Common english word parts

A reader asks about the terms prefix, root, and suffix, and wonders how to distinguish them in a word.

At the most basic level, words are made up of units of meaning called morphemes. A morpheme may be a recognizable word like tree, run, or button that cannot be broken down into smaller meaningful parts.

A morpheme can represent meaning without being a word. For example, the prefix un- expresses the idea of negation. The suffix -ness, used to turn adjectives into abstract nouns, is a morpheme. The root struct, seen in structure and construct, is a morpheme that embodies the meaning of “to build,” but it cannot stand alone as an English word.

A root is a word’s basic part and carries its fundamental meaning. In the word sadness, for example, the root is sad. Sometimes two roots combine to make one word, as in telephone, a combination of the morpheme tele, which relates to distance, and the morpheme phone, which relates to sound.

Prefixes and suffixes belong to a set of morphemes called affixes. An affix is an element added to the base form or stem of a word to modify its meaning.

Standard English makes use of two types of affix: prefixes and suffixes. A prefix is added at the beginning of a word. For example, the prefix re- is added to a root or a word to denote the idea of doing it again: return, renew, reconstruct.

A suffix is added at the end of a word.

Suffixes are of two kinds, derivational and inflectional. A derivational suffix changes the underlying meaning of the word; an inflectional suffix changes the tense of a verb or the number of a noun, or performs some other grammatical purpose.

Some common derivational suffixes are, -er, -al, -ful, and -ize. The suffix -er added to a verb creates a person or object that performs the action of the verb: teach/teacher, walk/walker, kill/killer, compute/computer; -al and -ful change nouns into adjectives: accident/accidental, forget/forgetful; -ize changes a noun into a verb: terror/terrorize.

Common inflectional suffixes are endings such as, –ed, -ly, -‘s, -s, -er, -ed, -es, -est, and -ing.

Derivational endings are added to a root. For example, the word reconstruction is made up of the root struct, two prefixes, re- and con-, and a suffix, tion. (Because struct ends in t and tion begins with t, one of the ts had to go.)

Inflectional endings are added to a stem, which is the entire word that the ending is being added to. In the words reconstructed and reconstructing, for example, the stem is reconstruct-.

A part of speech is a term used in traditional grammar for one of the nine main categories into which words are classified according to their functions in sentences, such as nouns or verbs. Also known as word classes, these are the building blocks of grammar.

Every sentence you write or speak in English includes words that fall into some of the nine parts of speech. These include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections. (Some sources include only eight parts of speech and leave interjections in their own category.)

Learning the names of the parts of speech probably won’t make you witty, healthy, wealthy, or wise. In fact, learning just the names of the parts of speech won’t even make you a better writer. However, you will gain a basic understanding of sentence structure and the English language by familiarizing yourself with these labels.

Open and Closed Word Classes

The parts of speech are commonly divided into open classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and closed classes (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections). The idea is that open classes can be altered and added to as language develops and closed classes are pretty much set in stone. For example, new nouns are created every day, but conjunctions never change.

In contemporary linguistics, the label part of speech has generally been discarded in favor of the term word class or syntactic category. These terms make words easier to qualify objectively based on word construction rather than context. Within word classes, there is the lexical or open class and the function or closed class.

Read about each part of speech below and get started practicing identifying each.

Noun

Nouns are a person, place, thing, or idea. They can take on a myriad of roles in a sentence, from the subject of it all to the object of an action. They are capitalized when they’re the official name of something or someone, called proper nouns in these cases. Examples: pirate, Caribbean, ship, freedom, Captain Jack Sparrow.

Pronoun

Pronouns stand in for nouns in a sentence. They are more generic versions of nouns that refer only to people. Examples:​ I, you, he, she, it, ours, them, who, which, anybody, ourselves.

Verb

Verbs are action words that tell what happens in a sentence. They can also show a sentence subject’s state of being (is, was). Verbs change form based on tense (present, past) and count distinction (singular or plural). Examples: sing, dance, believes, seemed, finish, eat, drink, be, became

Adjective

Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. They specify which one, how much, what kind, and more. Adjectives allow readers and listeners to use their senses to imagine something more clearly. Examples: hot, lazy, funny, unique, bright, beautiful, poor, smooth.

