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Words don’t only mean something; they also do something. In the English language, words are grouped into word classes based on their function, i.e. what they do in a phrase or sentence. In total, there are nine word classes in English.
Word class meaning and example
All words can be categorised into classes within a language based on their function and purpose.
An example of various word classes is ‘The cat ate a cupcake quickly.’
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The = a determiner
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cat = a noun
-
ate = a verb
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a = determiner
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cupcake = noun
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quickly = an adverb
Word class function
The function of a word class, also known as a part of speech, is to classify words according to their grammatical properties and the roles they play in sentences. By assigning words to different word classes, we can understand how they should be used in context and how they relate to other words in a sentence.
Each word class has its own unique set of characteristics and rules for usage, and understanding the function of word classes is essential for effective communication in English. Knowing our word classes allows us to create clear and grammatically correct sentences that convey our intended meaning.
Word classes in English
In English, there are four main word classes; nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. These are considered lexical words, and they provide the main meaning of a phrase or sentence.
The other five word classes are; prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are considered functional words, and they provide structural and relational information in a sentence or phrase.
Don’t worry if it sounds a bit confusing right now. Read ahead and you’ll be a master of the different types of word classes in no time!
All word classes | Definition | Examples of word classification |
Noun | A word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. | cat, house, plant |
Pronoun | A word that is used in place of a noun to avoid repetition. | he, she, they, it |
Verb | A word that expresses action, occurrence, or state of being. | run, sing, grow |
Adjective | A word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. | blue, tall, happy |
Adverb | A word that describes or modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb. | quickly, very |
Preposition | A word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. | in, on, at |
Conjunction | A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses. | and, or, but |
Interjection | A word that expresses strong emotions or feelings. | wow, oh, ouch |
Determiners | A word that clarifies information about the quantity, location, or ownership of the noun | Articles like ‘the’ and ‘an’, and quantifiers like ‘some’ and ‘all’. |
The four main word classes
In the English language, there are four main word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Let’s look at all the word classes in detail.
Nouns
Nouns are the words we use to describe people, places, objects, feelings, concepts, etc. Usually, nouns are tangible (touchable) things, such as a table, a person, or a building.
However, we also have abstract nouns, which are things we can feel and describe but can’t necessarily see or touch, such as love, honour, or excitement. Proper nouns are the names we give to specific and official people, places, or things, such as England, Claire, or Hoover.
Cat
House
School
Britain
Harry
Book
Hatred
‘My sister went to school.‘
Verbs
Verbs are words that show action, event, feeling, or state of being. This can be a physical action or event, or it can be a feeling that is experienced.
Lexical verbs are considered one of the four main word classes, and auxiliary verbs are not. Lexical verbs are the main verb in a sentence that shows action, event, feeling, or state of being, such as walk, ran, felt, and want, whereas an auxiliary verb helps the main verb and expresses grammatical meaning, such as has, is, and do.
Run
Walk
Swim
Curse
Wish
Help
Leave
‘She wished for a sunny day.’
Adjectives
Adjectives are words used to modify nouns, usually by describing them. Adjectives describe an attribute, quality, or state of being of the noun.
Long
Short
Friendly
Broken
Loud
Embarrassed
Dull
Boring
‘The friendly woman wore a beautiful dress.’
Fig 1. Adjectives can describe the woman and the dress
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that work alongside verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They provide further descriptions of how, where, when, and how often something is done.
Quickly
Softly
Very
More
Too
Loudly
‘The music was too loud.’
All of the above examples are lexical word classes and carry most of the meaning in a sentence. They make up the majority of the words in the English language.
The other five word classes
The other five remaining word classes are; prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These words are considered functional words and are used to explain grammatical and structural relationships between words.
For example, prepositions can be used to explain where one object is in relation to another.
Prepositions
Prepositions are used to show the relationship between words in terms of place, time, direction, and agency.
In
At
On
Towards
To
Through
Into
By
With
‘They went through the tunnel.’
Pronouns
Pronouns take the place of a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence. They often refer to a noun that has already been mentioned and are commonly used to avoid repetition.
Chloe (noun) → she (pronoun)
Chloe’s dog → her dog (possessive pronoun)
There are several different types of pronouns; let’s look at some examples of each.
- He, she, it, they — personal pronouns
- His, hers, its, theirs, mine, ours — possessive pronouns
- Himself, herself, myself, ourselves, themselves — reflexive pronouns
- This, that, those, these — demonstrative pronouns
- Anyone, somebody, everyone, anything, something — Indefinite pronouns
- Which, what, that, who, who — Relative pronouns
‘She sat on the chair which was broken.’
Determiners
Determiners work alongside nouns to clarify information about the quantity, location, or ownership of the noun. It ‘determines’ exactly what is being referred to. Much like pronouns, there are also several different types of determiners.
- The, a, an — articles
- This, that, those — you might recognise these for demonstrative pronouns are also determiners
- One, two, three etc. — cardinal numbers
- First, second, third etc. — ordinal numbers
- Some, most, all — quantifiers
- Other, another — difference words
‘The first restaurant is better than the other.’
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are words that connect other words, phrases, and clauses together within a sentence. There are three main types of conjunctions;
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Coordinating conjunctions — these link independent clauses together.
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Subordinating conjunctions — these link dependent clauses to independent clauses.
- Correlative conjunctions — words that work in pairs to join two parts of a sentence of equal importance.
For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so — coordinating conjunctions
After, as, because, when, while, before, if, even though — subordinating conjunctions
Either/or, neither/nor, both/and — correlative conjunctions
‘If it rains, I’m not going out.’
Interjections
Interjections are exclamatory words used to express an emotion or a reaction. They often stand alone from the rest of the sentence and are accompanied by an exclamation mark.
Oh
Oops!
Phew!
Ahh!
‘Oh, what a surprise!’
Word class: lexical classes and function classes
A helpful way to understand lexical word classes is to see them as the building blocks of sentences. If the lexical word classes are the blocks themselves, then the function word classes are the cement holding the words together and giving structure to the sentence.
