Parts Of Speech

Words are divided into different kinds of classes, called Parts Of Speech. The parts of speech are eight in number.
   1. Noun
   2. Adjective
   3. Pronoun
   4. Verb
   5. Adverb
   6. Preposition
   7. Conjunction
   8. Interjection

1. Noun:- A noun is defined as a word which names  a person,thing or place.
               ex: Rahul, Eraser, Chennai.
   Noun is further divided in to two groups.They are proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are nouns which begin with a capital letter because it is the name of specific person, place or thing. ex:- February, Pacific Ocean,etc.,Common nouns do not begin with capital letters.ex: children, book.

2. Adjective:- An adjective is a word which describes or add something to the meaning of a noun.
                     ex:- Lazy brown dog, Sweet little girl.

3.Pronoun:-  A pronoun is often described as a word which can be used instead of a noun.
                     ex:- Deepak is absent, because he is ill.

4. Verb:- A verb is often defined as a word which shows action or state of being.
              ex:- Chennai is a big city.
                     Iron and copper are useful metals.

5. Adverb:- An adverb is a word used  to add something to the meaning of a verb, an adjective, or another      
                  adverb.
                  ex:- I always do my homework.
                         She rarely eats big breakfast.

6. Preposition:- A preposition is a word  which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. The
                        relationship includes direction,place,time,cause,manner and amount.
                       ex:- They will be there at 3pm.
                              It is under the table.

7. Conjunction:- A conjunction is a word that connects other words or group of words.
                         ex:- Harshini and Aiswarya are friends.
                                Preeti will be there on Monday or Tuesday.

8. Interjection:-  An Interjection is a word which expresses some sudden feelings.
                         ex:- Hurrah! We have won the game.

The Noun : Kinds Of Noun

          A noun is a word used as the name of a person,place or thing.ex: Hyderabad, Box, Ram.There are seven different types of nouns in the English language that we use to convey the meaning of a name.

Categories of Noun

 1.Common Noun : Common nouns refer to a general class of person, place or thing. For example: boy, forest and rock--these words refer to a category of noun, rather than to the special title of a specific noun.

2.Proper Noun:Proper nouns are names that refer specifically to the identity of certain special nouns. Proper nouns include the names of people (Jonathan), geographical names (Australia), brand names (Kleenex), institutional names (Bank of America) as well as titles of film, literature and artwork (Deer Hunter). Proper nouns are always capitalized.

3. Collective Noun: A collective noun refers to a group or collection of nouns with one word. Consider for example the first word in each of the following phrases: flock of geese, pack of cigarettes, crowd of people, and bundle of sticks.

4.Abstract Noun: Abstract nouns refer to concepts that we objectify in thought and speech but have no material form. Examples of abstract nouns include hope, desire, fear and anguish. These nouns are unique, for we may treat them as objects in a sentence, yet they do not exist as objects in the physical realm, as do other nouns.

5.Compound Noun: Compound nouns are nouns that consist of two or more words combined. Some compound nouns are hyphenated (jack-in-the-box); others consist of separate words (board of trustees); and some compound nouns are two or more words combined without a hyphen (manslaughter).

6.Countable Noun: Count nouns are nouns that may be counted in numbers; for example, two eggs, three trucks, four birds. To express plurality, we may add an "s" to the end of the word; in some cases we must add "es": bushes, rushes, brushes
.

7. Uncountable Noun: Mass nouns, also called non-count nouns, are nouns that may not be counted, such as milk, water and sunlight. These nouns may be quantified by certain constants (jar of milk, rays of sunlight), but we may not number them in the standard plural fashion (three milks, two sunlights)
.

Adjectives - Kinds of Adjectives

 A word used with a noun to describe or point out, the person, animal, place, or thing which the noun names, or tell the number or quantity, is called an Adjective.
ex: The girl is lazy.
     The truck-shaped balloon floated over the treetops.

Kinds Of Adjectives

1.Adjectives of quality

Adjectives of quality describe the kind, quality or characteristic of a person, animal, place or thing.

He is a clever boy.

She is a brilliant student.

He is an honest man.  


2. Adjectives of quantity

Adjectives of quantity describe how much of a thing is meant. Examples are: some, any, little, enough, all, much etc.

We need some rice.

He drank all the milk.

Is there any milk in the bottle?

3.Adjectives of Number

Adjectives of number indicate how many persons or things are meant. Examples are: few, many, several, two, five, second, fifth etc. 

