English Language Proficiency 1

TOPIC 1 PARTS OF SPEECH

Contents:

1.9 CONJUNCTION
1.7 ADVERBS

1.10 INTERJECTION
1.8 PREPOSITIONS

1.2 NOUNS
1.1 PARTS OF SPEECH

1.6 VERBS

1.3 PRONOUNS
1.5 ADJECTIVES
1.4 DETERMINERS

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1.1 PARTS OF SPEECH IN ENGLISH

“Parts of speech/Word class” are the basic types of words that make up a
sentence. There most important parts of speech in English include nouns,
pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions and
interjections.

Here are the nine parts of speech and their most common meanings:

Part of function or examples

examples (words)
speech "job" (sentences)

is naming a
That is my new car.
thing, a Malar, cat, work, music,
Rita loves to drive
person, a city, Perlis, teacher,
Noun my Honda car.
place, Nurul, tiger, postman,
I bought it in
animals, or thought
Penang.
an idea

used in a Meera is my
I, you, he, she, we, they,
Pronoun place of a classmate. She is
some, several
noun very tall.

words
placed in
front of a
the, my, your, his, her, its,
noun to Can you pass
our, their, whose, this,
Determiners make it clear me the salt please?
that, these, those, which
what the
noun refers
to

expresses Pepsi is a drink. I

jump, move, drink,
Verb an action or like to drink Pepsi
(to) be, has, does, like
state with my friends.

describes a My son eats slowly.

verb, slowly, silently, well, When he is not very
Adverb
adjective or badly, very, really hungry, he eats
adverb really slowly.

a/an, the, some, good, My sister has small

describes a
Adjective big, well, beautiful, small, eyes. I don’t like her
noun
interesting small eyes.

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introduces
Zubaidah’s family
a noun to to, at, under, after, on,
Preposition went to London on
another but, through
Sunday.
word

I like chicken rice

and I like fish ball
joins
soup. I like chicken
phrases or
Conjunction and, but, because, or rice and fish ball
sentences
soup. I like chicken
together
rice but I don't like
fried rice.

expresses
emotion and
Wow! That’s
surprise,
hurray! oh!, ouch!, hi! beautiful. Hi! Glad to
Interjection usually
Oops! Wow! meet you.
followed by
exclamation
marks

1.2 CLASSES OF NOUNS

1.2.1 Proper Nouns

Proper nouns are special names given to persons, things or places

Examples:

Persons: Jafri, Lee Lim Kek, Manoharan, Elizabeth

Things: Honda, Mazda, Acer, Nokia

Places: Negeri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Museum

Negara

1.2.2 Common Nouns

Names given to person or things of the same kind.

Examples:

Persons: boys, schools, men, females

Things: cars, houses, tables, books

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1.2.3 Concrete Nouns

Concrete Nouns are names of things that we can see or touch.

Examples: pens, hammers, spoons, water

1.2.4 Abstract Nouns

Abstract Nouns are names of things that cannot be seen or touched

They can be concepts, ideas and emotions.

Examples: anger, happiness, love, kindness.

1.2.5 Collective Nouns

Collective Nouns refer to collections or groups of people, animals or things

Examples: a flight of birds, a herd of cattle, a bunch of grapes

1.2.6 Countable Nouns

i) Countable nouns can be counted.

Examples: three books, six elephants, cup, chairs, shirts

ii) Uncountable Nouns cannot be counted.

Examples: sugar, milk, oil, water, rice

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1.3 PRONOUNS

A pronoun is used in place of a noun.

1.3.1Common pronouns: she, he, him, I, it, me, her, they, us

Examples:

1. Muthu is a good footballer.

He is a good footballer. (The pronoun he replaces Muthu.)

2. The cats and dogs are fighting each other.

They are fighting each other. (The pronoun they replaces the cats and dogs.)

1.3.2 Possessive Pronouns

A possessive pronoun shows us who is the owner.

Examples: mine, yours, his, hers, its, mine, ours

The yellow car is mine.

Yours is parked next door.

1.3.3 Demonstrative Pronouns

A demonstrative pronoun refers to a noun.

Examples: this, that, these, those

That is a lovely painting.

Those are my sister’s shoes.

1.3.4 Interrogative Pronouns

An interrogative pronoun is used in a question.

Examples: who, what, whom, which, whose

i) Who told you that?

ii) Whose stapler is this?

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1.3.5 Indefinite Pronouns

An indefinite pronoun does not name particular person or thing.

Examples: nobody, all, any, both, each, everyone, few, many, nothing, several

i) Something is burning.

ii) Several people like watching horror movies.

1.3.6 Relative Pronouns

A relative pronoun introduces a clause that describes a noun.

Examples: this, that, which, who, whom, whose

i) This is the bag which my brother bought.

ii) Susan, whose uncle is a pilot, is a member of this Lions Club.

1.3.7 Reflexive Pronouns

A reflexive pronoun refers back to the noun or noun phrase.

Examples: herself, himself, itself, myself, ourselves, themselves, yourselves

i) Roja will learn to cook fried rice by herself.

ii) They built their camp by themselves.

