A GUIDE to BASIC ENGLISH GRAMMAR

Chapter 2: PARTS OF SPEECH

✨ PARTS OF SPEECH ✨

Each of the word that is used in a sentence is used in a particular way to form the sentence. So, according to their functions in a sentence, the words are divided into different kinds or classes. These word classes are called Parts of Speech.

In English grammar, there are eight parts of speech:

1. Noun
2. Pronoun
3. Adjective
4. Verb
5. Adverb
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection

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✨ PHRASES AND CLAUSES ✨

Now, before we go into the details of these parts of speech, let us have a quick look at the phrases and the clauses. A separate chapter will be dedicated to this topic but to understand that chapter we need to get a brief overview of what these word classes are. So, we can say that both of these topic are interrelated.

A group of words that makes sense, but not complete sense, is called a Phrase. They have no Subject or Predicate of their own. For example,

i) Humpty dumpty sat on a wall.
ii) The sun rises in the east.
iii) He shot an arrow into the air.

A group of words which forms part of a larger sentence, and contains a Subject and a Predicate, is called a Clause. For example,

i) God helps those who help themselves.
ii) People who pay their debts are trusted.
iii) I think that you have made a mistake.

I hope these two are clear to you for now. A detailed chapter on this will posted later on. Now, let us see what are the parts of speech.

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✨ PARTS OF SPEECH ✨

# A NOUN is a word that is used as the name of a person, place, or thing. The one point that we should note over here is that the word ‘thing’ includes:

I) All objects that we can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell; and
II) Something that we can think of, but cannot perceive by senses.

For example,

a) Ashoka was a great king.
b) Varanasi is located on the bank of the river Ganga.
c) Her honesty won her honor.

# A PRONOUN is a word which is used in place of a noun. For example,

a) Namita will not come today, because she is not feeling well.
b) The books are still there where you kept them.
c) When the tiger saw the man, it pounced upon him.

# An ADJECTIVE is a word which is used to qualify or to add something to the meaning of a noun. For example,

a) He is a brave boy.
b) The roses have a sweet smell.
c) Twenty soldier lost their lives in the war.

# A VERB is a word which is used to express an action or a state. For example,

a) The poor girl cried bitterly.
b) He wrote a letter to his cousin.
c) Virtue is its own reward.

# An ADVERB is a word which is used to qualify or to add something to the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another verb. For example,

a) He worked the sum quickly.
b) This painting is very beautiful.
c) She pronounced the word quite correctly.

# A PREPOSITION is a word which is used with a Noun or Pronoun to show its relation to some other words in the sentence. For example,

a) The dog is sleeping on the table.
b) The teacher was teaching under the tree.
c) Ragini is fond of music.

# A CONJUNCTION is a word which is used to join words, phrases or sentences together. For example,

a) Two and two make four. (words)
b) He was a man of courage but of no reputation. (phrases)
c) She is fond of music, but hates dancing. (sentences)

# An INTERJECTION is a word which expresses some sudden feeling. For example,

a) Hurrah! We have won the game.
b) Alas! The poor girl is dead.

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✨ PLEASE NOTE ✨

~ Some modern grammars include determiners among the parts of speech. Determiners are words like a, an, the, this, that, these, those, every, each, some, any, my, his, one, two, etc., which determine or limit the meaning of the nouns that follow. However, in some traditional grammars, all determiners except a, an and the are classed among adjectives.

~ As words are divided into different classes according to the work they do in a sentence, we cannot determine to which part of speech a word belongs unless it is used in the sentence. For example,

i) They arrived soon after. (Adverb)
ii) They arrived after us. (Preposition)
iii) They arrived after we had left. (Conjunction)

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✨ PRACTICE EXERCISE ✨

Name the part of speech of each underlined word in the following sentences, giving in each case your reason for the classification:

1. I bought a beautiful dress at the mall.
2. What did she ask you to do?
3. I left my shoes under the kitchen table.
4. If we finish our work quickly we can go to the movies.
5. On Saturdays I work from nine to five.
6. I want to go to a university in the United States.
7. I’m sure I’ve met your girlfriend before.
8. Well, I don’t think I will be home before 6.
9. Andy knocked on the door but nobody answered.
10. After storm comes the calm.
11. Do you like dogs?
12. The group went climbing in the mountains.
13. He did well in the test.
14. The play was fantastic.
15. He threw a stone at her.
16. Stone walls do not make a prison.
17. Water the plants.
18. They eye her with suspicion.
19. Hark! The bugles call.
20. He is on the committee.

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✨ WORD OF THE WEEK ✨

LEGERITY (a noun)

Pronounced as: luh-jer-i-tee

Meaning:  physical or mental quickness; nimbleness; agility

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