Fig 2. Lexical and functional word classes
In this diagram, the lexical classes are in blue and the function classes are in yellow. We can see that the words in blue provide the key information, and the words in yellow bring this information together in a structured way.
Word class examples
Sometimes it can be tricky to know exactly which word class a word belongs to. Some words can function as more than one word class depending on how they are used in a sentence. For this reason, we must look at words in context, i.e. how a word works within the sentence. Take a look at the following examples of word classes to see the importance of word class categorisation.
The dog will bark if you open the door.
The tree bark was dark and rugged.
Here we can see that the same word (bark) has a different meaning and different word class in each sentence. In the first example, ‘bark’ is used as a verb, and in the second as a noun (an object in this case).
I left my sunglasses on the beach.
The horse stood on Sarah’s left foot.
In the first sentence, the word ‘left’ is used as a verb (an action), and in the second, it is used to modify the noun (foot). In this case, it is an adjective.
I run every day
I went for a run
In this example, ‘run’ can be a verb or a noun.
Word Class — Key takeaways
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We group words into word classes based on the function they perform in a sentence.
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The four main word classes are nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. These are lexical classes that give meaning to a sentence.
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The other five word classes are prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are function classes that are used to explain grammatical and structural relationships between words.
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It is important to look at the context of a sentence in order to work out which word class a word belongs to.
Frequently Asked Questions about Word Class
A word class is a group of words that have similar properties and play a similar role in a sentence.
Some examples of how some words can function as more than one word class include the way ‘run’ can be a verb (‘I run every day’) or a noun (‘I went for a run’). Similarly, ‘well’ can be an adverb (‘He plays the guitar well’) or an adjective (‘She’s feeling well today’).
The nine word classes are; Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, interjections.
Categorising words into word classes helps us to understand the function the word is playing within a sentence.
Parts of speech is another term for word classes.
The different groups of word classes include lexical classes that act as the building blocks of a sentence e.g. nouns. The other word classes are function classes that act as the ‘glue’ and give grammatical information in a sentence e.g. prepositions.
The word classes for all, that, and the is:
‘All’ = determiner (quantifier)
‘That’ = pronoun and/or determiner (demonstrative pronoun)
‘The’ = determiner (article)
Final Word Class Quiz
Word Class Quiz — Teste dein Wissen
Question
A word can only belong to one type of noun. True or false?
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Answer
This is false. A word can belong to multiple categories of nouns and this may change according to the context of the word.
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Question
Name the two principal categories of nouns.
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Answer
The two principal types of nouns are ‘common nouns’ and ‘proper nouns’.
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Question
Which of the following is an example of a proper noun?
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Question
Name the 6 types of common nouns discussed in the text.
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Answer
Concrete nouns, abstract nouns, countable nouns, uncountable nouns, collective nouns, and compound nouns.
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Question
What is the difference between a concrete noun and an abstract noun?
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Answer
A concrete noun is a thing that physically exists. We can usually touch this thing and measure its proportions. An abstract noun, however, does not physically exist. It is a concept, idea, or feeling that only exists within the mind.
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Question
Pick out the concrete noun from the following:
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Question
Pick out the abstract noun from the following:
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Question
What is the difference between a countable and an uncountable noun? Can you think of an example for each?
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Answer
A countable noun is a thing that can be ‘counted’, i.e. it can exist in the plural. Some examples include ‘bottle’, ‘dog’ and ‘boy’. These are often concrete nouns.
An uncountable noun is something that can not be counted, so you often cannot place a number in front of it. Examples include ‘love’, ‘joy’, and ‘milk’.
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Question
Pick out the collective noun from the following:
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Question
What is the collective noun for a group of sheep?
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Answer
The collective noun is a ‘flock’, as in ‘flock of sheep’.
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Question
The word ‘greenhouse’ is a compound noun. True or false?
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Answer
This is true. The word ‘greenhouse’ is a compound noun as it is made up of two separate words ‘green’ and ‘house’. These come together to form a new word.
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Question
What are the adjectives in this sentence?: ‘The little boy climbed up the big, green tree’
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Answer
The adjectives are ‘little’ and ‘big’, and ‘green’ as they describe features about the nouns.
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Question
Place the adjectives in this sentence into the correct order: the wooden blue big ship sailed across the Indian vast scary ocean.
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Answer
The big, blue, wooden ship sailed across the vast, scary, Indian ocean.
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Question
What are the 3 different positions in which an adjective can be placed?
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Answer
An adjective can be placed before a noun (pre-modification), after a noun (post-modification), or following a verb as a complement.
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Question
In this sentence, does the adjective pre-modify or post-modify the noun? ‘The unicorn is angry’.
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Answer
The adjective ‘angry’ post-modifies the noun ‘unicorn’.
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Question
In this sentence, does the adjective pre-modify or post-modify the noun? ‘It is a scary unicorn’.
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Answer
The adjective ‘scary’ pre-modifies the noun ‘unicorn’.
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Question
What kind of adjectives are ‘purple’ and ‘shiny’?
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Answer
‘Purple’ and ‘Shiny’ are qualitative adjectives as they describe a quality or feature of a noun
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Question
What kind of adjectives are ‘ugly’ and ‘easy’?
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Answer
The words ‘ugly’ and ‘easy’ are evaluative adjectives as they give a subjective opinion on the noun.
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Question
Which of the following adjectives is an absolute adjective?
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Which of these adjectives is a classifying adjective?
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Question
Convert the noun ‘quick’ to its comparative form.
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Answer
The comparative form of ‘quick’ is ‘quicker’.
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Question
Convert the noun ‘slow’ to its superlative form.
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Answer
The comparative form of ‘slow’ is ‘slowest’.
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Question
What is an adjective phrase?
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Answer
An adjective phrase is a group of words that is ‘built’ around the adjective (it takes centre stage in the sentence). For example, in the phrase ‘the dog is big’ the word ‘big’ is the most important information.
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Question
Give 2 examples of suffixes that are typical of adjectives.
