nouns

(mass nouns)- collective nouns - compound nouns

• Common nouns– Refer to a person, place, or thing in general

sense– E.g. people, city, river…

• Proper nouns– Write with a capital letter– Represent the name of a specific person, place,

or thing– E.g. Christopher, Kuala Lumpur, Mississippi

River…

• Concrete nouns– Refer to anything (or anyone) that you

can perceive through your physical senses

– E.g. book, chair, clerk

• Abstract nouns– Refer to anything that you cannot

perceive through your physical senses– E.g. childhood, happiness, love…

• Countable nouns– Can be in singular or plural forms– Refer to anything (or anyone) that you

can count– E.g. table, tables, baby, babies…

• Non-Countable nouns (Mass nouns)– Does not have a plural form– Refer to something you could not count– E.g. oxygen, water…

• Collective nouns– Refer to a group of things, animals, or

persons– Usually think the group as a unit – E.g. class, committee, swarm…

• Compound nouns– A noun made up of 2 or more words– E.g. shoelace, keyboard, flashlight…

Possessive nouns

• A noun changes its forms to show that it owns or is closely related to something else.

• Nouns > Possessive nouns– Add apostrophe [’] and the letter [s]

• Singular noun that does not end with ‘s’ Cassandra - Cassandra’s friend - friend’s

• Singular noun that ends with ‘s’ Chris - Chris’s / Chris’ bus - bus’s / bus’

• Plural noun that does not end with ‘s’ children - children’s sheep - sheep’s

• Plural noun that ends with ‘s’ dogs - dogs’ babies - babies’

Noun Plurals• Most nouns change their forms by adding ‘-s’

– E.g. dog - dogsbus - buses

• Nouns that end with -s, -ch, -sh, -x, or -z, add ‘-es’– E.g. witness - witnesses

church - churchesdish - dishesbox - boxesbuzz - buzzes

• Nouns that end with -y and the letter before -y is a vowel, add ‘-s’- e.g. boy - boys

key - keys

• Nouns that end with -y and the letter before -y is a consonant, change -y to -I and add ‘-es’- e.g. army - armies

baby - babies

• Nouns that end with -ff, add ‘-s’- e.g. tariff - tariffs

• Nouns that end with -f or -fe:- Some become plural by replacing -f to

-v and adding -s or -es• E.g. knife - knives wife - wives

half - halves leaf - leaves

- Some become plural by only adding -s• E.g. belief - beliefs proof - proofs

Noun Gender

• Masculine– E.g. Peter, actor, waiter…

• Feminine– E.g. Sarah, actress, waitress…

• Common– E.g. teacher, doctor,

engineer…

• Neuter– E.g. table, chair, book…

VERBS

What is a Verb?

• Assert something about the subject of the sentence

• Express actions, events, or states of being

• Action verbs, Compound verbs, Auxiliary verbs, Linking verbs

• Action verbs: identify physical or mental activities– Dracula bites his victims on the neck

• Auxiliary verbs: is, are, was, were, will…

• Compound verbs: combination of auxiliary verb and action verb– The book Seema was looking for is under the sofa.

• Linking verbs: connects a subject to a subject complement which identifies or describes the subject.– The play is Waiting for Godot.

ADVERBS

What is an Adverb?

• a word or phrase that modifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word-group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc.

• Usually identifiable by ‘ly’ suffix: unfortunately, quickly, beautifully…– Unfortunately, the bank closed at three today.– The students waited patiently through the long

hours.– He turned up unexpectedly.

Conjunctive Adverbs

• To join two clauses together.• Common conjunctive adverbs:

– hence, however, therefore, then, thus, nevertheless, consequently, finally…

• With the aid of semicolon [;]– He did not have all the ingredients the

recipe called for; therefore, he decided to make something else.

PRONOUNS

What is a Pronoun?• Can replace a noun or another pronoun.

• To make your sentences less cumbersome and less repetitive

• Personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, interrogative pronoun, indefinite pronoun, relative pronoun, reflexive pronoun, intensive pronoun

Personal Pronoun

• Personal Pronouns

– refer to a specific person or thing and changes its form to indicate person, number, gender and case

• Subjective Personal Pronouns

– The pronoun is acting as the subject of the sentence: I, you, she, he, it, we, they

– They returned to their homeland.

• Objective Personal Pronouns

– The pronoun is acting as the object: me, you, her, him, it, us, them

– Give the list to me.

• Possessive Personal Pronouns

– The pronoun is acting as a marker of possession and defines who owns a particular object or person: mine, yours, hers, his, its, ours, theirs

– The smallest gift is mine.

• Demonstrative Pronouns– Identifies a noun or pronoun: this, that, these, those

– Subject or object

• That is the tree I want.