Adverb

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and even other adverbs. They specify when, where, how, and why something happened and to what extent or how often. Examples: softly, lazily, often, only, hopefully, softly, sometimes.

Preposition

Prepositions show spacial, temporal, and role relations between a noun or pronoun and the other words in a sentence. They come at the start of a prepositional phrase, which contains a preposition and its object. Examples: up, over, against, by, for, into, close to, out of, apart from.

Conjunction

Conjunctions join words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. There are coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions. Examples: and, but, or, so, yet, with.

Articles and Determiners

Articles and determiners function like adjectives by modifying nouns, but they are different than adjectives in that they are necessary for a sentence to have proper syntax. Articles and determiners specify and identify nouns, and there are indefinite and definite articles. Examples: articles: a, an, the; determiners: these, that, those, enough, much, few, which, what.

Some traditional grammars have treated articles as a distinct part of speech. Modern grammars, however, more often include articles in the category of determiners, which identify or quantify a noun. Even though they modify nouns like adjectives, articles are different in that they are essential to the proper syntax of a sentence, just as determiners are necessary to convey the meaning of a sentence, while adjectives are optional.

Interjection

Interjections are expressions that can stand on their own or be contained within sentences. These words and phrases often carry strong emotions and convey reactions. Examples: ah, whoops, ouch, yabba dabba do!

How to Determine the Part of Speech

Only interjections (Hooray!) have a habit of standing alone; every other part of speech must be contained within a sentence and some are even required in sentences (nouns and verbs). Other parts of speech come in many varieties and may appear just about anywhere in a sentence.

To know for sure what part of speech a word falls into, look not only at the word itself but also at its meaning, position, and use in a sentence.

For example, in the first sentence below, work functions as a noun; in the second sentence, a verb; and in the third sentence, an adjective:

• Bosco showed up for work two hours late.
  • The noun work is the thing Bosco shows up for.
• He will have to work until midnight.
  • The verb work is the action he must perform.
• His work permit expires next month.
  • The attributive noun [or converted adjective] work modifies the noun permit.

Learning the names and uses of the basic parts of speech is just one way to understand how sentences are constructed.

Dissecting Basic Sentences

To form a basic complete sentence, you only need two elements: a noun (or pronoun standing in for a noun) and a verb. The noun acts as a subject and the verb, by telling what action the subject is taking, acts as the predicate. 

• Birds fly.

In the short sentence above, birds is the noun and fly is the verb. The sentence makes sense and gets the point across.

You can have a sentence with just one word without breaking any sentence formation rules. The short sentence below is complete because it’s a command to an understood «you».

• Go!

Here, the pronoun, standing in for a noun, is implied and acts as the subject. The sentence is really saying, «(You) go!»

Constructing More Complex Sentences

Use more parts of speech to add additional information about what’s happening in a sentence to make it more complex. Take the first sentence from above, for example, and incorporate more information about how and why birds fly.

• Birds fly when migrating before winter.

Birds and fly remain the noun and the verb, but now there is more description. 

When is an adverb that modifies the verb fly. The word before is a little tricky because it can be either a conjunction, preposition, or adverb depending on the context. In this case, it’s a preposition because it’s followed by a noun. This preposition begins an adverbial phrase of time (before winter) that answers the question of when the birds migrate. Before is not a conjunction because it does not connect two clauses.

What are word parts?[edit | edit source]

First, try to answer these questions by filling in the blanks:

1. To ‘redo’ means: to do ____ (Answer)

2. The word which starts the same as ‘careful’, but means its opposite is: ____ (Answer)

3. If John is 2 metres tall and Harry is 1.8 metres tall, then John is tall__ than Harry. (Answer)

If you answered these questions right, then this shows that you already know a bit about word parts.

Knowing what they mean and how they work is a very powerful tool.

What types of word parts are there?[edit | edit source]

Prefixes[edit | edit source]

Look at these words:

rename, restart, redesign

1. Where does ‘re-‘ go in these words and what does it mean? (Answer)

A word part which always features at the front of a word is called a prefix (pronounced: PREE-fikz).