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Answer
Suffixes typical of adjectives include -able, -ible, -ful, -y, -less, -ous, -some, -ive, -ish, -al.
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Question
What is the difference between a main verb and an auxiliary verb?
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Answer
A main verb is a verb that can stand on its own and carries most of the meaning in a verb phrase. For example, ‘run’, ‘find’. Auxiliary verbs cannot stand alone, instead, they work alongside a main verb and ‘help’ the verb to express more grammatical information e.g. tense, mood, possibility.
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Question
What is the difference between a primary auxiliary verb and a modal auxiliary verb?
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Answer
Primary auxiliary verbs consist of the various forms of ‘to have’, ‘to be’, and ‘to do’ e.g. ‘had’, ‘was’, ‘done’. They help to express a verb’s tense, voice, or mood. Modal auxiliary verbs show possibility, ability, permission, or obligation. There are 9 auxiliary verbs including ‘could’, ‘will’, might’.
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Question
Which of the following are primary auxiliary verbs?
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Is
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Play
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Have
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Run
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Does
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Could
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Answer
The primary auxiliary verbs in this list are ‘is’, ‘have’, and ‘does’. They are all forms of the main primary auxiliary verbs ‘to have’, ‘to be’, and ‘to do’. ‘Play’ and ‘run’ are main verbs and ‘could’ is a modal auxiliary verb.
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Question
Name 6 out of the 9 modal auxiliary verbs.
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Answer
Answers include: Could, would, should, may, might, can, will, must, shall
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Question
‘The fairies were asleep’. In this sentence, is the verb ‘were’ a linking verb or an auxiliary verb?
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Answer
The word ‘were’ is used as a linking verb as it stands alone in the sentence. It is used to link the subject (fairies) and the adjective (asleep).
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Question
What is the difference between dynamic verbs and stative verbs?
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Answer
A dynamic verb describes an action or process done by a noun or subject. They are thought of as ‘action verbs’ e.g. ‘kick’, ‘run’, ‘eat’. Stative verbs describe the state of being of a person or thing. These are states that are not necessarily physical action e.g. ‘know’, ‘love’, ‘suppose’.
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Question
Which of the following are dynamic verbs and which are stative verbs?
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Drink
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Prefer
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Talk
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Seem
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Understand
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Write
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Answer
The dynamic verbs are ‘drink’, ‘talk’, and ‘write’ as they all describe an action. The stative verbs are ‘prefer’, ‘seem’, and ‘understand’ as they all describe a state of being.
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Question
What is an imperative verb?
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Answer
Imperative verbs are verbs used to give orders, give instructions, make a request or give warning. They tell someone to do something. For example, ‘clean your room!’.
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Question
Inflections give information about tense, person, number, mood, or voice. True or false?
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Question
What information does the inflection ‘-ing’ give for a verb?
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Answer
The inflection ‘-ing’ is often used to show that an action or state is continuous and ongoing.
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Question
How do you know if a verb is irregular?
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Answer
An irregular verb does not take the regular inflections, instead the whole word is spelt a different way. For example, begin becomes ‘began’ or ‘begun’. We can’t add the regular past tense inflection -ed as this would become ‘beginned’ which doesn’t make sense.
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Question
Suffixes can never signal what word class a word belongs to. True or false?
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Answer
False. Suffixes can signal what word class a word belongs to. For example, ‘-ify’ is a common suffix for verbs (‘identity’, ‘simplify’)
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Question
A verb phrase is built around a noun. True or false?
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Answer
False. A verb phrase is a group of words that has a main verb along with any other auxiliary verbs that ‘help’ the main verb. For example, ‘could eat’ is a verb phrase as it contains a main verb (‘could’) and an auxiliary verb (‘could’).
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Question
Which of the following are multi-word verbs?
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Shake
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Rely on
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Dancing
-
Look up to
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Answer
The verbs ‘rely on’ and ‘look up to’ are multi-word verbs as they consist of a verb that has one or more prepositions or particles linked to it.
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Question
What is the difference between a transition verb and an intransitive verb?
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Answer
Transitive verbs are verbs that require an object in order to make sense. For example, the word ‘bring’ requires an object that is brought (‘I bring news’). Intransitive verbs do not require an object to complete the meaning of the sentence e.g. ‘exist’ (‘I exist’).
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Answer
An adverb is a word that gives more information about a verb, adjective, another adverb, or a full clause.
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Question
What are the 3 ways we can use adverbs?
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Answer
We can use adverbs to modify a word (modifying adverbs), to intensify a word (intensifying adverbs), or to connect two clauses (connecting adverbs).
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Question
What are modifying adverbs?
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Answer
Modifying adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They add further information about the word.
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Question
‘Additionally’, ‘likewise’, and ‘consequently’ are examples of connecting adverbs. True or false?
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Answer
True! Connecting adverbs are words used to connect two independent clauses.
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Question
What are intensifying adverbs?
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Answer
Intensifying adverbs are words used to strengthen the meaning of an adjective, another adverb, or a verb. In other words, they ‘intensify’ another word.
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Question
Which of the following are intensifying adverbs?
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Calmly
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Incredibly
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Enough
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Greatly
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Answer
The intensifying adverbs are ‘incredibly’ and ‘greatly’. These strengthen the meaning of a word.
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Question
Name the main types of adverbs
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Answer
The main adverbs are; adverbs of place, adverbs of time, adverbs of manner, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of degree, adverbs of probability, and adverbs of purpose.
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Question
What are adverbs of time?
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Answer
Adverbs of time are the ‘when?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘when is the action done?’ e.g. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’
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Question
Which of the following are adverbs of frequency?
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Usually
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Patiently
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Occasionally
-
Nowhere
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Answer
The adverbs of frequency are ‘usually’ and ‘occasionally’. They are the ‘how often?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘how often is the action done?’.
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Question
What are adverbs of place?
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Answer
Adverbs of place are the ‘where?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘where is the action done?’. For example, ‘outside’ or ‘elsewhere’.
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Question
Which of the following are adverbs of manner?
