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)
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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
-
cat = a noun
-
ate = a verb
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a = determiner
-
cupcake = noun
-
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;
-
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.
-
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
-
Prefer
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Talk
-
Seem
-
Understand
-
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
-
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
-
Patiently
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Occasionally
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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
-
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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В английском языке существуют правила, которые встречаются крайне редко. И даже если иногда кажется, что все темы уже давно пройдены, спешим вас обрадовать, — у нас еще есть, чем удивить. В данной статье мы рассмотрим один из таких примеров, а именно разницу между content (самостоятельные) и function (служебные) words.
Кроме того, что все английские слова делятся на 8 частей речи, они также относятся к одной из перечисленных групп: content или function. Прежде чем детально рассмотреть каждую из них, предлагаем сперва разобраться, что же они значат.
Content Words = информация или значение
Function Words = слова, необходимые для грамматического построения предложений
Иными словами, content words дают нам важную пояснительную информацию о словах в предложении, а function — связывают эти слова в предложении между собой.
Виды знаменательных слов или content word types
Самостоятельные слова чаще всего выступают в роли существительного, глагола, прилагательного или наречия. Самостоятельное слово в качестве существительного указывает на объект, а глагола — на происходящее действие или состояние. Прилагательные же дают нам информацию о предмете, в то время как наречия говорят о том, как, где и когда было совершено действие. При этом, все перечисленные части речи в качестве самостоятельных слов предоставляют необходимые для понимания ситуации данные.
Имя существительное = человек, предмет или место
Глагол = действие или состояние
Имя прилагательное = описание предмета, человека, места или объекта
Наречие = описание предмета, человека, места или объекта
Например:
Building — здание (имя существительное, указывает на объект).
Phoebe — Фиби (имя собственное, указывает на человека).
River — река (имя существительное, указывает на объект).
Science — наука (имя существительное, указывает на объект).
Box — коробка (имя существительное, указывает на предмет).
Smile — улыбаться (глагол, указывает на действие).
Buy — покупать (глагол, указывает на действие).
Learn — учить (глагол, указывает на действие).
Take care about — заботиться (глагол, указывает на действие).
Trust — доверять (глагол, указывает на состояние).
Light — светлый (имя прилагательное, описывает предмет).
Difficult — сложный (имя прилагательное, описывает действие/ситуацию).
Kind — добрый (имя прилагательное, описывает человека).
Chip — светлый (имя прилагательное, описывает предмет).
Tender — мягкий (имя прилагательное, описывает предмет).
Slow — медленный (имя прилагательное, описывает действие/ситуацию).
Quickly — быстро (наречие; описывает действие).
Carefully — осторожно (наречие; описывает действие).
Often — часто (наречие; описывает действие).
Slowly — медленно (наречие; описывает действие).
Кроме всех перечисленных выше частей речи, самостоятельные слова также могут выступать в роли:
- Отрицательных частиц/слов: no, not и never.
- Указательных местоимений: this, that, these и those.
- Вопросительных слов: what, where, when, how and why.
Виды функциональных слов или function word types
Функциональные слова соединяют слова в предложении. Функциональными словами могут быть вспомогательные глаголы, предлоги, артикли, союзы и местоимения. Вспомогательные глаголы указывают на время (например: Present Simple, Past Perfect и т. д.), предлоги — на пространственно-временные отношения слов в предложении. Артикли говорят о числе и конкретике, а местоимения указываю на существительное (объект, человека).
К вспомогательным глаголам относятся все формы do, have, be.
Артикли: a/an, the.
Например:
In — в (предлог, указывает на пространственно-временные отношения).
At — в/на (предлог, указывает на пространственно-временные отношения).
Between — между (предлог, указывает на пространственно-временные отношения).
Under — под (предлог, указывает на пространственно-временные отношения).
And — и (союз).
But — но (союз).
So — так (союз).
As — как, согласно (союз).
Since — с тех пор, как (союз).
Ours — наш (местоимение).
I — я (местоимение).
We — мы (местоимение).
Him — его (местоимение).
Знать о существовании самостоятельных и функциональных слов важно не только для общего развития, но и потому что первые всегда выделяются во время разговора (ударение). Функциональные же слова не выделяются интонационно. Таким образом, изучив эту статью вы значительно улучшите свои коммуникационные навыки и станете еще ближе к чистой британской речи.