Place a possible prefix before these words and start to think about how it changes the meaning of the word (the first one has been done for you):

2. kind

(unkind)

The prefix is: un- (make sure you remember the dash after a prefix)

3. polite

(________)

The prefix is: (Answer)

4. fire

(_______)

The prefix is: (Answer)

5. come

(________)

The prefix is: (Answer)

6. mature

(_________)

The prefix is: (Answer)

Suffixes[edit | edit source]

Now look at these words:

fearless, careless, hatless

1. Where does ‘-less’ go in these words and what does it mean? (Answer)

A word part which always features at the end of a word is called a suffix (pronounced: SUFF-ikz).

Test your suffix knowledge and continue thinking about how it changes the meaning of the word (the first one has been done for you):

2. If Alex is heavier than everyone, then he is the: heaviest

The suffix is: -est (make sure you remember to write the dash «-» before a suffix)

3. The process of attracting is called: ______

The suffix is: _____ (Answer)

4. If someone takes a lot of care, then they are described as: ________

The suffix is: _____ (Answer)

5. If someone is without fear, then they are: ________

The suffix is: _____ (Answer)

6. If someone is kind, they they usually show: ________

The suffix is: _____ (Answer)

Roots[edit | edit source]

Finally, there are the main parts of words called roots.

Roots usually appear in the middle of words, but that’s NOT a good way to think about them.

Look at these examples to see why:

• -dict- is the root of: predict, dictate, and diction
  • In these examples, -dict- is at the front and end of words.

• -port- is the root of: imports, exported, and transportation
  • In these examples, -port- is in the middle of words.

(Notice how when we write a root, we put a dash «-» on both sides. Beware that some authors don’t and would just write ‘port’, though.)

Here are two key points to help you tell if a word part is a root:

POINT 1

First, notice how prefixes and suffixes can never stand on their own.

We don’t say: un-, re-, -ness, or -tion

On the other hand, roots might stand on their own.

We do say: kind, fear, and come.

We don’t say: dict

(We do say over- as ‘over’ and ‘-less’ as ‘less’, but this is an example of a prefix and suffix which have the same spelling as a root. Now you see a reason why we ALWAYS put the dashes with them.)

POINT 2

Second, notice how roots carry the main meaning of a word and are what we attach the prefixes and suffixes to.

Try to identify the roots in these words (the first one has been done for you):

1. For antimatter, the root is -matter-

2. For misfire, the root is: ______ (Answer)

3. For transport, export, and support, the root of all of them is: ______ (Answer)

4. For talk, talked, and talking, the root of all of them is: ______ (Answer)

5. For success, access, and recession, the root of all of them is: ______ (Answer)

So, remind yourself that the three types of parts of words are:

6. ______, ______, and ____ (Answer)

Watch out for rules![edit | edit source]

You may have been thinking about rules which tell you how prefixes, suffixes, and roots work.

Remember that English has no rules that work in ALL cases.

For instance, we get the plural of egg, tree, and hand by putting the suffix -s on the end:

eggs, trees, hands

But, we DON’T get the plural of goose that way (after all, it’s geese).

Here are 5 key points for you to remember about making and applying rules concerning word parts.

Make sure you think of other cases where they apply.

Rule 1: Use sense and not just spelling[edit | edit source]

re- is a prefix that means ‘again’, right?

So, what about ‘red’, ‘reck’, and ‘really?’

Well, spelling doesn’t tell you everything!

You can look for clues in pronunciation.

For instance, we usually say re- as «REE»; but this isn’t foolproof either, because of how we say ‘really.’

Start thinking about things to do with the sense of a word such as whether or not you can replace re- with other prefixes (like how ‘redo’ could be changed to ‘undo’).

Is it like this for suffixes, too?

Absolutely. Just think about how -ing is a suffix, but how it clearly isn’t a suffix for the words ‘sing’ and ‘thing.’

Rule 2: You cannot add prefixes and suffixes to everything[edit | edit source]

For the root -do-, we can attach prefixes and get:

redo, undo, overdo

Think for a moment about some prefixes we can’t attach to it (and look in the answer key for some possible answers):

1. _________ (Answer)

Is it like this for suffixes, too?

Just consider the word ‘fun.’

If an activity is more fun than every other activity, do we say it is the ‘funnest’ activity? No.

Rule 3: You cannot take prefixes and suffixes off everything[edit | edit source]

Which one can you NOT take the prefix anti- off?

antimatter, anticipate, antisocial

1. __________ (Answer)

Which one can you NOT take the prefix re- off?

redesign, resend, receive

2. __________ (Answer)

So, we cannot always take prefixes off words and be left with words.