Two girls came.

She is the first woman to climb Mt. Everest.

He has written many books.

4. Distributive adjectives

Each, every, either and neither are called distributive adjectives. 

She had a child hanging onto each hand.

I have invited every friend I have.

5. Demonstrative adjectives

This, that, these and those are called demonstrative adjectives.

Bring me that chair.

Who is this girl?

Those mangoes are all ripe.

6. Interrogative adjectives

Interrogative adjectives are used with nouns to ask questions. Examples are: which, what, whose etc.

Which shirt shall I buy?

Whose son is he?

7. Possessive adjectives

Possessive adjectives indicate possession. Examples are: my, his, her, our, their, your, its.

He is my father.

She is our teacher.

Is this your bag?

Order Of objectives

Where a number of adjectives are used together, the order depends on the function of the adjective. The usual order is:

  Value/opinion -- delicious,lovely,charming

  Size -- small,huge.tiny

  Age/Temperature -- old,hot,young

  Shape -- round,square,rectangular

  Colour -- red.yellow,blue

  Origin -- Indian,Chinese,Japanese 

  Material -- plastic,wooden,gold

Examples:

• a lovely old red post-box
• some small round plastic tables
• some charming small silver ornaments

   

Function Of Adjectives

Adjectives tell us more about a noun. 

They can:

Describe feelings or qualities:

He is a lonely man 

They are honest people

Give nationality or origin:

Pierre is French

This clock is German

Our house is Victorian

Tell more about a thing's characteristics:

A wooden table.

The knife is sharp.

Tell us about age:

He's a young man

My coat is very old

Tell us about size and measurement:

John is a tall man.

This is a very long film.

Tell us about colour:

Paul wore a red shirt.

The sunset was crimson and gold.

Tell us about material/what something is made of:

It was a wooden table

She wore a cotton dress

Tell us about shape:

A rectangular box

A square envelope

Express a judgement or a value:

A fantastic film

Grammar is boring.

Formation Of Adjectives

Adjectives  formed from Nouns:-

                                 Adjectives can be formed from nouns. For example, the adjective foolish is formed from the noun fool. Similarly the adjective courageous is formed from the noun courage. Some mor examples are given below.

Silk: silken
Dirt: dirty
Gold: golden
Glory: glorious
Man: manly
King: kingly

Adjectives formed from Verbs:-

                             Talk (verb): talkative (adjective)

                             Move (verb): movable (adjective)

                             Tire (verb):   tireless(adjective)

Adjectives formed from other Adjectives:- 

                            Black (adjective): blackish (adjective)

                            White (adjective): whitish (adjective)
                            Sick (adjective): sickly (adjective)

Comparison Of Adjectives

Comparative Form and Superlative Form (-er/-est)

Positive Form

Use the positive form of the adjective if the comparison contains one of the following expressions:
as … as

Example: Jane is as tall as John.

not as … as / not so … as

Example: John is not as tall as Arnie.

• one-syllable adjectives (clean, new, cheap)
• two-syllable adjectives ending in -y or -er (easy, happy, pretty, dirty, clever)

positive form	comparative form	superlative form
clean	cleaner	(the) cleanest

Comparative Form and Superlative Form (more/most)

• adjectives of three or more syllables (and two-syllable adjectives not ending in -y/-er)

positive form	comparative form	superlative form
difficult	more difficult	most difficult

 

Comparative Form and Superlative Form

positive form	comparative form	superlative form
good	better	best
bad / ill	worse	worst
little (amount)	less	least
little (size)	smaller	smallest
much / many	more	most
far (place + time)	further	furthest
far (place)	farther	farthest
late (time)	later	latest
late (order)	latter	last
near (place)	nearer	nearest
near (order)	-	next
old (people and things)	older	oldest
old (people)	elder	eldest

Article

An article is a kind of adjective which is always used with and gives some information about a noun.  There are only two articles a (or an)and the, but they are used very often and are important for using English accurately.
         
The is called the definite article because it refers to a particular person or thing in the sentence.

EX.— The woman walks.
EX.— The girls play.
EX.— The dog runs.
       
In these sentences we refer to a particular woman, girl, and dog with a definite article. The definite article is used both with singular and plural forms of the noun.

The indefinite article a (or an) indicates any one of the things for which the noun stands.

EX.— A girl, a car, a computer .

