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 PARTS OF SPEECH [= Partes de la oración]

 Regardless of lexical divisions into syllables and graphemes (or letters), and phonological considerations
about clusters and phonemes (or sounds), words (= palabras) represent the smallest unit of meaning in
discourse, as far as writing is concerned. Words can be found isolated or together with other words in short
expressions or phrases (= sintagmas), which have a nucleus or head word as their main component and some
optional elements to vary their meaning; longer structures called clauses (= proposición o cláusula) with at least a
subject and a verb, which depend on the main part of a sentence to complete their meaning by adding some
nuances, and sentences (= frases u oraciones) themselves, which convey a completely meaningful idea of their
own, but which usually appear together in paragraphs to form texts. A text or discourse (= texto o discurso)
represents a wider unit of meaning displaying the connection and relationship between the different ideas
which appear inside it.

 Every word in a language belongs to a certain grammatical category depending on its function
within a sentence. Traditional grammar classifies words into 9 parts of speech:

1) The determiner 2) The noun 3) The pronoun

(= determinante) (= sustantivo /nombre) (= pronombre)

4) The adjective 5) The verb 6) The adverb

(= adjetivo) (= verbo) (= adverbio)

7) The preposition 8) The conjunction 9) The interjection

(= preposición) (= conjunción) (= interjección)

 The most meaningful word categories are verbs and nouns because they are heads (= núcleos) for the
PREDICATE and for the SUBJECT, respectively; along with adverbs and adjectives, which usually modify the
meaning of verbs and nouns. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs represent the 4 major word classes. The
remaining five categories or parts of speech are not less important because they also have their own role or job
within a sentence. Some of these 9 categories tend to appear usually together in clauses or as links between clauses.

 It NEEDS TO BE REMEMBERED that, for better or worse, some words in English have got the same
spelling (the same written form, although pronunciation may change), but they have different functions
depending on the context where they appear. In other words, there are words that can be classified under
different parts of speech with slightly different meanings, depending on how they are used. Consequently,
each part of speech explains how the word is used, and not what the word is. For example, the word fast can be either an
adjective (I’ve got a fast car) or an adverb (He runs really fast); words such as record or cook can be either nouns (The cook
has got a record) or verbs (The food they cook is delicious / Telephone companies record all conversations with costumers).

 Word-formation in English allows speakers to form new words or establish semantic relationships
between previously existing words belonging to different parts of speech or grammatical categories because they
share the same base. Some types of processes for the formation of new words are:
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1) Derivation or affixation (by means of affixes or morphemes with their own meaning to roots and stems
[prefixes = added at the beginning of a word; suffixes= added at the end]; infixes, which would be placed in the
middle of a word, are less common);
(im-) + possible  impossible // understand + (-able)  understandable
2) Compounding (two or more existing words are put together to form a new, single unit, which can be
 open [=the words remain separate], flower pot, cigarette break, bus stop, train station
 hyphenated [=the words are tied through a hyphen] hot-blooded, brown-eyed , unthought-of or
 solid [= there is one final, longer word]) pickpocket, bedroom, living room, lighthouse ;
3) conversion or functional shift (when words belonging to a specific part of speech are used with a different
grammatical function, and pronunciation and spelling changes may occur);
advice (noun)  advise (verb); breath (noun)  breathe (verb); transfer (noun)  transfer (verb)
4) back-formation (new-category words formed by deleting a supposed affix from an already existing word on
the analogy of actual cases);
edit  editor; donate  donation; televise  television; enthuse  enthusiasm
5) Abbreviation (by means of shortening the length of words:
 [acronymy: a new word is formed by the use of the initial letters in capitals of the constituent words in
a phrase or sentence, thus creating a unit which can be pronounced either as a word or as a sequence of
letters];
unidentified flying object  UFO; very important person  VIP; Federal Bureau of Investigations  FBI
 [clipping: informal or familiar words are formed by eliminating the initial part, the last part, or both, of
a polysyllabic word];
refridgerator  (re)fridge(rator)  fridge ; veterinarian  vet(erinarian)  vet; airplane  (air)plane  plane
 [blending: words are created by combining parts of two words, usually the beginning of one word and
the end of another]);
smog (smoke + fog); heliport (helicopter + airport); breathalyzer (breath + analyzer); brunch (breakfast + lunch)
6) Borrowing (words are adopted from other languages together with the concepts or realities they refer to, with
usual adaptations to the morphology and phonology of the host language so as to make them more natural);
mango, tango, siesta, fiesta (SPANISH); pizza, pasta, mafia (ITALIAN), mafia; fiancé, champagne (FRENCH) and
7) Invention or word coinage (new words are created from nowhere, either deliberately or accidentally, to refer to
new ideas, products or realities in the language);
Kleenex, Kodak, Nylon, snob, nerd
8) Symbolism (there is an internal change at both a morphological and a phonological level in some words,
resulting in irregular forms),
woman  women; mouse  mice; foot  feet; sing  sang  sung; ride  rode  ridden
9) Suppletion (there is a complete change in the form of a root, producing completely irregular forms,
unpredictable logically from the original), and
good/well  better, best; bad/badly  worse, worst; go  went; be  am, is, are  was, were
10) Morphological misanalysis or false etymology (new words are created due to the erroneous analysis of the
structure of some words and the corresponding misuse of some endings or beginning of words as false suffixes or
prefixes).
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hamburger  (-burger)  cheeseburger, pizzaburger; alcoholic  (-[a]holic)  workaholic, smokaholic, chocaholic