Suffixes are a bit more complicated, because there are two types; one which you can nearly always take off, and one which you nearly always can’t.

We will talk more about this later; but for now, just don’t assume that you can always take a suffix off a word.

(Okay, that’s three helpful rules learned. I hope you are remembering to think of your own examples or this stuff won’t stick!)

Rule 4: Word parts can have more than one meaning[edit | edit source]

The ‘un-‘ in ‘unhappy’ has a different meaning to the un- in ‘undress’.

In the first case, ‘un-‘ means ‘not.’

In the second case, it just means ‘reversal.’

So, don’t make the mistake of believing that you will know the meaning of a word part after meeting it just once.

Rule 5: A word part can be spelled in more than one way[edit | edit source]

For prefixes, look at ‘in-‘, which means ‘not’, as in ‘injustice.’

1. What do we put before ‘possible’ to mean ‘not possible?’ (Answer)

For roots, look at ‘-vis-‘, which means ‘see’, as in ‘visual.’

Now consider that it can also be spelled ‘-vid-‘, as in ‘video.’

For suffixes, look at ‘-s’, which makes plurals, as in ‘eggs.’

2. But, what do we put at the end of ‘box’ to make it plural? (Answer)

So, remember that a word part can be spelled in more than one way.

Go over these five rules again before moving onto the next subsection.

In summary:

Be careful, because word parts CAN have multiple meanings, multiple spellings, and CAN’T be swapped, chopped off, or attached haphazardly.

The parts of speech[edit | edit source]

Sentences are made up of different types of words and each type has its own job to do in the sentence.

We call these types ‘parts of speech.’

There are lots of different ones, but we will look at the four main types.

Noun[edit | edit source]

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

A common noun names a general item (like ‘dog’ or ‘happiness’).

A proper noun names a particular item (a particular person, particular place, particular thing,…) and always begins with a capital letter (like ‘Josh’ or ‘London’).

Anna is going to Germany on Friday and will take her bicycle on the journey.

The common nouns in this sentence are:

1. __________ (Answer)

The proper nouns in this sentence are:

2. __________ (Answer)

Nouns have a singular form (like: egg, hand, goose) and a plural form (like: eggs, hands, geese).

Finally, a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun (so we don’t have to repeat it).

Examples include: she, he, they, it

When she goes to Germany, she will take her bike, because it has excellent cycling roads.

The pronouns in this sentence are:

3. __________ (Answer)

Adjective[edit | edit source]

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.

When it is cold and snowy, wear thick, black clothes.

The adjectives in this sentence are:

1. __________ (Answer)

Adjectives can be modified to make comparisons:

The comparative (pronounced: kom-PAH-ruh-tiv) of:

• tall is taller
• red is redder
• fun is more fun
• difficult is more difficult

The superlative (pronounced: soo-PURR-luh-tiv) of:

• tall is tallest
• red is reddest
• fun is most fun
• difficult is most difficult

Verb[edit | edit source]

A verb is a doing or action word.

Jack always runs to school while Anna eats her breakfast.

1. What are the verbs in this sentence? (Answer)

Verbs are quite complicated.

What is most important to us is learning the FORMS of a verb, because this is where suffixes feature.

As an example, the forms of ‘initiate’ are: initiate, initiates, initiated, initiating

We will look further into this in lesson 2.

Adverb[edit | edit source]

An adverb is a word that that modifies a verb, adjective, or even another adverb.

An adverb answers how, when, where, or to what extent.

I always do my work extremely carefully.

The adverbs in this sentence are:

1. __________ (Answer)

Notice how they often end in the suffix ‘-ly’.

Here are some more examples of adverbs: daily, completely, almost, often, never, soon, cleverly

Lesson 1 Quiz[edit | edit source]

If there was anything you didn’t understand, read it once more, because here’s a quiz (that you should try to get perfect before lesson 2):

1. What are the three main types of word parts?

2. What is the common root of ‘audio’, ‘audible’, and ‘audience’, and what do you think it means?

3. Deconstruct the word ‘prefixes’ into its word parts.

4. Which prefix can be found in the opposite to ‘increase?’

5. ‘non-believer’ features the prefix ‘non-‘ but keeps the dash. Are there examples where id doesn’t?