A is used before words beginning with a consonant sound, including h, a long u or eu, and before one, once.

EX.— a house, a car, a historical fact, a beer, a long passage, such a one, a once popular singer.

EX.— An hour, an instant, an order, an apple, an urgent request, an evening, an honest person.

NOTE— An is used before words beginning with a vowel sound. , e.g., an eye, an eagle, an oyster, an envelope. 

VERB

The part of speech  that describes an action or occurrence or indicates a state of being. The verb is the heart of the sentence. Every sentence must have a verb.
Ex: The dog bit the man, bit is the verb 

Unlike most of the other parts of speech, verbs change their form.  Sometimes endings are added (learn - learned) and sometimes the word itself becomes different (teach-taught).  The different forms of verbs show different meanings related to such things as tense (past, present, future), person (first person, second person, third person), number (singular, plural) and voice (active, passive). Verbs are also often accompanied by verb-like words called modals (may, could, should, etc.) and auxiliaries(do, have, will, etc.)  to give them different meanings.

Adverb

An adverb can be added to a verb to modify its meaning. Usually, an adverb tells you when, where, how, in what manner or to what extent an action is performed. Very many adverbs end in '...ly' - particularly those that are used to express how an action is performed. Although many adverbs end 'ly', lots do not, e.g., fast, never, well, very, most, least, more, less, now, far and there.



Examples:

Anita placed the vase carefully on the shelf.
(The word 'carefully' is an adverb. It shows how the vase was placed.)

Tara walks gracefully.
(The word 'gracefully' is an adverb. It modifies the verb 'to walk'.)

Types of Adverbs

Although there are thousands of adverbs, each adverb can usually be categorised in one of the following groupings:

Adverbs of Time 

Press the button now.
('now' - adverb of time)

I tell him daily.
('daily' - adverb of time)

Adverbs of Place 

Daisies grow everywhere.
('everywhere' - adverb of place)

I did not put it there.
('there' - adverb of place)

Adverbs of Manner 

He passed the re-sit easily.
('easily' - adverb of manner)

The lion crawled stealthily.
('stealthily' - adverb of manner)

Adverbs of Degree 

That is the farthest I have ever jumped.
('farthest' - adverb of degree)

He boxed more cleverly.
('more cleverly' - adverb of degree and manner.)

Adverbs Can Modify Adjectives and Other Adverbs

Although the term 'adverb' implies that they are only used with verbs, adverbs can also modify adjectives and other adverbs:

Examples:

The heavenly blue light shone on the water.
(The adverb 'heavenly' modifies the adjective 'blue'.)

Peter had an extremely ashen face.
(The adverb 'extremely' modifies the adjective 'ashen'.)

Subject & Predicate

Every complete sentence contains two parts : a subject and a predicate.The subject is what (or whom) the sentence is about.

•  occurs at the beginning of the sentence (position),
•  consists of a noun phrase (form), and
•  indicates the topic of the discussion (meaning).

ex:   The boy, his sister, and his dog went swimming.

  

 While the predicate tells something about the subject.

The predicate

•      follows the subject,
•      starts with a verb indicating an action or state of being,                     
•      conveys a thought about the subject.

               ex:  Sita is  beautiful.

               He supervised th project.

               He drank a lot in the party.   

        

THE SENTENCE

A group of words that makes complete sense is called a sentence.
Example:
color blue favorite is My. (makes no sense, therefore it is not a sentence)
My favorite color is blue. (makes complete sense, therefore it is a sentence) There are four kinds of sentences:
1. Assertive or declarative sentence (a statement)
2. Imperative sentence (a command)
3. Interrogative sentence (a question)
4. Exclamatory sentence (an exclamation) 
1. An assertive sentence is a sentence that states a fact. Such sentences are simple statements. They state, assert, or declare something.
Examples:
Jan is a student. She lives in a big city. 
2. Imperative sentence is a sentence which gives a command, makes a request, or express a wish.
Examples:
Go to your room. (an order)
Please lend me your book. (a request)
Have a good time at the picnic. (a wish) 
3. Exclamatory sentence is a sentence that expresses sudden and strong feelings, such as surprise, wonder, pity, sympathy, happiness, or gratitude.
Example:
What a shame!
Boy, am I tired! 

4. Interrogative sentence: A sentence that asks a question is called an interrogative sentence.
Examples:
What is your name?
Where do you live?