Parts of Speech - Notes

Nouns and their kinds

Nouns are naming words. They are names of people, places, animals, things and ideas.

There are broadly four types of nouns:

1. Proper noun
Proper nouns are specific names given to people and places. They always begin with a capital letter.
Examples:
Agatha Christie wrote many books.
I can see Jupiter tonight.
There are many important documents at The Library of Congress.

2. Common noun
Common nouns are used to refer to general things rather than specific examples. Common nouns are
not normally capitalized unless they are used as part of a proper name or are placed at the beginning of
a sentence. Some common noun examples are included in the following sentences.
Be sure to pick a top university.
Stack those boxes carefully.
Would you like a cookie with your coffee?

3. Collective noun
A collective noun is a word that refers to a group. Some collective noun examples are included in the
following sentences.
Our team is enjoying an unbroken winning streak.
There’s a pack of hyenas outside.
Watch out for that swarm of bees.

4. Abstract noun
Abstract nouns are those referring to ideas, concepts, emotions, qualities, character traits and things
that one cannot see, touch, taste, smell or hear. Some examples can be seen in the following sentences.
Success seems to come easily to certain people.
His hatred of people smoking indoors is legendary.
She has an incredible love for nature.
This is of great importance.
He received an award for his bravery.

Abstract nouns can be formed from adjectives, verbs and common nouns.
Pronouns and their kinds
A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. The pronoun is used to avoid repetition of the noun in
writing.

Pronouns are classified into the following types:

1. Personal Pronouns
It refers to a specific person, object or group of things directly.
1st Person: I, me, mine, us, we
2nd Person: You, yours
3rd person: He, she, it, they, them, his, hers, him

2. Demonstrative Pronouns
It points out to a noun.
Near Far
Singular This That
Plural These Those

E.g. This is my bag.

Those are lovely umbrellas.

3. Possessive Pronouns
It describes a close possession or ownership to a noun.
E.g. mine, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs
The book is mine.

4. Interrogative Pronouns
An interrogative pronoun is a pronoun which is used to make asking questions easy. There are just five
interrogative pronouns: what, which, who, whom, and whose.
What do you want for dinner?
Which of these ladies is your mother?
Who was driving the car?
Whom do you live with?
There's one car missing. Whose hasn't arrived?

5. 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.
Indefinite pronouns include: any, anybody, anyone, either, neither, nobody, no, someone, some, every,
all, both,
each, any, some, several, enough, many, and much.
In the following examples, the indefinite pronouns are italicized.
Many are called, but few are chosen.
Somebody ate my sandwich!
Everyone says she is beautiful inside and out.
No one wants to hear about my health problems.

6. Reflexive Pronouns
A reflexive pronoun indicates that the person who is realizing the action of the verb is also the recipient
of the action. They end in – self or - selves
In the following examples of reflexive pronouns, the reflexive pronoun in each sentence is italicized.
1. I was in a hurry, so I washed the car myself.
2. You’re going to have to drive yourself to school today.
3. He wanted to impress her, so he baked a cake himself.

7. Emphatic / Intensive Pronouns

Emphatic pronouns like reflexive end in – self or – selves but they are placed immediately after the noun
or pronoun which they emphasize.
Examples.
• I myself checked all the paid bills. (‘myself’ emphasizes ‘I’)
• You yourself can write that article. (‘yourself’ emphasizes ‘you’)
• He himself attended that lecture. (‘himself’ emphasizes ‘he’)
Verbs
Verbs show:
1. Action
Eg: Harry eats his dinner quickly.
We went to the market.

2. State. They usually relate to thoughts, emotions, relationships, senses, states of being and
measurements.
eg: Fifi is my cat.
He has a bad cold.
The company appreciated his work.

3. Tense – when the action takes place.

Eg: Mom bakes a cake. (Present tense)
Mom baked a cake. (Past tense)
Mom will bake a cake. (Future tense)

Verbs can be divided into main verbs and helping verbs. Auxiliary (or Helping) verbs are used together
with a main verb to show the verb’s tense or to form a negative or question.
Do the children sleep early on weekdays?
The secretaries haven’t written all the letters yet.
Terry is writing an e-mail to a client at the moment.