6. Does ‘over-‘ just mean ‘physically above’, as in ‘overhang’?

7. How else can you spell the suffix ‘-y’ (as in mess -> messy)?

8. What are the four main types of parts of speech?

9. Think of examples of adverbs that don’t end in ‘-ly.’

10. Think of three words that have more than one type of part of speech.

(Answers)

Answer Key[edit | edit source]

What are word parts? (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. again

2. careless

3. er (making the word ‘taller’)

What types of word parts are there? (Answers)[edit | edit source]

Prefixes (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. At the front and it means ‘again’.

2. (Already done as an example)

3. impolite; the prefix is: im-

4. misfire; the prefix is: mis-

5. overcome; the prefix is: over-

6. premature; the prefix is: pre-

Suffixes (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. At the end.

2. (Already done as an example)

3. attraction; the suffix is: -tion

4. careful; the suffix is: -ful

5. fearless; the suffix is: -less

6. kindness; the suffix is: -ness

Roots (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. (Already done as an example)

2. -fire-

3. -port-

4. -talk-

5. -cess-

6. prefix, suffix, and root

Watch out for rules! (Answers)[edit | edit source]

Rule 2: You cannot add prefixes and suffixes to everything (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. subdo, interdo, predo

Rule 3: You cannot take prefixes and suffixes off everything (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. anticipate

2. receive

Rule 5: A word part can be spelled in more than one way (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. im-, as in ‘impossible’

2. -es, as in ‘boxes’

The parts of speech (Answers)[edit | edit source]

Noun (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. bicycle, journey

2. Anna, Germany, Friday

3. she, it

Adjective (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. cold, snowy, thick, black

Adverb (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. extremely, carefully

Lesson 1 Quiz (Answers)[edit | edit source]

(Go back to questions)

1. prefix, root, suffix

2. -audi-, it means ‘hearing’ or ‘listening’

3. ‘pre-‘ is the prefix; ‘-fix-‘ is the root; ‘-es’ is the suffix

4. ‘de-‘ is the suffix, as in ‘decrease’

5. ‘nonprofit’ (if your example was different, check a dictionary)

6. No. It may also mean ‘excess’, as in ‘overambitious’, or ‘outer’, as in ‘overcoat.’

7. ‘-ey’, as in ‘clayey.’

8. noun, verb, adjective, adverb

9. often, soon

10. ‘abstract’ can be a noun or adjective. ‘fool’ can be a noun or verb. ‘set’ can be a noun, adjective, or verb.

Так уж сложилось, что издавна во всех языках словообразование играло одну из первостепенных ролей. Обозначение разных частей речи и их название стало неким этапом в эволюции языка и языкознания.

Также как и в современном русском языке, каждое слово в английском принадлежит определенной части речи (part of speech), то есть категории слов, обладающих своими характерными признаками.

Part of speech — one of the grammatical groups, such as noun, verb, and adjective, into which words are divided depending on their use

Английские части речи классифицируются по синтаксической функции, грамматическому значению и форме. Следовательно, существуют самостоятельные (notional) и служебные (functional) части речи. Но в отличие от русского языка, в английском есть «переходные зоны» между частями речи. То есть одно и то же слово может выступать в роли разных частей речи. И в данном случае опорой служит сам контекст, а не форма слова.

Распознавание или предугадывание частей речи по контексту очень важный навык, если вы готовитесь к сдаче ЕГЭ или международных экзаменов. Понимание частей речи, безусловно, облегчит выполнение заданий в разы, а хорошая система подготовки определенно сыграет свою роль. В качестве помощи команда онлайн-школы Инглиш Шоу разработала курсы по подготовке к разнообразным экзаменам, начиная с ЕГЭ и заканчивая TOEFL или IELTS. Узнать, как это работает очень просто – стоит только записаться на бесплатный пробный урок и проверить эффективность обучения с преподавателем на себе!

Самостоятельные части речи в английском языке

Если у слова есть свое собственное лексическое значение, то его без сомнений можно отнести к самостоятельным частям речи. Произнося его, сразу становится понятен смысл слова. К самостоятельным частям речи в английском языке относятся:

Имя существительное (Noun)

Грамматика и теория русского языка даёт нам следующее определение существительного: оно называет людей, животных, места, абстрактные понятия, предметы. И для него характерно отвечать на вопросы: «Кто?» или «Что?».

