The
definition of a part of speech is a class of words based on the word's
function, the way it works in a sentence. In the English language, words can be
considered as the smallest elements that have distinctive meanings. Based on
their use and functions, words are categorized into several types or parts of
speech. There are 8 major parts of speech, but this article will offer
definitions and examples for the 5 major parts of speech in English grammar:
noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, and adjective.
1.
Noun
A noun is a part of speech that
denotes a person, animal, place, thing, or idea. The English word noun has its
roots in the Latin word nomen, which means “name.” Every language has words
that are nouns. As you read the following explanations, think about some words
that might fit into each category.
- Person – A term for a person, whether proper name, gender, title, or class, is a noun.
- Animal – A term for an animal, whether proper name, species, gender, or class is a noun.
- Place – A term for a place, whether proper name, physical location, or general locale is a noun.
- Thing – A term for a thing, whether it exists now, will exist, or existed in the past is a noun.
- Idea – A term for an idea, be it a real, workable idea or a fantasy that might never come to fruition is a noun.
a.
Types
of Noun
·
They are Abstract or Concrete
Abstract nouns are
words that name things that are not concrete. Your five physical senses cannot
detect an abstract noun – you can’t see it, smell it, taste it, hear it, or
touch it. In essence, an abstract noun is a quality, a concept, an idea, or
maybe even an event. Examples:
- I want to see justice served.
- I’d like the freedom to
travel all over the world.
Concrete nouns are
words used for actual things you can touch, see, taste, feel, and hear – things
you interact with every day. Notice that concrete nouns can also be countable,
uncountable, common, proper, and collective nouns. Some concrete noun examples
are included in the following sentences. Examples:
- Please remember
to buy oranges.
- Have a seat in
that chair.
·
They are Proper or Common
Proper nouns have
two distinct features: They name specific one-of-a-kind items, and they begin
with capital letters, no matter where they occur within a sentence.
Common nouns are
words used to name general items rather than specific ones. Common nouns are
everywhere, and you use them all the time, even if you don’t realize it. The
takeaway is this: common nouns are general names and unless they are part of a
title like Postmaster General or begin a sentence, they’re not usually
capitalized. Examples :
- Common noun: Let’s
go to the city.
- Proper noun: Let’s
go to San Francisco
·
Most are singular or plural, but
When a noun indicates
one only, it is a singular noun. When a noun indicates more than one, it is
plural. Examples :
- The boy had a baseball in
his hand.
- You stole
my idea and didn’t give me any credit.
A plural noun is a
word that indicates that there is more than one person, animal place, thing, or idea. When you talk about
more than one of anything, you’re using plural nouns. Examples :
- The boys were throwing baseballs back
and forth between bases.
- You stole my ideas and didn’t
give me any credit.
·
Some are Collective.
Collective nouns are words for
single things that are made up of more than one person, animal, place, thing,
or idea. You can’t have a team without individual members; even so, we discuss
a team as a single entity. Examples :
-
Our class took a field trip to the natural history museum.
-
Napoleon’s army was finally defeated at Waterloo.
2.
Pronoun
In grammar, a pronoun
is defined as a word or phrase that may be substituted for a noun or noun phrase, which once replaced, is known as
the pronoun’s antecedent. Pronouns can do everything that nouns can do. A
pronoun can act as a subject, direct object, indirect object, object of
the preposition and more. Without pronouns, we’d have to keep
on repeating nouns, and that would make our speech and writing repetitive, not
to mention cumbersome. Most pronouns are very short words. Examples : He, She,
They, It.
a.
Types
of Pronoun
- Indefinite Pronouns – Indefinite pronouns are those referring to one or more unspecified objects, beings, or places. They are called “indefinite” simply because they do not indicate the exact object, being, or place to which they refer. Examples : Many are called, but few are chosen.
- Personal pronouns – A personal pronoun is a pronoun that is associated primarily with a particular person, in the grammatical sense. When discussing “person” in terms of the grammatical, the following rules apply : first person, as in “I”, second person, as in “you”, third person, as in “It, he, she”. Examples: You need to stop lying to me.
- Reflexive pronouns – reflexive pronoun indicates that the person who is realizing the action of the verb is also the recipient of the action. Examples: I was in a hurry, so I washed the car myself.
- Demonstrative pronouns – A demonstrative pronoun is a pronoun that is used to point to something specific within a sentence. These pronouns can indicate items in space or time, and they can be either singular or plural. Examples: This was my mother’s ring.
- Possessive pronouns – Those designating possession or ownership. Possessive pronouns are those designating possession. Examples: Our car is a lot faster than my car, This is my cat, not your cat.
- Relative pronouns – Those which refer to nouns mentioned previously, acting to introduce an adjective (relative) clause. he most common are which, that, whose, whoever, whomever, who, and whom. Examples: The book, when it was finally returned, was torn and stained, The pants that I bought yesterday are already stained.
- Interrogative pronouns – Those which introduce a question. An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun which is used to make asking questions easy. The five interrogative pronouns are what, which, who, whom, and whose. Examples: What do you want for dinner?, Which shirt do you think looks better on me?