If the helping verb is the only one appearing in the sentence it is treated as the main verb.
Eg: I have a headache.
List of helping verbs: is, are, was, were, has, have, had, do, did, does

A modal is a type of auxiliary (helping) verb that is used to express: ability, possibility, permission or
obligation.

can

Use Examples

ability to do in the present (substitute form: to be able to) I can speak English.

permission to do in the present (substitute form: to be allowed to) Can I go to the cinema?
Use Examples

Can you wait a moment,

request
please?

I can lend you my car till

offer
tomorrow.

Can we visit Grandma at the

suggestion
weekend?

possibility It can get very hot in Arizona.

2. could

Use Examples

ability to do in the past (substitute form: to be able to) I could speak English.

permission to do in the past (substitute form: to be allowed

I could go to the cinema.
to)

polite question * Could I go to the cinema, please?

polite request * Could you wait a moment, please?

Use Examples

polite offer * I could lend you my car till tomorrow.

Could we visit Grandma at the

polite suggestion *
weekend?

possibility * It could get very hot in Montana.

3. may

Use Examples

possibility It may rain today.

permission to do in the present (substitute form: to be allowed to) May I go to the cinema?

polite suggestion May I help you?

4. might

Use Examples

possibility (less possible than may) * It might rain today.

Use Examples

hesitant offer * Might I help you?

5. must

Use Examples

force, necessity I must go to the supermarket today.

possibility You must be tired.

advice, recommendation You must see the new film with Brad Pitt.

6. must not/may not

Use Examples

You mustn't work on dad's computer.

prohibition (must is a little stronger)

You may not work on dad's computer.

7. need not

Use Examples

is not necessary I needn't go to the supermarket, we're going to the restaurant tonight.

8. ought to

similar to should – ought to sounds a little less to do with emotions.

Use Examples

advice You ought to drive carefully in bad weather.

obligation You ought to switch off the light when you leave the room.

9. shall

used instead of will in the 1st person

Use Examples

suggestion Shall I carry your bag?

10. should

Use Examples

advice You should drive carefully in bad weather.

obligation You should switch off the light when you leave the room.

11. will

Use Examples

wish, request, demand, order (less polite than

Will you please shut the door?
would)

prediction, assumption I think it will rain on Friday.

promise I will stop smoking.

spontaneous decision Can somebody drive me to the station? - I will.

She's strange, she'll sit for hours without

habits
talking.
12. would

Use Examples

wish, request (more polite than will) Would you shut the door, please?

habits in the past Sometimes he would bring me some flowers.

Adjectives and their kinds
Adjectives describe nouns. The kinds of adjectives are:

1. Qualitative Adjective / Adjective of Quality

These adjectives add information and qualities to the words they’re modifying. They answer the
question what or which kind?
For example,
• The big fat cat rolled over in the mud. (What kind of cat? -The big fat kind.)
• Nashik is a small city.

2. Quantitative Adjective / Adjective of Quantity

Quantitative Adjectives are those Adjectives which describe the measurement i.e. count or amount of
any living beings or non-living things are called Quantitative Adjectives. However, the measurement is
not in exact numbers. They answer the question how much or how many.
For example:
Linda ate whole burger.
These ignorant people have no common sense.
I can see enough juice in the jug for the breakfast.

3. Adjective of Number
Those adjectives which are used to denote the number of nouns or the order in which they stand. They
are also commonly called Adjectives of Number.
In simpler terms we can say that Adjective of numbers tell us the number of people or things and
maintain clarity by giving exact information.
For example:
There are eight oranges in the bowl.
This is my fourth trophy as a football champion.

4. Demonstrative Adjective
Demonstrative adjectives are words that modify nouns and identify a specific noun or nouns.
Demonstrative adjectives answer the question: Which one?
Near Far
Singular This That
Plural These Those

For example:
That tree is beautiful.
These cookies are delicious.
Demonstrative adjectives and pronouns look very similar because they are the same four words: this,
that, these, those.
However, demonstrative pronouns function as pronouns, not adjectives. That is, demonstrative
pronouns replace nouns and do not modify them.