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Never
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Carelessly
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Kindly
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Inside
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Answer
The words ‘carelessly’ and ‘kindly’ are adverbs of manner. They are the ‘how?’ adverbs that answer the question ‘how is the action done?’.
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In English grammar, a word class is a set of words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and distribution. The term «word class» is similar to the more traditional term, part of speech. It is also variously called grammatical category, lexical category, and syntactic category (although these terms are not wholly or universally synonymous).
The two major families of word classes are lexical (or open or form) classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and function (or closed or structure) classes (determiners, particles, prepositions, and others).
Examples and Observations
- «When linguists began to look closely at English grammatical structure in the 1940s and 1950s, they encountered so many problems of identification and definition that the term part of speech soon fell out of favor, word class being introduced instead. Word classes are equivalent to parts of speech, but defined according to strict linguistic criteria.» (David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2003)
- «There is no single correct way of analyzing words into word classes…Grammarians disagree about the boundaries between the word classes (see gradience), and it is not always clear whether to lump subcategories together or to split them. For example, in some grammars…pronouns are classed as nouns, whereas in other frameworks…they are treated as a separate word class.» (Bas Aarts, Sylvia Chalker, Edmund Weiner, The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2014)
Form Classes and Structure Classes
«[The] distinction between lexical and grammatical meaning determines the first division in our classification: form-class words and structure-class words. In general, the form classes provide the primary lexical content; the structure classes explain the grammatical or structural relationship. Think of the form-class words as the bricks of the language and the structure words as the mortar that holds them together.»
The form classes also known as content words or open classes include:
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
The structure classes, also known as function words or closed classes, include:
- Determiners
- Pronouns
- Auxiliaries
- Conjunctions
- Qualifiers
- Interrogatives
- Prepositions
- Expletives
- Particles
«Probably the most striking difference between the form classes and the structure classes is characterized by their numbers. Of the half million or more words in our language, the structure words—with some notable exceptions—can be counted in the hundreds. The form classes, however, are large, open classes; new nouns and verbs and adjectives and adverbs regularly enter the language as new technology and new ideas require them.» (Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar. Allyn and Bacon, 1998)
One Word, Multiple Classes
«Items may belong to more than one class. In most instances, we can only assign a word to a word class when we encounter it in context. Looks is a verb in ‘It looks good,’ but a noun in ‘She has good looks‘; that is a conjunction in ‘I know that they are abroad,’ but a pronoun in ‘I know that‘ and a determiner in ‘I know that man’; one is a generic pronoun in ‘One must be careful not to offend them,’ but a numeral in ‘Give me one good reason.'» (Sidney Greenbaum, Oxford English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1996)
Suffixes as Signals
«We recognize the class of a word by its use in context. Some words have suffixes (endings added to words to form new words) that help to signal the class they belong to. These suffixes are not necessarily sufficient in themselves to identify the class of a word. For example, -ly is a typical suffix for adverbs (slowly, proudly), but we also find this suffix in adjectives: cowardly, homely, manly. And we can sometimes convert words from one class to another even though they have suffixes that are typical of their original class: an engineer, to engineer; a negative response, a negative.» (Sidney Greenbaum and Gerald Nelson, An Introduction to English Grammar, 3rd ed. Pearson, 2009)
A Matter of Degree
«[N]ot all the members of a class will necessarily have all the identifying properties. Membership in a particular class is really a matter of degree. In this regard, grammar is not so different from the real world. There are prototypical sports like ‘football’ and not so sporty sports like ‘darts.’ There are exemplary mammals like ‘dogs’ and freakish ones like the ‘platypus.’ Similarly, there are good examples of verbs like watch and lousy examples like beware; exemplary nouns like chair that display all the features of a typical noun and some not so good ones like Kenny.» (Kersti Börjars and Kate Burridge, Introducing English Grammar, 2nd ed. Hodder, 2010)
Words are the building blocks in any sentence. They just don’t ‘mean’ something, they ‘do’ something in every sentence. Hence words are grouped into word classes based on what they do. A word class is a group of words that have certain common features. The term “word class” is analogous to the more conventional term, “part of speech.” It is also variously named grammatical category, lexical category, and syntactic category.
- Types of Word Classes
- Open and Closed Word Classes
- Open Word Classes
- Closed Word Classes
- How to identify the word classes in a sentence?
- How to classify a word class?
- What is the difference between a word class and part of speech?
Word classes can be divided into two families:
- Lexical Classes: Also known as open classes and form classes. The lexical classes include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.
- Function Classes: Also known as closed classes and structure classes. Includes: pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections.
Open and Closed Word Classes
As previously mentioned some word classes are open, that is, the class can be expanded with the addition of new words. Take the example of the class of nouns, it is potentially infinite as the number of words in the class is increasing as new scientific and technological discoveries are made.
The latter half of the twentieth century witnessed developments in computer technology which have in turn given rise to many new nouns like the Internet, URL website, bitmap, email, etc.
On the other hand, the word classes of prepositions, determiners, or conjunctions are known as closed word classes. Words like of, the, and but come under these. They are named closed word classes because they consist of a definite set of words. These classes never expand even though the words included in the class may change their spelling.
Open Word Classes
1) Nouns
This class includes words that you frequently use in everyday life. Nouns are most commonly understood as “naming” words, that is, it performs the function of naming “people, places or things”.
- A person – Boy, Girl, John, etc
- A thing- House, Dog, etc
- A place- China, America, etc
However, the use of nouns is not restricted to just names of people, places, or things. Nouns also denote abstract and intangible concepts such as an idea, quality, or state. Example: Danger, Happiness, Love, etc.
2) Verbs
The words that you use to describe an action are known as verbs. Hence verbs are generally known as “action” words. Have a look at the given example: Rahul rides a scooter. The verb in the above sentence denotes an action that Rahul performs which is the action of riding a scooter.
However, the idea of verbs as “action” words is somewhat restricted. Many verbs don’t stand for action at all as in the given instance: Rahul seems desperate. We cannot say that the verb ‘seems ‘ refer to an action.