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1.4 DETERMINERS

General and specific determiners

Determiners are words which come at the beginning of the noun phrase.
They tell us whether the noun phrase is specific or general.
Determiners are either specific or general

1.4.1 Specific determiners:

The specific determiners are:

a) the definite article: the

b) possessives: my, your, his, her, its; our, their, whose
c) demonstratives: this, that, these, those
d) interrogatives: which
We use a specific determiner when we believe the listener/reader knows exactly what
we are referring to:
Can you pass me the salt please?
Look at those lovely flowers.
Thank you very much for your letter.
Whose coat is this?

1.4. 2 General determiners:

The general determiners are:

 a; an; any; another; other; what

When we are talking about things in general and the listener/reader does not know
exactly what we are referring to, we can use an uncount noun or a plural noun with
no determiner:
Milk is very good for you. (= uncount noun)
Health and education are very important. (= 2 uncount nouns)
Girls normally do better in school than boys. (= plural nouns with no determiner)
… or you can use a singular noun with the indefinite article a or an:
A woman was lifted to safety by a helicopter.
A man climbing nearby saw the accident.

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We use the general determiner any with a singular noun or an uncount noun when we
are talking about all of those people or things:
It’s very easy. Any child can do it. (= All children can do it)
With a full licence you are allowed to drive any car.
I like beef, lamb, pork - any meat.
We use the general determiner another to talk about an additional person or thing:
Would you like another glass of wine?
The plural form of another is other:
I spoke to John, Helen and a few other friends.

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1.5 ADJECTIVES

An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or pronoun.

Examples:
i) Vino is a clever girl.

ii) I bought two shirts yesterday.

iii) You have to take great care of your health.

1.5.1 Adjectives of Comparison

There are three degrees of comparison.

-Positive

-Comparative
-Superlative

1.5.2 Positive used to describe nouns or pronouns.

Examples: thin girl, red shirt, good news

1.5.3 We use comparative adjectives to compare two things.

Example: taller than, cleverer than, thinner than

i) He is taller than me
ii) I am cleverer than her.

1.5.4 Superlative adjectives are used to compare three or more nouns

Examples: the most intelligent, the prettiest,

i) Munah is the prettiest girl in this room.
ii) The most intelligent boy in this school is our Eric.

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1.6 VERBS

A verb is a word used primarily to indicate a type of action.

Examples: jump, read, walk, sing, dance

Main Verbs are also called as Lexical Verbs

a) These verbs inform us of something.

Examples:

i) My classmates admired my new car.

ii) My lecturer cancelled his class just now.

b) These verbs give us an idea of an action.

Examples:

i) I gave Nurul my story book.

ii) The horse hopped quickly over the fence.

1.6.1 Auxiliary Verbs

These verbs have no real meaning

Examples: is, are, was, were, have, will, may

a) They often occur with another verb to help clarify the verb.

Examples:

i) The cat is running.

ii) He will sing.

b) They help to make a statement, give command or ask question

Examples:

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i) Will you come tomorrow?

ii) She has done her sewing.
iii) Have you bought him the rice?

1.7 ADVERBS

Adverbs modify verbs. They describe the verbs.

Example:

i) She walked to her room quickly.

- walked is a verb
-quickly is the adverb

1.7.1 Types of Adverbs

Adverb Adverb Adverb Adverb of Adverb Interrogative Adverb

of of of time frequency of adverb of
manner place degree reason
She They She Mohan will We are When did he Abu
drives saw the called visit again. so come? therefore
carefully. snake him last happy. left his
there. night. job.

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1.8 PREPOSITIONS

The types of preposition are as follows:

a) Preposition for Time
b) Preposition for Place
c) Preposition for Direction
d) Preposition for Agent
e) Preposition for Instrument
f) Prepositional Phrase

1.8.1 Preposition used for time of different natures are in, on at etc.

Preposition Time Nature

In 1. Month or Year.
e.g. in January, in 1985
2. Particular time of day or month or year
e.g. in morning, in evening, in first week of January, in summer, in
winter
3. Century or specific time in past etc
e.g. in 21st century, in stone age, in past, in future, in present

On 1. Day
e.g. on Monday
2. Date
e.g. on 5th of March, March 5

3. Particular day
e.g. on Independence Day, on my birthday,

At 1. Time of clock
e.g. at 5 O’clock, at 7:30 PM
2. Short and precise time
e.g. at noon, at sunset, at lunch time, at bed time, at the moment, at
the same time

Examples.
He was born in 1945.
She will go to New York on 25th of March.
The concert will begin at 7 O’clock.
He gets up early in the morning.
We enjoyed a lot in the summer.
The president will deliver speech to public on Independence Day.
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She received a lot gifts on her birthday.

Where were you at the lunchtime?
I will call you at 12 A.M
1.8.2 Preposition for Place. (in, on, at)

Prepositions “in, on or at” are usually used for different places.

 “In” is usually used for place which have some boundary (boundary may physical
or virtual).
 “On” is used for surface
 “At” is used for specific place.