В английском существительные бывают разные:

• Common – нарицательные
  Например: person – человек, teacher – учитель, log – бревно
• Proper – собственные
  Например: Stephen, Italy, America, Saturn
• Compound – составные (состоящими из двух корней)
  Например: post office – почтовое отделение, car park – парковка, textbook – учебник, bookcase – книжный шкаф
• Abstract – абстрактные
  Например: beauty – красота, intelligence – ум, democracy – демократия
• Collective – собирательные
  Например: family – семья, flock — стая, herd – стадо

Кроме этого, в английском есть четкое разделение на исчисляемые (countable) и неисчисляемые (uncountable). Исчисляемые они потому что их можно посчитать поштучно и все они имеют форму как единственного, так и множественного числа. И перед существительным в единственном числе мы ставим артикль (a/an).

Например:

• I have got an orange and a banana.
  У меня есть апельсин и банан.
• There are a lot of cookies in this bowl.
  В этой тарелке много печенья.

Стоит отметить, что к неисчисляемым существительным в основном относятся жидкости, сыпучие продукты, абстрактные понятия или те, которые существуют либо только в единственном, либо во множественном числе.

Например:

• I don’t have much money.
  У меня немного денег.
• I like listening rock music.
  Я люблю слушать рок музыку.
• There is some rice in the bowl.
  В тарелке есть немного риса.
• Give me some information upon this case.
  Предоставь мне информацию по этому случаю.

Существительные в английском образуются с помощью определенных суффиксов, по которым вы легко сможете определить эту часть речи:

• ance: disturbance, relevance
• ence: reference, occurrence
• ity: complexity, scarcity
• ment: disappointment, achievement
• acy/cy: accuracy
• age: percentage, breakage
• an: Russian, American
• dom: kingdom, freedom
• hood: motherhood, brotherhood

В предложении эта часть речи может выполнять функции как подлежащего (subject), дополнения (object) или функцию complement (дополнения) внутри именного сказуемого.

Например:

• We have accepted the invitation for the party.
  
  (We – subject; invitation – object)
  Мы приняли приглашение на вечеринку.

Вне всяких сомнений, существует ещё множество других нюансов, которые необходимо знать о существительных. Например, важно правильно образовывать множественное число. Об этом мы рассказывали в ролике:

Имя прилагательное (Adjective)

Мы используем прилагательные для описания существительных, то есть они характеризуют признаки предмета, человека или события. И отвечают на вопросы: «Какая?», «Какие?» и т.д.

В английском прилагательные подразделяются по степеням сравнения и бывают:

• Положительной степени (Positive form)
• Сравнительной степени (Comparative form)
• Превосходной степени (Superlative form)

Например:

• large – larger – the largest
  большой – больше – самый большой

Более подробно со всеми правилами эта тема разобрана в нашей статье 👉 Степени сравнения прилагательных

Очень часто в предложении можно встретить описание из нескольких прилагательных, в таком случае они расположены в определенном порядке:

judgement – size – shape – age – colour – origin – material – purpose – noun
суждение – размер – форма – возраст – цвет – происхождение – материал – цель – существительное

💡 Чтобы было легче запомнить, ловите подсказку: чем прилагательное субъективнее, тем дальше оно от самого существительного.

Например:

• There is a small, old, blue, plastic table.
  Это маленький, старый, голубой, пластиковый стол.
• I am a short, young, blue-eyed person.
  Я молодой человек среднего роста с голубыми глазами.

Глагол (Verb)

Как мы помним со школьной скамьи, глагол – это слово «действие», которое характеризуется вопросами: «Что делать?», «Что сделать?» и так далее.

Вместе с подлежащим он представляет главные члены предложения и образует грамматическую основу.

Классификация глаголов в английском:

• Semi-auxiliary – служебные
• Auxiliary — вспомогательные
• Notional – смысловые

Также очень важным моментом является то, что в английском глаголы подразделяют на:

• Transitive – переходные (за которым следует объект или дополнение)
  She is cooking the dinner.
  Она готовит обед.
• Intransitive – непереходные (которые не требуют после себя какого-либо дополнения, они просто характеризуют само действие)
  He slept late this morning.
  Он спал допоздна этим утром.