3) Adverbs
In English, an adverb describes a word that alters the meaning of a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Adverbs in a sentence give you more information about the sentence. They are used to express how an action is fulfilled. Adverbs can broadly be categorized into Simple Adverbs, IInterrogative adverbs, and Relative Adverbs.
Remember:
- Most adverbs end with the common ending – ly.
- An adverb that modifies an adjective or another adverb usually goes before it.
4) Adjectives
Adjectives describe the quality of a noun. For example They stay in a beautiful house
The word beautiful indicates or refers to one of the attributes of the house that is described. Hence beautiful becomes the adjective in the above sentence.
A point to keep in mind: Some adjectives can be identified by their ending. Typical adjective endings include: able, al, ful, ic, etc.
You can even try out our other articles on How to Improve Your Vocabulary as well to expand your knowledge base.
Closed Word Classes
1) Determiners
You might have often noticed that nouns are preceded by words like the, a, or an. These words are known as Determiners. They suggest the type of reference that the noun has.
- The determiner ‘the’ is called a Definite Article. It can be placed both before singular and plural nouns. For example The Taxi, The taxis
- The determiner a or an is known as the Indefinite Article. It is used along with a singular noun. Example: A taxi
Apart from these, many other determiners express quantity. These include ‘al’, ‘both’, ‘many’ etc.
2) Conjunctions
These are used to express connections between different words.
Example: John and David are friends. And is used as a conjunction in the given sentence.
The most familiar conjunctions in English are: and, but, and or.
Conjunctions are further divided into two:
- Coordinating Conjunctions: These conjunctions connect elements of equal syntactic structure. Example: Paul and David study together.
- Subordinating Conjunctions: Connects elements of unequal syntactic structure. Example: I left early because I had an interview the next day.
3) Prepositions
Prepositions indicate the relation between different words. They occur before a noun, pronoun, or noun phrase and indicate a direction, time, place, location, and spatial relationship. Common prepositions include across, after, at, before, by, during, from, in, into, of, on, to, under, with, without, etc.
4) Pronouns
If we did not have the pronoun word families we would have to repeat a whole lot of nouns. A word that takes the position of a noun is named as a pronoun. Pronouns can be employed as a substitute for a noun.
- Pronouns are divided into 5 categories:
- Personal Pronouns: I, you, she, etc
- Demonstrative Pronouns: This, these, etc
- Possessive Pronouns: Yours, His, etc
- Interrogative Pronouns: Which, What, etc
- Reflexive Pronouns: Herself, Himself, etc.
- Reciprocal Pronouns: Each other
- Indefinite Pronouns: Few, Nobody, etc.
- Relative Pronouns: Which, Whom, etc.
5) Interjections
Short exclamations like Oh!, Ah! etc are known as Interjections. Even though they have no grammatical value, we often use them in daily speech. Interjections are primarily used to express emotions such as anger, surprise, etc. Given below are a few examples.
Well! That hurts
Hey! Don’t be so clumsy
Remember, an interjection is always followed by an exclamation mark.
Read More:
- English Idioms
- Literary Devices
FAQs on Word Classes
1. How to identify the word classes in a sentence?
A word class is a group of words that have certain common features. To find out the word classes within a sentence it is important that you familiarise yourself with the most common word classes in English. These include nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, etc.
2. How to classify a word class?
Word classes in English belong to two major categories. These are Open word classes that include nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The second category is closed word classes that include: pronouns, determiners, interjections, etc.
3. What is the difference between a word class and part of speech?
The term “word class” is analogous to the more conventional term, “part of speech”. Both these terms refer to a group of words that have certain common features.
Conclusion
To understand the grammatical structures of sentences in a better way it’s best if you begin with word classes. Even though comprehending the different word classes may initially be a hectic task, once you master word classes, you will reach the exact meaning or message conveyed by a sentence.
The words
of language, depending on various formal and semantic features,
are divided into grammatically relevant sets or classes. The
traditional grammatical classes of words are called «parts
of speech». Since the
word is distinguished not only by grammatical, but also by
semantico-lexemic properties, some scholars refer to parts of speech
as «lexico-grammatical»
series of words, or as «lexico-grammatical categories.
It
should be noted that the term «part of speech» is purely
traditional and
conventional, it cannot be taken as in any way defining or
explanatory. This name was introduced in the grammatical
teaching of Ancient Greece, where the concept of the sentence was not
yet explicitly identified
in distinction to the general idea of speech, and where,
consequently, no
strict differentiation was drawn between the word as a vocabulary
unit and the word as a functional element of the sentence.
In
modern linguistics, parts of speech are discriminated on the basis of
the three
criteria:
«semantic»,
«formal», and «functional».
The
semantic
criterion
presupposes the evaluation of the generalized meaning, which
is characteristic of all the subsets of words constituting a given
part of speech. This meaning is understood as the «categorial
meaning of
the part of speech».
The
formal criterion
provides for the exposition of the
specific inflexional and derivational (word-building) features of
allthe
lexemic subsets of a part of speech.
The
functional criterion
concerns the
syntactic role of words in the sentence typical of a part of speech.
The said
three factors of categorial characterization of words are
conventionally
referred to as, respectively, «meaning», «form»,
and «function».
In accord
with the described criteria, words on the upper level of
classification
are divided into notional
and functional,
which reflects their division
in the earlier grammatical tradition into changeable and
unchangeable.
To the
notional
parts of speech
of the English language belong the noun, the adjective, the numeral,
the pronoun, the verb, the adverb.
Contrasted against the
notional parts of speech are words of incomplete nominative
meaning and non-self-dependent, mediatory functions in the sentence.
These are functional parts of speech.
To
the basic functional
series of words
in English belong the article, the
preposition, the conjunction, the particle, the modal word, the
interjection.
Each part of speech after its
identification is further subdivided into subseries in accord with
various particular semantico-functional and formal features of the
constituent words. This subdivision is sometimes called
«subcategorization» of parts of speech.
Thus, nouns
are subcategorized into proper and common, animate and
inanimate, countable and uncountable, concrete and abstract,
etc.
