Word class in english language

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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)

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:

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. 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:

1. Pronoun (e.g. I, you, me, we, mine, someone, he, she)
2. Preposition (e.g. at, in, on, across, behind, for)
3. Conjunction (e.g. and, but, when, if, because)
4. Determiner (e.g. a, the, an, this, etc.)
5. 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.

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.

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.

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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.