• Three customers wanted these.

• Interrogative Pronouns– Used to ask questions: who, whom, which, what

[compounds formed with the suffix “ever”: whoever, whomever, whichever, whatever

• Who wrote the novel?

• Relative Pronouns– Link one phrase or clause to another phrase or clause: who,

that, which…

• You may invite whomever you like to the party.

• Indefinite Pronouns– Referring to an identifiable but not specified person or thing.

– Conveys ideas of all, any, none, or some; any, anybody, everything, someone…

– Everything was thrown on the floor.

• Reflexive Pronouns– To refer back to the subject of the clause or sentence:

myself, yourself, themselves…• We ended up painting the apartment ourselves.

• Intensive Pronouns– To emphasize its antecedent: myself, yourself,

themselves…• I myself believe that aliens should abduct my brother.

ADJECTIVES

• An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun

• It describes a quality or state of an object, usually relating to taste, colour, size, shape or judgments.– E.g. pretty, ugly, good, bad…

Categories of Adjectives

• Possessive Adjectives– Refer to the owners– My, your, her, his, their, its, our

• Those are their bags.• Our house is on the hill.

• Demonstrative Adjectives– Point out which person or thing is being described– This, these, that, those

• That studio is close.• These cows need some care.

• Quantitative / Indefinite Adjectives– To show how much of the thing is being

described– Many, few, several, some…

• She wants some salt.• They lost all their property.

• Descriptive Adjectives– To show the kind or quality of persons or

things– Thin, dirty, short, wet…

• That tall building is for sale.• She bought a beautiful painting.

• Interrogative Adjectives– Used with nouns to ask questions.– Which, what, whose

• What method did you use?• Which car did he buy?

CONJUCTIONS• Used to link words, phrases, clauses or

sentences.

• Coordinating conjunctions– To link 2 individual unit of the same category (2

words, 2 phrases, 2 clauses)– And, but, or, yet…

• Jude and Susie saved the boy. (nouns)• My sister did not call or write to my parents. (verbs)• The game was good but slow. (adjectives)• Twenty-three plants were planted, but only twenty are

alive. (clauses)

• Subordinating Conjunctions– To join and show the relationship between

dependent clauses and independent clauses.

– After, although, because, before, since, until…

• Unless you save some money, you will not be able to buy a car.

• If my father comes before ten, he will take us to the library.

• Correlative Conjunctions– Appear in pairs– Link equivalent sentence elements– Either…or, neither…nor, so…as, not

only…but also, whether…or,…• The customer wanted either a soft drink or a hot

drink.• The landslide destroyed not only the bungalow

but also the fruit trees.

PREPOSITIONS

• To show relationship between a noun or pronoun that follows it, and another word in the same sentence.

• To show the position of a subject or where it is located.

• Simple prepositions– In, on, till, with, at, for, from, up, out…

• Compound prepositions– Among, inside, outside, across,

without, around, below…

• Phrasal prepositions– Instead of, in comparison to, in favour

of, with references to…

Functions of Prepositions

• Time– To indicate the time or duration of the

activities• We have to wait until the meeting is over.

• Place or position– To indicate the place of the activities

• The competitors are from Brunei.

• Direction– To indicate the direction of the verb

• She is going down the hill.

• Manner– To indicate the manner or the verb

• I sang the song with courage.

• Similarity– To indicate similarity between a comparison

• He talks like a professor.

• Agent– To act as an agent

• The movie was directed by Samson.

• Measure– To show the amount or rate

• She is shorter than you by 4cm.

• Accompaniment– To show accompaniment

• Can you go with him?

• Reason– To show cause or reason

• He was late because of the rain.

• Possession– To show possession

• Their players are with yellow shorts.

DETERMINERS

• Words that ‘determine’ nouns• Articles

– a / an ( indefinite articles)• a: consonants• an: vowels

– the (definite articles)• I want a book.• I want the book.

• Demonstratives– Refer to something that is known and specific– Point out the thing that a noun refers to.– This, that, these, those

• This is our house.• Those boys come here every Friday.

• Possessives– Used before nouns to indicate ownership– My, your, his, her, its, our, their

• This is my car.

• WH-determiners– To indicate that noun phrase is the focus of

questions– Which (persons & things)

• Which is your bicycle?• Which boy are you referring to?

– Whose (possessive form of who & which)• I don’t care whose fault it was.

– What (things only)• What is your ambition?

INTERJECTIONS

• Brief expressions to express strong or sudden feelings or emotion.

• Punctuated by an exclamation mark [!]

• No grammatical connection but help to create atmosphere or mood for the sentence.– Ouch! Hey! Yes! Damn!

Well done! Look out!