Verbs
are subcategorized into fully predicative and partially predicative,
transitive and intransitive, actional and statal, purely nominative
and evaluative, etc.
Adjectives
are subcategorized into qualitative and relative, of constant
feature and temporary feature (the latter are referred to as
«statives» and identified by some scholars as a separate
part of speech under the heading of «category of state»),
factual and evaluative, etc.
The adverb,
the numeral, the pronoun are also subject to the corresponding
subcategorizations.
We have
drawn a general outline of the division of the lexicon into part
of speech classes developed by modern linguists on the lines of
traditional
morphology.
Alongside
the three-criteria principle of dividing the words into grammatical
(lexico-grammatical) classes, modern linguistics has developed
another, narrower principle
of word-class identification based on syntactic featuring of words
only.
The fact is
that the three-criteria principle faces a special difficulty in
determining the part of speech status of such lexemes as have
morphological characteristics of notional words, but are
essentially distinguished from notional words by their playing
the role of grammatical mediators in phrases and sentences. Here
belong, for instance, modal verbs
together with their equivalents — suppletive fillers, auxiliary
verbs, aspective
verbs, intensifying adverbs, determiner pronouns. This difficulty,
consisting in the intersection of heterogeneous properties in the
established
word-classes, can evidently be overcome by recognizing only one
criterion of the three as decisive.
Comparing
the syntactico-distributional classification of words with the
traditional part of speech division of words, one cannot but see the
similarity of the general schemes of the two: the opposition of
notional and
functional words, the four absolutely cardinal classes of notional
words (since numerals and pronouns have no positional functions of
their
own and serve as pro-nounal and pro-adjectival elements), the
interpretation of functional words as syntactic mediators and
their formal representation
by the list.
However,
under these unquestionable traits of similarity are distinctly
revealed
essential features of difference, the proper evaluation of which
allows us to make some important generalizations about the structure
of the
lexemic system of language.
As
a result of the undertaken analysis
we have obtained a foundation
for dividing the whole of the lexicon at the upper level of
classification
into three unequal parts.
The
first part of the lexicon forming an open set includes an
indefinitely large number of notional words which have a
complete nominative
function. In accord with the said function, these words can be re
ferred to as «names»: nouns as substance names, verbs as
process names, adjectives
as primary property names and adverbs as secondary property
names. The whole notional set is represented by the four-stage
derivational
paradigm of nomination.
The
second part of the lexicon forming a closed set includes substitutes
of names (pro-names). Here belong pronouns, and also broad-meaning
notional words which constitute various marginal subsets.
The
third part of the lexicon also forming a closed set includes
specifiers
of names. These are function-categorial words of various
servo-status.
Substitutes
of names (pro-names) and specifiers of names, while standing
with the names in nominative correlation as elements of the lexicon,
at
the same time serve as connecting links between the names within the
lexicon
and their actual uses in the sentences of living speech.
ЛИТЕРАТУРА:
-
Блох, М.Я.
Теоретическая грамматика английского
языка : Учеб. / М.Я. Блох. – 5–е изд.,
стер. – М. : Высш. шк., 2006. – 423 с. -
Блох, М.Я.
Теоретические основы грамматики :
учеб. / М.Я. Блох. – 3–е изд., испр. –
М. : Высш. шк., 2002. – 160 с. -
Blokh,
M.Y. A course in theoretical English grammar / M.Y. Blokh. –
M., 1983.
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Word classes are parts of speech. They’re the building blocks that form every sentence ever uttered. They are categorized by the role they play in your sentences.
Everyone agrees on the following four main word classes:
- Noun
- Verb
- Adjective
- Adverb
There are varying opinions as to whether the following are word classes or word forms. So we went straight to the experts: the Oxford and Cambridge Dictionaries. Per these two highly learned sources, the following are considered word classes also:
- Pronoun (e.g. I, you, me, we, mine, someone, he, she)
- Preposition (e.g. at, in, on, across, behind, for)
- Conjunction (e.g. and, but, when, if, because)
- Determiner (e.g. a, the, an, this, etc.)
- Exclamation or Interjection (e.g. oh, ah, wow, ouch)
The four main classes have thousands of members, and new nouns, verbs, and other words are being created every day. Consider the verb “google.” This verb didn’t exist just a few years ago and now it is firmly entrenched in everyday language. Just last month a new noun, “intersectionality” (the study of overlapping social identities and related systems of discrimination), was just added to Dictionary.com. Can you think of any other words that have recently been created and entered your own vocabulary?
Some words, however, can fall in multiple word classes depending on their context:
- Put your money in the bank. (noun)
- He began to bank the airplane into the wind. (verb)
- Come warm up by the fire. (noun)
- He will certainly fire her for coming in late again. (verb)
- A book is a source of endless reading pleasure. (noun)
- Book your holiday plans soon to get the best deal. (verb)
- She loves fast cars. (adjective)
- He’s driving fast to get to work on time. (adverb)
- Her hourly complaints have got to stop. (adjective)
- The weather report is reported hourly. (adverb)
The next step is to use your word classes to form phrase classes, like noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, etc. But we’ll save that for another post.
Every word in a sentence plays a different role, refer as the parts of speech. There are the following word classes in english grammar. Word Classes are very important part in grammar. They decide different rules of grammar. More precisely every grammar rule comes out of them. They are the most basic part of a sentences. Without word classes English language would never be possible and that why these 9 words classes are the base of English language.
9 Words Classes in English Grammar
There are following word classes in English grammar.
1. Nouns
A noun is the name of a person, place, concept, or object, like Marry, John, Canada, Japan, truth, honesty, table and, knife Etc. Nouns occupy the major part of English compositions and come in a wide variety of types. They are used as the subject, direct object, indirect objects, plurals, possessive nouns, opposites and adjectives. Mostly nouns are divided into two categories: common nouns and proper nouns.
Examples:
- Cat was under the table.
- Sarah comes out of no where.
- This purse does not belongs to my father.
- Mosque was very beautiful.