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WORD CLASSES: OPEN CLASS Content words GLIEZEL L. CABALTICAN
WORD A minimum free form (Bloomfield) Smallest form that can own by itself
OPEN CLASS Open class words (content words) carry semantic contents. We can and regularly add new words to these classes. Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs
STRUCTURAL GRAMMAR VS. TRADITIONAL GRAMMAR TRADITIONAL • Classify and identify words according to meaning I will water the plants. Did you plant these? It’s a planted evidence. Give me water. The watering can has a hole. STRUCTURAL • Classify and identify words according to form
Count ABSTRACT: difficulty, remark Common NOUN Non-count Proper CONCRETE: girl, chair ABSTRACT: music, anger CONCRETE: milk, gold, oxygen
A noun can be extended to a noun phrase. In the example phrases given below, the noun (in the first example) and the noun phrase (in the remaining examples) is in bold. Note how much the noun phrase can be extended by adding extra information each time. Dogs can be vicious Some dogs can be vicious Some of the bigger dogs in the dog pound can be vicious
ADJECTIVE (small hammer) DETERMINER NOUN (hammer) (such hammer) PREPOSITION (with the hammer)
Properties of nouns: Can be pluralized by adding /-s/ Can occur in frame: [Det (Adjective) ] Can be added with /-’s/ to show possession
NOUN FUNCTIONS Subject Barnabas chewed your loafers. (pre-verb) Your loafers were chewed by Barnabas. (post-verb) Direct Object of Transitive Verbs (post-transitive verb) We love Barnabas. Subjective Complement (post-linking verb) My favourite pet is Barnabas.
Indirect Object (between verb and DO) We give Barnabas some biscuits to eat. Object of the Preposition (Prepositional Complement) (after a preposition) These bones are for Barnabas. Object Complement (after DO) We named our dog Barnabas. Appositive (after another noun) Our old dog, Barnabas, died at the garage.
Noun Phrase Modifier The bedroom walls are all oak panels. Books are repaired in the Conservation Lab. Determinatives A determinative is a noun or noun phrase plus the possessive clitic (apostrophe s or s apostrophe) that indicates possession of or some other relationship to another noun or noun phrase. The cat is eating the dog’s food. My parents’ house is in the same part of town as mine.
A full verb is a word that tells what someone or something is, does or experiences. Transitive FULL VERBS Intransitive Commands Statements Yes-no questions Wh-questions
Command: Baste the chicken. Yes-no question: Did you baste the chicken? Are you finished talking? Wh-question: How will you baste the chicken? Why should I baste the chicken? Statement: Someone will baste the chicken.
Regular Verbs Irregular Verbs Base form dance clear sing cut throw -s form dances clears sings cuts throws -ing participle dancing clearing singing cutting throwing Past form danced cleared sang cut threw Past participle danced cleared sung cut thrown
Present and past participles of verbs may occur in noun or adjective positions depending on how they are used in the sentence or structure. Cooking Subject Cooking is what kept her alive. Direct Object Mrs. Josh loves cooking. Indirect Object She gave cooking a new name. Subject Complement Her hobby is cooking. Object of the Preposition She is so tired of cooking for you. Appositive His first love, cooking, will always be his first love.
Here are examples of present and participle forms of verbs used as adjectives. The lady was accompanied by a giggling maidservant. Note: The maidservant is giggling. (verb) Roy’s family sells woven baskets and mats.
Properties of verbs: Can be marked for tense, person and number Can receive /–ing/ suffix Can appear in frame: [Aux ] (Aux = ‘helping verb’) Can appear in frame: [Please ]
Exercise 1. You must use a good hammer for this job. 2. You must hammer the joists like this. 3. Jake is hammering the floor joists now. 4. Several hammers went missing yesterday. Question: Is hammer a noun or verb in the above sentences?
Adjectives are usually placed as subject complements ADJECTIVES Placed before the noun described if they are singleword adjectives Placed after nouns if they are clausal or phrasal
Subjective Complement That car is so expensive. Pre-noun position What an expensive car! Post-noun position This car, so expensive like a 4 -year college tuition, should be maintained properly. Phrasal adjective The lady in the blue dress is your new boss. Clausal adjective I want to meet the man who broke your heart into pieces.
An adjective gives the reader or speaker extra information about a noun or delimits it in some way. It can occur in two positions in a phrase: before the noun as in clear water, beautiful beaches, a terrible decision. The adjectives in these examples are said to be attributive, following any form of the verb be (e. g. am, is, was, been) and similar verbs (seem, appear, become) as in the water became clear, the beaches are beautiful. These adjectives are in predicative position.
Adverb of time may occur in sentence-initial or sentence-final positions. ADVERBS Adverbs of manner and place are usually found after the verb and may interchange their positions, provided that singlemodifiers come before phrase modifiers.