Ну и конечно же глаголы могут быть разных форм:

• Infinitive – инфинитив или неопределенная форма глагола, в английском используется с частичкой to. Если без неё, то это будет форма bare infinitive (голый инфинитив).

  Например: to go – идти, to cry – плакать, to unearth – раскопать

• Base form – первоначальная форма, это тот же инфинитив, но используемый уже без частички to.
• Past Simple form – форма прошедшего времени

  И здесь стоит сказать, что существуют правильные (regular) и неправильные (irregular) глаголы.

  Неправильные глаголы собраны в таблицу и их просто нужно выучить для правильного употребления в речи. А правильные глаголы образуют форму прошедшего времени путем добавления -ed.

• Past Participle – причастие прошедшего времени, это третий столбик в таблице неправильных глаголов.

  Примеры: beaten – побитый, broken — сломанный

  Или если глагол правильный, то он образует вторую и третью формы с помощью окончания -ed.

  Примеры: play — played, study — studied, watch — watched

• Present Participle – причастие настоящего времени, это глагол с -ing или как его ещё называют — герундий.

  Например: hoping- надеющийся, studying – обучающийся

Наречие (Adverb)

В целом, наречия в отличие от прилагательных характеризуют действия или глаголы и отвечают на вопросы: «Как?», «Где?», «Когда?», «Почему?», «Каким образом?».

Классификация наречий:

• Manner – наречие образа действия:
  Well – хорошо, slowly — медленно
• Place – места:
  Above – над, here – здесь
• Time – времени:
  Now – сейчас, then – тогда, soon – вскоре
• Degree – степени:
  Very – очень, really – реально, quite – достаточно
• Frequency – частоты:
  Once – однажды, twice – дважды

В основном наречия образуются с помощью суффикса -ly, который так сказать «определитель» для этой части речи, но, как вы заметили, исключения всегда имеют место быть.

Местоимение (Pronoun)

Судя по названию, местоимения мы используем вместо имён, то есть вместо имён собственных, предметов или качеств предмета.

В английском языке существуют следующие классы местоимений:

• Object pronouns – личные, выступающие в роли объекта: me, him, her, it, us, you, them
  He met me at the park yesterday.
  Он встретил меня вчера в парке.
• Subject pronouns – личные, выступающие в роли субъекта: I, he, you, she, we, it, they
  They used to play tennis 10 years ago.
  Они имели обыкновение играть в теннис 10 лет назад.
• Reflexive pronouns – возвратные: himself, herself, ourselves, myself
  We decided to do it by ourselves.
  Мы решили это сделать сами.
• Demonstrative pronouns – указательные: those, this, that, these
  These are your pieces of equipment.
  Вот это твоё оборудование.
• Possessive pronouns – притяжательные: hers, his, mine, yours
  These shoes are mine!
  Это мои туфли!
• Relative pronouns – относительные: who, which, that, whose
  This was the man who stole your wallet.
  Это тот мужчина, который украл у тебя кошелёк.

Числительные (Numerals)

Числительные показывают порядок предметов при счете и их количество. Для них характерными являются вопросы: «Сколько?» или «Который по счету?». Также, как и в русском языке, они бывают:

• Cardinal numbers – количественными:
  
  one, six, thirty, one hundred
• Ordinal numbers – порядковыми:
  
  first – первый, second – второй, third – третий, fourth – четвертый

Образование порядковых числительных происходит с помощью окончания -th, начиная с числа 4, а первые три числа нужно просто запомнить.

Служебные части речи в английском языке

Исходя из названия можно догадаться, что служебные части речи выполняют вспомогательную функцию и, так сказать, служат самостоятельным частям речи.

Служебных частей речи не так уж много:

• Article – артикль
• Conjunction – союз
• Preposition – предлог
• Paticles — частицы
• Interjections — междометия

Cоюз (Сonjunction)

Союзы служат соединительными словами-связками, это своего рода взаимодействие однородных членов предложения. Или же они выполняют роль соединения предложений между собой.