5. Possessive Adjective
A possessive adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun to show who (or what) owns something. For
example:
I am looking after her dog.
That is his baseball cap.
Here is a list of the possessive adjectives:
• my
• your
• his
• her
• its
• our
• their
• whose

6. Interrogative Adjective
Interrogative adjectives are words similar to interrogative pronouns, but they can’t stand on their own.
They are used with nouns to ask questions such as what, whose, where, and which.
For example:
Which lunch box is yours? (“which” word is an interrogative adjective that modifies lunch box)
What movie you are seeing to? (“what” word is an interrogative adjective that modifies movie)

7. Proper Adjective
Proper adjectives are formed from proper nouns and they are capitalized. Proper adjectives are mostly
of two types:
1. those that come from names of places—countries, continents, regions, cities
2. those that come from names of people—usually famous people, mostly historical, some modern
For example:
Have you ever experienced a Himalayan winter?
This is the most famous of the Buddhist temples here.
Adverbs and their kinds
Adverbs describe verbs.
Example: The nightingale sings beautifully.
‘Beautifully’ describes the verb ‘sings’.

Adverbs describe adjectives.

Example: The nightingale sang a very beautiful song.
‘very’ describes the adjective ‘beautiful’.

Adverbs describe other adverbs.

Example: The nightingale sang so beautifully.
‘So’ describes another adverb ‘beautifully’.

There are four types of adverbs:

1. Adverb of Manner (How)
Adverbs of Manner describe how and in what way the action of a verb is carried out. Most adverbs of
manner are formed by adding -ly to adjectives
For example:
He swims well.
He ran quickly.
She spoke softly.

2. Adverb of Place (Where)

An adverb of place always talks about the location where the action of the verb is being carried out.
• Adverbs of place are normally placed after a sentence’s object or main verb.
• Adverbs of place can be directional. For example: Up, down, around, away, north, southeast
• Adverbs of place can refer to distances. For example: Nearby, far away, miles apart
• An adverb of place can indicate an object’s position in relation to another object. For example: Below,
between, above, behind, through, around and so forth.
• Many adverbs of place indicate movement in a particular direction and end in the letters “-ward or -
wards”. For example: Toward, forward, backward, homeward, westward, eastwards onwards

Examples:
Put the cake there.
After a long day at work, we headed homewards.
Please bring that book here.
My grandfather’s house is nearby

3. Adverb of Time (When)

Adverbs of time tell us when an action happened, but also for how long,
For example:
Goldilocks went to the Bears' house yesterday.
I'm going to tidy my room tomorrow.
Later Goldilocks ate some porridge. (the time is important)
Goldilocks later ate some porridge. (this is more formal, like a policeman's report)
Goldilocks ate some porridge later. (this is neutral, no particular emphasis)
She stayed in the Bears' house all day.
My mother lived in France for a year.
The French monarchy lasted for several centuries.
I have not seen you since Monday.

4. Adverb of Frequency (How often)

Adverbs of frequency explain how often the verb occurs.
For example:
I rarely eat fast food these days.
Tom usually takes his dog for a walk before breakfast.

5. Adverb of Degree (to what degree/level)

It tells us the extent to which something happens.
For example:
The temperature was barely above freezing.
Our driveway is completely frozen.

Conjunctions
Conjunctions link words and sentences together. They are called as joining words.

Coordinating Conjunctions
for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

Correlative Conjunctions
both/and, either/or, neither/nor, not only/but, whether/or

Some Subordinating Conjunctions

after, although, as, as if, as long as, as much as, as soon as, as though, because, before, by the time,
even if, even
though, if, in order that, in case, in the event that, lest , now that, once, only, only if, provided that,
since, so,
supposing, that, than, though, till, unless, until, when, whenever, where, whereas, wherever, whether or
not, while.
Prepositions
Prepositions often tell us where one noun is in relation to another (e.g., The coffee is on the table beside
you). Prepositions indicate direction, time, location, and spatial relationships, as well as other abstract
types of relationships.
Direction: Look to the left and you’ll see our destination.

Time: We are working from morning.

Location: We saw a movie at the theater.

Space: The dog hid under the table.

A preposition isn't a preposition unless it goes with a related noun or pronoun, called the object of the
preposition.

Examples:
Let's meet before noon.
Before is a preposition; noon is its object.
We've never met before.
There is no object; before is an adverb modifying met.

Here is a list of prepositions that are most common.

• About
• above
• across
• against
• among
• around
• at
• before
• behind
• below
• beside
• between
• by
• on
• with
• into
• in
• inside
• through
• under