Preposition Place Nature

In Place having some boundary (physical or virtual boundary)

Examples.
In hall
In school
In a building
In a box
In a car
In library
In garden
In America
In room
In cupboard

On Surface of something.
Examples.
On a table
On blackboard
On a page
On the wall
On the roof
On a map

At Specific Place.
Examples.
At the entrance
At the bottom of glass
At front of the chair
At bus stop
At the edge of roof

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Examples
She lives in New York.
Students study in library.
The wedding ceremony will be held in the hall.
There are some books on the table.
The teacher wrote a sentence on blackboard.
He was flying kite on the roof.
Her parents were waiting for her at the entrance of school
There was a huge gathering at bus stop.
His house is at the end of street.
1.2.3 Preposition for Direction. (to, toward, through, into)

Prepositions like to, towards, through, into are used to describe the direction. Following
examples will help in better understanding.
Examples.
She went to the library.
He jumped into the river.
He ran away when he felt that someone was coming toward him.

1.8.4 Preposition for Agent. (by)

Preposition for agent is used for a thing which is cause of another thing in the sentence.
Such prepositions are by, with etc. Following examples will help in better understanding.
Examples.
This book is written by Shakespeare.
The work was completed by him.
The room was decorated by her.
The tub is filled with water.

1.8.5 Preposition for device, instrument or machine.

Different preposition are used by different devices, instruments or machines. e.g. by,
with, on etc. Following examples will help in better understanding.
Examples.
She comes by bus daily.
He opened the lock with key.

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1.9 CONJUNCTIONS

They may be small words, but conjunctions are highly functional and very important for
constructing sentences. As you can see in the first sentence the coordinating
conjunctions "but" and “and” were used to link different parts of the sentence. This is the
main job of conjunctions. Basically, conjunctions join words, phrases and clauses
together.
Conjunctions Are Linking Words
There are three types of conjunctions: Coordinating, Subordinating and Correlative.
Each type joins together different parts of a sentence. The chart shown here is a list of
some of the most commonly used conjunctions.
1.9.1 Coordinating conjunctions like "and" "nor" or "so" link equal parts of a
sentence, be it words, phrases or clauses.

For example:
 He was late for school, so he took a shortcut.

 Her favorite colors were purple and red.

 She doesn't like coffee, nor does she like tea.
1.9.2 Subordinating conjunctions such as "because", "since" and "after" link a
dependent clause to an independent clause, helping to emphasize the idea
of the independent clause.

For example:
 Because it was raining, we had to cancel the class picnic.
 The house was a mess after the crazy party we had last night.

 He didn't go skiing any more, since he had the accident.

1.9.3 Correlative conjunctions work in pairs to join equal elements of a sentence
together, like "either/or", "such/that" and "not only/but also". For example:

 You can have either chocolate or vanilla ice cream.

 He not only plays the guitar but also the drums.

 Such was his strength that he was easily able to move the fallen tree.

Source:

http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/conjunctions/conjunctions.html#ZIIimM2lKwrqPowb.99

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1.10 INTERJECTIONS

Interjection:
The words which express happiness, sorrow, grief, surprise, hatred, attention,
approval, disapproval and dislike or disgust are called Interjection.
Exclamation sign(!) is used after the above words

Interjections: Showing the Author's Emotion

Here are some examples of interjections and their definitions:
Ahem - The sound of someone clearing their throat and means “attention” or
“listen”
Aah - This is used as a call for help or when someone is scared
Boo - Used to scare someone or to voice disapproval

Eh - This is used when you didn’t hear or understand what someone said
Eww - Ahows dislike or disgust
Hmm - This can mean you are thinking or hesitating
Jeez - Could mean you can’t believe something, or you are exasperated
Ooh-la-la - A slightly comical way to refer to something as fancy or special
Oops - An exclamation people use when they accidentally do something

Phew - This expresses relief or that you are glad something is over
Whoa - This can show surprise or amazement
Yahoo - Expresses joy or happiness
Yeah - This shows a very strong affirmation or approval
Yoo-hoo - This is used to get someone’s attention and is usually used by women
Zing - This is similar to a rim shot used in comic acts and emphasizes a clever
statement or comeback

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Interjections in a Sentence

Here are some interjections with an accompanying sentence:

1) Hurrah! We have won the match.
2) Bravo! You have done well

3) Oh dear! I don’t know what to do about this mess.

4) Oh No! I forgot my brother’s birthday.
5) Wow! That is a beautiful ball gown.

Bibliography

Azar, Betty Schrampfer, Donald A,Azar (1999), Fundamentals of English Grammar. 2nd ed :
Longman.

Samy. R.K. Kotayan et.al (2007). Making Sense of English Grammar. Selangor:Penerbitan
Pelangi Sdn. Bhd.

http://iteslj.org/cw/1/je-nouns.html

http://iteslj.org/cw/1/je-verbs.html

http://iteslj.org/cw/1/vm-adj.html

http://www.his.com/~pshapiro/elephant.story.html

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