- Reciprocal pronouns – A reciprocal pronoun is a pronoun which is used to indicate that two or more people are carrying out or have carried out an action of some type, with both receiving the benefits or consequences of that action simultaneously. There are only two reciprocal pronouns : Each other, One another. Examples: Maria and Juan gave each other gold rings on their wedding day, The kids spent the afternoon kicking the ball to one another.'
- Intensive pronouns – Those ending in self or selves and that serve to emphasize their antecedents. The following list contains the most commonly used examples of intensive. Examples: The team knew that they themselves were responsible for playing their best, Jesse wondered aloud whether he himself was the only one seeing what was happening.
3.
Verb
A verb is one of the
main parts of a sentence or question in English. In fact, you can’t have a sentence
or a question without a verb! That’s how important these “action” parts of
speech are. The verb signals an action, an occurrence, or a state of being.
Whether mental, physical, or mechanical, verbs always express activity.
a.
Types
of Verbs
- Action Verbs - Action verbs express specific actions, and are used any time you want to show action or discuss someone doing something. Examples: run, walk, do, drive. -I’ll do my homework when I get home.
- Transitive Verbs - Transitive verbs are action verbs that always express doable activities. These verbs always have direct objects, meaning someone or something receives the action of the verb. Examples: Richard annoys his boss so much that he’ll never get a promotion. (His boss is the direct object of annoys and a promotion is the direct object of get).
- Intransitive Verbs - Intransitive verbs are action verbs that always express doable activities. No direct object follows an intransitive verb. Examples : The bomb exploded in the city center. (Exploded is followed by a preposition of place with no direct object.)
- Auxiliary Verbs - Auxiliary verbs are also known as helping verbs, and are used together with a main verb to show the verb’s tense or to form a question or negative. The most common auxiliary verbs are have, be, and do. Examples : Does Sam write all his own reports?
- Stative Verbs - Stative verbs can be recognized because they express a state rather than an action. They typically relate to thoughts, emotions, relationships, senses, states of being, and measurements. Examples : Paul feels rotten today. He has a bad cold.
- Modal Verbs - Modal verbs are auxiliary verbs that are used to express abilities, possibilities, permissions, and obligation. Modal verbs are : Can/could/be able to, May/might, Shall/should, Must/have to, Will/would. Examples : - Could I have your number?
- Phrasal Verbs - A phrasal verb is a combination of words (a verb + a preposition or verb +adverb) that when used together, usually take on a different meaning to that of the original verb. Examples : - Be sure to put on a life jacket before getting into the boat.
- Irregular Verbs - Irregular verbs are verbs that don’t take on the regular –d, -ed, or -ied spelling patterns of the past simple (V2) or past participle (V3). Many of the irregular V2 and V3 forms are the same, such as: cut – cut, had – had, let – let, hurt – hurt, fed- fed, sold-sold.
4.
Adverb
An adverb is a word
that is used to change or qualify the meaning of an adjective, a verb, a clause, another adverb, or any other type of word or phrase with the
exception of determiners and adjectives that directly modify nouns.
a.
Types
of Adverb
- Many adverbs end in “-ly”. This makes it very easy to spot the adverbs in most sentences. Ex: Abruptly, Boldly, Carefully, Deliberately, Excitedly.
- Some adverbs tell us where the action happened. These are known as adverbs of place. Ex : Everywhere, Here, Inside, There, Underground
- Certain adverbs let us know when or how often the action happened. These are known as adverbs of time and adverbs of frequency. Ex : After, Always, Before, Later, Now, Today, Yesterday
- Certain adverbs called adverbs of manner tell us about the way in which something was done. Ex : Briskly, Cheerfully, Expectantly, Randomly, Willingly
5.
Adjective
Adjectives are words
that describe or modify other words, making your writing and speaking much more
specific, and a whole lot more interesting. Words like small, blue,
and sharp are descriptive, and they are all examples of
adjectives. Because adjectives are used to identify or quantify individual
people and unique things, they are usually positioned before the noun or pronoun that they modify. Some sentences contain
multiple adjectives.
a.
Types of
Adjectives
- Articles - There are only three articles, and all of them are adjectives: a, an, and the. Because they are used to discuss non-specific things and people, a and an are called indefinite articles. Example: - Let’s go on an adventure. The Grand Canyon mule ride sounds perfect!
- Possessive Adjectives - As the name indicates, possessive adjectives are used to indicate possession. They are: My, Your, His, Her, Its, Our, Their.
- Demonstrative Adjectives - Like the article the, demonstrative adjectives are used to indicate or demonstrate specific people, animals, or things. These, those, this and that are demonstrative adjectives. Examples : - These books belong on that.
- Numbers Adjectives - When they’re used in sentences, numbers are almost always adjectives. You can tell that a number is an adjective when it answers the question “How many?”. Examples : - The stagecoach was pulled by a team of six.
- Interrogative Adjectives - There are three interrogative adjectives: which, what, and whose. Like all other types of adjectives, interrogative adjectives modify nouns. As you probably know, all three of these words are used to ask questions. Examples : - Which option sounds best to you?
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