List of Some Nouns:
Banana | Quill | Hospital |
Car | School | Juice |
Dinner | Tent | Lizard |
Engine | Vulture | Morning |
France | Girl | Oxygen |
Ambulance | Pillow | Hair |
Belgium | Restaurant | Insurance |
Church | Spoon | Knife |
Dress | Train | Magazine |
Finland | Xylophone | Nest |
Airport | Piano | Guitar |
Bed | Refrigerator | Insect |
China | Soccer | Kite |
i. Common Noun Vs. Proper Noun
Common nouns
They refer the general things, like books and football.
Proper nouns
They deal with the specific names, like David and London.
ii. Countable Nouns Vs. Uncountable Nouns
Countable Nouns
Nouns which we can count like cats, books, pens Etc.
Uncountable Nouns
Nouns that we cannot count like liquid, air, intelligence.
2. Pronouns
Pronouns are the words that substitute for nouns. For example, he, she, it, her, his you, many, who, everybody Etc. Pronouns are divided into a range of categories. personal pronoun, possessive pronoun, relative pronoun, reflexive pronoun, indefinite pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, an interrogative pronoun, intensive pronoun and reciprocal pronoun.
Examples:
- Tom was going to Mosque, and I just followed him.
- Tina is the friend of Sara, and I am their class fellow.
- He is the man of a lot of sugar in his juice.
Some Pronouns are:
he | her | hers |
him | his | I |
it | its | our |
she | theirs | them |
they | us | we |
you | your |
3. Adjectives
Adjectives describe the qualities or states of nouns. Adjectives are fast, funny, engaging, well-written. There are three degrees of adjectives positive, comparative and superlative adjectives black. They also describe the quality of nouns, many, few, millions Etc.
Examples
- Tom is a brave boy and that’s why he is in at Army.
- My brother is a good looking actor in Germany.
- Shimla is a coward lady of our society.
Here are some common adjectives:
dull | drab | doubtful |
dizzy | disturbed | distinct |
disgusted | difficult | different |
determined | depressed | delightful |
defiant | defeated | dead |
dark | dangerous | cute |
curious | cruel | crowded |
creepy | crazy | courageous |
cooperative | confused | condemned |
concerned | comfortable | combative |
colorful | clumsy | cloudy |
clever | clear | clean |
cheerful | charming | cautious |
careful | calm | busy |
bright | breakable | brave |
brainy | bored | blushing |
blue-eyed | blue | bloody |
black | bewildered | better |
beautiful | bad | awful |
average | attractive | ashamed |
arrogant | anxious | annoying |
annoyed | angry | amused |
alive | alert | agreeable |
aggressive | adventurous | adorable |
4. Verbs
Verbs describe specific actions, like running, winning, and amazing. There are six types of verbs.
Examples:
- Tina was playing cricket.
- Roma is eating bread with butter.
i. Action verbs
They describe action words a person or thing can do such as accept, ask, bake Etc.
Below are some common action verbs:
Zip | Yank | Write | Win |
Whistle | Walk | Turn | Touch |
Teach | Study | Solve | Sneeze |
Sleep | Skip | Sing | Shout |
Shop | See | Scream | Run |
Replace | Read | Play | Plan |
Paint | Listen | Lie | Laugh |
Jump | Invent | Imitate | Exit |
Enter | Edit | Eat | Drink |
Draw | Describe | Dance | Cry |
Create | Cough | Complete | Color |
Coach | Buy | Build | Break |
Arrange | Approve | Answer | Act |
ii. Transitive Verbs
If action verbs follow the direct object is called transitive verbs. Like drive, want, write, eat, clean Etc.
iii. Intransitive verb
The action verbs do not have a direct object like landed, arrived.
iv. Linking verb
The various forms of to be are the linking verbs like am, is, are, where Etc.
v. Helping Verb
Helping verbs are used with main verbs. Auxiliary and model verbs are helping verbs like am, are, do, does, shall will Etc.
vi. Static Verb
The static verb is used to express a state rather than an action. Like believe, guess, know, remember Etc.
5. Adverbs
An adverb describes an adjective, a verb, or another adverb. For example, quickly, slowly, happily Etc. There are five different kinds of adverbs.
Examples:
- Tina was cutting the bread carefully.
- Sara was acting nervously in front of her parents.
i. Adverb of Manner
Adverbs that are use to tell manner: Nicely, beautifully, etc. Adverbs can be negative or positive. Below are some adverbs.
Positive |
Negative |
+Ve/-Ve |
Carefully |
Nervously | Badly |
Justly | Angrily |
Hastily |
Politely |
Cruelly | Angrily |
Boldly | Hungrily |
Awkwardly |
Powerfully |
Hastily | Anxiously |
Kindly |
Anxiously | Blindly |
Calmly | Rudely |
Loudly |
Openly | Blindly |
Hungrily |
Quickly |
Sadly | Noisily |
Bravely | Roughly |
Lazily |
Promptly |
Painfully |
Frantically |
Neatly | Greedily |
Carelessly |
Perfectly |
Carelessly |
Inadequately |
Easily |
Selfishly |
Madly |
ii. Adverb of Time
Adverb of time is related to time. Examples of adverbs of time are: Today, Yesterday, etc.
iii. Adverb of Place
Adverb of place is related to place. Examples of adverbs of place are: Here, There, Nowhere, etc.
iv. Adverb of Degree
Adverb of degree is related to degree of something or some action. Examples of adverbs of degree are: So, Very, almost, etc.
v. Adverb of Frequency
Adverb of frequency is related to how may time an action has been repeated. Examples of adverbs of frequency are: Always, Never, etc.
6. Prepositions
Prepositions explain the relationship between the words in a sentence. It indicates direction, time, location and space Etc. Examples are above, behind, in, off, Etc.
Examples:
- Cat was over the roof.
- Tina is in the opposite side of the mosque.