![Time initial: [Time+Sentence+Manner+Place] Yesterday, the dancers came quietly at the palace. Time final: [Sentence+Manner+Place+Time]](https://slidetodoc.com/presentation_image_h/210106b4ba707b9e05ccd137af57880a/image-23.jpg "Time initial TimeSentenceMannerPlace Yesterday the dancers came quietly at the palace Time final SentenceMannerPlaceTime")
Time initial: [Time+Sentence+Manner+Place] Yesterday, the dancers came quietly at the palace. Time final: [Sentence+Manner+Place+Time] The dancers came quietly at the palace yesterday. [Sentence+Place+Manner+Time] The dancer came here alone yesterday.
Mid-position adverbs are found in the middle of the sentence. These adverbs are adverbs of frequency and their position in the sentence depends on the verb they modify. Verb to be (is, are, was, were) – the adverb of frequency comes after the verb Action verb – the adverb of frequency comes before the verb Verb phrase – it is placed after the first auxiliary
![[verb to be + mid-position adverb] Jackson is usually early. [mid-position adverb + action](https://slidetodoc.com/presentation_image_h/210106b4ba707b9e05ccd137af57880a/image-25.jpg "verb to be midposition adverb Jackson is usually early midposition adverb action")
[verb to be + mid-position adverb] Jackson is usually early. [mid-position adverb + action verb] Jackson regularly cleans the car.
![[auxiliary + mid-position adverb + main verb] You should always listen to me. He](https://slidetodoc.com/presentation_image_h/210106b4ba707b9e05ccd137af57880a/image-26.jpg "auxiliary midposition adverb main verb You should always listen to me He")
[auxiliary + mid-position adverb + main verb] You should always listen to me. He has never been known to listen to anyone.
The traditional approach to adverbs has been to assign mainly those words which are made from adjectives by the addition of the ending –ly (quickly, hopelessly), plus certain other words which are difficult to classify, like not, just and soon. Their main function is to qualify the action of the verb in the clause in some way, but they can also be used to add more information to an adjective or other adverb e. g. awfully good, incredibly slowly. The class of adverbs is very wide-ranging in form and is used to add comments to many of the other word classes.
WORD CLASSES: OPEN CLASS JANUARY 23, 2015 Thank you for listening!
Words have two classes: content words and structure words.
Content words
Content words are the core words which give meaning to the sentence. They are the ones that we stress the most when we speak our sentences out loud. They can be nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs, according to the Oxford A-Z of Grammar and Punctuation by John Seely. ‘House’, ‘dance’, ‘bag’ and ‘suit’ are examples of content words.
The free dictionary online http://www.thefreedictionary.com/content+word defines ‘content word’ as “a word to which an independent meaning can be assigned”.
Structure words (or sometimes called function words)
Words like ‘so’, ‘but’ and ‘however’ are all examples of ‘structure words’ (or function words). These are less likely to be emphasised or stressed when you speak a sentence out loud. If speaking to a baby or trying to communicate to someone who doesn’t understand English very well, we could get our message across by missing out the structure words.
The free dictionary online http://www.thefreedictionary.com/function+word defines ‘function word’ (or structure word) as “a word that is uninflected and serves a grammatical function but has little identifiable meaning”.
Now for a sentence…
“Yoga is extremely good for your posture”
If you were to say the sentence out loud, you would tend to stress the words in bold (the content words) and put less stress on the others (the structure words).
As with most things there are always exceptions. There may be times when you want to stress a structure word. In the sentence above you may be debating with someone who thinks that running is good for your posture but yoga isn’t. In that case you may need to emphasise the word ‘is’.
That’s it for today. Don’t forget that you can subscribe to receive my daily blogs by email so that you don’t miss any. Just click ‘sign me up’ on the home page. Alternatively you can follow my blogs on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/madeirasandraor my new Tips and Luxuries Facebook page. Requests for future blogs (punctuation/grammar/writing tips) are always welcome.
Until tomorrow…
Sandra
My writing challenge: http://wp.me/p1x6Ui-4
This blog: https://mywritingnotebook.wordpress.com
My other blog: http://sandramadeira.wordpress.com
My website: www.tipsandluxuries.com (includes the introduction to my upcoming book ‘A Gift for Stressed and Busy Parents’)
Twitter: @madeirasandra and @tipsandluxuries
Reference list:
John Seely The Oxford A-Z of Grammar & Punctuation, USA
The free dictionary online: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/content+word
About Sandra Madeira
I am a full-time working mum with a passion for writing and inspiring others. Subjects I tend to blog about are life skills, parenting, decluttering, worklife balance, etc.
At the moment I am on a decluttering mission creating space in my house, garden and mind. I have challenged myself to do at least ten minutes a day and write about it.
Have a good day!
Sandra
Freelance Writer
www.sandramadeira.com