• Conjunctions for words of the same class (Союзы для однородных частей речи):
  
  and, but, or, nor, yet
• Conjunctions for clauses of sentences (Союзы для частей предложения):
  as soon as, before, since, until, when, because, although, unless, so, where

Предлоги (Prepositions)

Как правило, предлоги показывают отношение существительного или местоимения к другим словам в предложении. Существуют такие категории, как:

• Place – предлоги места:
  
  in, at, on, by, above, over
• Movement – предлоги движения:
  
  from, to, in, into, on, onto, by, out, through
• Time – предлоги времени:
  at, on, by, before, in, from, since, during, until

Сложность выбора предлогов заключается в том, что нет строгой однозначности в их использовании. Поэтому хорошим советом здесь будет: Practise, practise & practise! Подробнее про предлоги места и времени читайте в нашей статье: predlogi-mesta-i-vremeni

Артикли (Аrticles)

В английском существует всего лишь два типа артиклей, по сравнению с другими романо-германскими языками, в которых их гораздо больше.

1. Definite article – определенный артикль – the

   Используется в том случае, если субъект или объект являются определенными по ситуации или единственными в своем роде.

   Например:

   The football is blue.
   Мячик является голубым. (Именно конкретный мячик)

   The sun is shining brightly.
   Солнце ярко светит. (Единственное в своем роде – the sun)

2. Indefinite article – неопределенный артикль – a/an

   Данный артикль может употребляться только с исчисляемыми существительными и в единственном числе. То есть он просто служит неким обозначением предмета в единственном числе. Поэтому нужно быть предельно внимательными при его использовании.

   Например:

   A lotus is a flower.
   Лотус – это цветок.

Более подробно про артикли читайте в нашей следующей статье: artikli-v-anglijskom-jazyke

Частицы (Paticles)

Частицы имеют свойство придавать словам дополнительные оттенки, значение. Они не имеют грамматических категорий, а также не являются членами предложения. Давайте посмотрим, какие же существуют классификации частиц:

• Limiting — выделительно-ограничительные:
  
  even, only, merely, solely, just, but, alone
• Intensifying particles – усилительные:
  simply, just, all, still, yet
• Negative particle — отрицательная частица:
  
  not
• Additive particle — дополняющая частица:
  
  else

Междометия (Interjections)

Междометия на самом деле не относятся ни к самостоятельным, ни к служебным частям речи, так как они не имеют особого смысла. Они лишь передают наши чувства и эмоции.

Например:

oh, eh, alas, er, hey, uhm

Сводная таблица частей речи в английском языке

PARTS OF SPEECH	DESCRIPTION	EXAMPLES
NOUNS	Name people, animals, places, things	Chair, sparrow, school, Greece
VERBS	Name action or activity	Be, seem, smell, jump
ADJECTIVES	Describe nouns such as people or things	Clean/dirty, expensive/cheap, light/dark
ADVERBS	Describe verbs (actions)	Well, quickly, sometimes
PRONOUNS	Used instead of nouns	He, we, they, their, my
NUMERALS	Name numbers	Fifty, eighty, thirty-first
CONJUNCTIONS	Join words or clauses of sentence	And, but, as soon as, unless, although
PREPOSITIONS	Show the relationship between a noun and other words	At, on, by, before, since
ARTICLES	Show if the noun is definite or indefinite	The, a/an
PARTICLES	Give additional meaning to words	Not, yet, else
INTERJECTIONS	Describe feelings and emotions	Oh, eh, alas, er, hey, uhm

Эта таблица поможет вам определять части речи. Также, используя русско-английский словарь, вы можете посмотреть принадлежность слова к той или иной части речи. Но, чтобы начать лучше разбираться в грамматических аспектах, лучше начать изучение последовательно, к примеру, с глаголов и потом постепенно переходить к другим самостоятельным или служебным частям речи. Тогда вы сможете с легкостью выдохнуть — у вас не будет никакой каши в голове и сложностей в использовании на практике.

Также не стоит забывать, что построение английского предложения начинается с прямого порядка слов, о чем многие забывают при переключении с русского на английский. Как раз для подобного рода практики команда Инглиш Шоу разработала курс Разговорный Марафон. Каждый день на протяжении нескольких месяцев вы отрабатываете основные навыки, разговаривая на повседневные темы с разными преподавателями. Но это ещё не все! В течение курса вас ждёт масса сюрпризов и лайфхаков, так что после курса можете с уверенностью собираться заграницу! Записывайтесь на бесплатный пробный урок и узнайте все подробности самостоятельно.