Some Prepositions are:
over | outside | opposite | onto |
on | off | of | near |
minus | like | into | inside |
in | from | for | following |
excluding | excepting | except | during |
down | despite | considering | concerning |
by | but | beyond | between |
besides | beside | beneath | below |
behind | before | at | as |
around | anti | among | amid |
along | against | after | across |
above | about | aboard |
7. Conjunctions
Conjunctions make it possible to build complex sentences that express multiple ideas like coordinating conjunction, subordinating conjunction and correlative conjunction.
Examples:
- I will dance rather than playing cricket.
- Because Tina is my girlfriend, she will not talk to you anymore.
Here are some most used conjunction:
Provided | Rather than | Even though |
In order that | Now when | As if |
Even | If then | for |
Although | Because | and |
8. Interjections
A word that express feelings and emotions in called as interjection. Interjection is somehow very important in grammar. It is very important parts of speech in English grammar. Some common interjection words are oh!, Ah! Yum!, Phooey!, Boo!, etc.
Examples:
- Yeah! I have seen a small cat.
- Oh God! He is under the table.
- Hurrah! We played well and won the game.
9. Articles
There are two categories of articles: definite and indefinite articles. A, an is the indefinite article, and the is the definite article. Articles play an important role in English grammar. They adds to the beauty of English grammar. It is very important to learn these three articles and how to use them. They have some simple rules that we have to follow to use them clearly and correctly.
Examples:
- The Pakistan is our beloved country.
- A cat was going into his room.
- An apple just falls off the table.
10. Determiner
A word placed before a noun provides information about quantity, ownership and specificity. It covers articles, demonstratives possessives and quantifiers, such as a, an, the, this, that, my, his, some, six, Etc.
Examples:
- This chair is made of wood.
- That was the ball, Raina was suppose to use in his home.
In a nutshell, we have discussed commonly used classes and examples of parts of speech.
About Author
Simi
Meet Simeron Khan, an experienced ESL teacher with a passion for guiding students towards fluency in English. With a knack for making even the most complex grammar rules accessible and enjoyable, Simeron has helped countless learners achieve their language goals.
Verbs, nouns, prepositions – we use these words on a daily basis and ever since elementary school, we hardly gave them any bigger thought. Yet, native speakers and learners of English alike can profit from knowing about the word classes (or parts of speech) we have in the English language, which words belong to which class.
This overview will give you a quick and easy to understand explanation of the individual word classes as well as providing a few explanatory examples.
Word Classes in English
First of all, lets have a look at the word classes that are present in modern English. The following classification is adapted and followed by most English dictionaries and consists of eight (sometimes nine) word classes.
- Adjective
- Adverb
- Article
- Conjunction
- Interjection
- Noun
- Preposition
- Pronoun
- Verb
In many European languages, inflection shows in which category a word belongs. Unfortunately, in English his is a lot more difficult to distinguish. Furthermore, some words can belong to more than one word class, for example google which can be used as either a noun or a verb. The following explanations of the different word classes, however, will make it easier for you to distinguish what word belongs to which class.
These word classes can be further divided into two linguistic classes, an open and a closed one. The difference between those is that the open classes allow for new word to be invented and added, while there will never be words added to a closed class.
Open word classes | Closed word classes |
|
|
Adjectives
Adjectives are used to describe either a noun or pronoun (see below). They modify other words and give them more detail.
Examples:
beautiful, big, sad, angry, grey, artificial, exciting, tidy, Spanish
More about Adjectives
Adverb
Adverbs are, despite their name, close related to adjectives and not to verbs when it comes to their function in a sentence. They have the function of describing or modifying other word classes like verbs and adjectives. They add even more detail and description to your writing.
Examples:
very, typically, quite, fast, greatly, loudly, yesterday, soon
While the suffix -ly is a typical indication for an adverb, not all adverbs are formed by adding it to an adjective. Adverbs like fast, quite and very are not created this way. Also, not all words that end in -ly are adverbs (friendly, ugly).
More about Adverbs
Article
Articles, sometimes also referred to as determiners, are small words that mark either definiteness or indefiniteness. In English, there is only one definite article while other European language (e.g. German and French) have articles that are gender-sensitive (der, die, das & le, la, l’)
Examples:
the, an, a, these, this
More about Articles
Conjunction
Conjunctions are words that either connect words or even whole sentences with each other.
Examples:
and, or, but, until, because
More about Conjunctions
Interjection
Interjections or exclamations are words or whole phrases that express emotion. Surprise, pleasure, anger, shock and other strong feelings can be expressed in a text using this word class.
Examples:
Hurray, Alas, Ow!, Well done
More about Interjections
Noun
Nouns are words that describe an abstract or concrete entity. This includes things and items, ideas, actions or qualities, persons and places.
Examples:
house, boat, love, dream, Sara, baker, necklace, sadness, tiredness, New York, suburb
In English, we also differentiate between count nouns and non-count nouns. The difference between those two lies within their countability. Count nouns can be modified by a numeral or a word that describes a quantity like each or several. They occur in both singular and plural form, even though they sometimes do not differ in spelling.
Examples:
We would have invited more guests to the party, but we have only three tables.
We would have needed several tables to invite the whole group.
Non-count nouns or mass nouns can not be described using a number. They consist of entities that can not be divided into one or a distinct number of entities itself.
Examples:
I fear we are running out of water.
I drank six waters yesterday. ?
They brought several waters to the shelter. ?
More about Nouns
Preposition
Prepositions are there to create relations between words in a sentence.
Examples:
in, after, on, with, to, by, because of
Pronoun
Pronouns are very similar to nouns. They appear in the same positions in a sentence and are, basically, replacements for nouns that are known by all parties of the conversation.
Examples:
that, he, she, they, them, us, our, themselves
Michael bought a strange pet yesterday. He really thought a python was a good idea.
More about Pronouns
Verb
Verbs belong to the most essential word classes. Without a verb, forming a proper sentence is impossible. Verbs describe an action, state of being (be) or an occurrence (happen). Verbs change depending on tense and agreement to the subject of a sentence.
Examples:
talk, enjoy, feel, is, did, jump, seem, expand, rain, run, have
More about Verbs