In some cases these processes can be combined to form more complex and longer words.

 Now let’s analyse each category more carefully:

 DETERMINERS:

a) FUNCTIONS:
To specify the kind of reference of the nouns they precede, by reference or quantification.
They come at the beginning of a noun phrase, but they are not adjectives, although they are
sometimes labelled as “determinative adjectives”.
Some determiners can also work as pronouns.
b) TYPES:
 Articles:
 definite (the): to refer to specific (singular and plural) nouns which are already known by or
familiar to all interlocutors.
 indefinite (a/an): to refer to singular, countable nouns in general or the first time we mention
something. [We use “an” when the next word starts with a vowel sound (phonetics). Be careful
because some words begin with a vowel (letter), but do not have a vowel sound.]
 zero (Ø =“no word”): sometimes the article is not necessary, when we refer to plurals in
general (Cars pollute more than bicycles) or to abstract nouns (Love and beauty are overrated).
 Demonstratives (this, that, these, those): to indicate to the spatial or temporal proximity [near] or distance
[far] of the thing or person denoted by the noun.
 Quantifiers: They express how much or how many we are talking about.
 indefinite:
 distributive (each, every, either, neither, another, other, each other, one another)
 quantitative:
- simple (some, any, no; all, both, none; more; less, the least; fewer, the fewest; much/many,
how much/how many, so much / so many, too much/too many; little/few, a little/ a few, so little/
so few, too little/too few; a lot of/lots of/plenty of/a great deal of ; enough; several; one)
 definite:
 cardinal numbers (one, two, three, four, five…): to indicate a specific quantity.
 ordinal numbers (first, second, third, fourth…): to refer to a concrete position or order.
 multiplicative (once, twice, three times, four times, five times)
 multiple (single, double, triple, quadruple, quintuple, sixfold, sevenfold)
 Possessives: They convey a sense of belonging or kinship to a group.
 adjectives (my, your, his, her, its, our, your, their): to identify the relationship between someone and
the thing or person denoted by the noun.
 saxon genitive / genitive case (John’s [car], the boys’ [games]): to identify more precisely the
relationship between someone and the thing or person denoted by the following noun.
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 NOUNS:

a) FUNCTIONS:
To identify a person, an object, a place, an animal, a quality or an idea by giving it a name.
They usually appear as the head word in noun phrases.
They usually have number inflexion (-s), but hardly ever gender distinction (female VS male).
b) TYPES:
 Common VS Proper:
 common (car, beauty, milk, dog, brother, table, piano): to refer to classes or categories of people,
places, animals or things. Most nouns are common nouns.
 proper (John, Mary, President Obama, Dr. Johnson, Mrs. Wilson, Lassie, England, Great Britain, Europe,
The Pyrenees, Atlantic ocean): to refer to the specific names of people, places, animals or brands of
things. They are written with a Capital Letter at the start.
 Singular VS Plural: BEWARE! Some singular nouns end in –s. Some nouns have irregular plurals.
 singular (honey, furniture, envelope, chair): to refer to the quantity of one or to things that
can’t be counted.
 plural (boys, ladies, children, teeth, birds): to refer to quantities of two or more, only for
things that can be counted.
 Concrete VS Abstract:
 concrete (table, laptop, pencil, mouse, shelf, door, coin): to refer to material objects that we can
physically see or touch.
 abstract (anger, enjoyment, sadness, poverty, love, currency, accident, time): to refer to things which are not
material objects, such as ideas, feelings or situations.
 Countable VS Uncountable:
 countable (day, cup, rubber, cat, light bulb, tree, street, shop, customer): to refer to things which, in
English, can be treated as separate items which can be counted. They can be either singular or
plural.
 uncountable (milk, sugar, meat, rice, furniture, homework, money, advice): to refer to things that are
seen as whole or mass, such as ideas or experiences, materials or substances, weather words,
names for groups or collections of things, because they can not be separated or counted.
 Individual VS Collective:
 individual (lion, battery, knife, balloon): to refer to one-member things, one individual of any
species.
 collective (a flock of birds/sheep, a school of fish, a swarm of bees, an army of soldiers, a class, a family, an
orchestra, a crowd, a colony): to refer to groups of things, people or animals. They can be used either
as singular, when considered as a whole, or as plural, when considered a set formed by several
members.
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 PRONOUNS:

a) FUNCTIONS:
To replace nouns and noun phrases; then, they are not followed by a noun.
They can appear as the head word in noun phrases.
Some pronouns can also work as determiners.
b) TYPES:
 Personal: to refer to people or things who do or receive the effects of an action or situation.
 subject (I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they): usually placed before a verb.
 object (me, you, him, her, it, us, you, them) : usually placed after a verb or a preposition.
 generic (I, you, we, they, one): to refer to generalizations.
 Possessive (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, yours, theirs; one’s): they do not need a determiner as in other
languages, and can work either as subject or object.
 Reflexive (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves; oneself): to signal or emphasize the
doer or receiver of an action.
 Reciprocal (each other, one another): to indicate that an action or situation affects several people likewise.
 Demonstrative (this, that, these, those) to indicate to the spatial or temporal proximity or distance
of the thing or person denoted by the noun.
 Relative (that, who, whom, which, whose): to introduce subordinate clauses by relating to a certain part of
the main clause.
 Interrogative (what, when, where, who, why, which, how, whose): to ask or enquire in questions about
different aspects of a situation which are unknown to the speaker, and need to be answered.
 Indefinite: to indicate a non-specific, relative amount or quantity of something.
 distributive (each, every, either, neither, another, other, each other, one another): to indicate how
something is delivered or divided among several things or people.
 quantitative:
- simple (some, any, no; all, both, none; more; less, the least; fewer, the fewest; much/many, how
much/how many, so much / so many, too much/too many; little/few, a little/ a few, so little/so few, too
little/too few; a lot of/lots of/plenty of/a great deal of ; enough; several; one)
- compound (somebody, someone, something, somewhere; anybody, anyone, anything, anywhere;
nobody, no one/no-one, nothing, nowhere, everybody, everyone, everything, everywhere)

 ADJECTIVES:

a) FUNCTIONS:
To give more information (by modifying or describing features and qualities) about the people,
animals or things represented by the noun.
 In English, adjectives don’t have any morphological differences, either for gender (male-female) or
number (singular-plural). Therefore, there is only one form of an adjective for all different nouns. There
is no agreement with the noun as in Spanish.
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They can be pre-modified by degree adverbs (quite, very, enough, really, too, so) in adjective phrases.
They usually appear between determiners and the noun (attributive position) in noun phrases; but
Sometimes, they can be placed after linking verbs (predicative position) such as be, become or seem, and
 Some adjectives can only be used either attributively (former, latter, inner, upper, lone) or predicatively
(alone, asleep, awake, aware, afraid). Others can be used in either position, but with a change in meaning. And a
latter group, which can be used in either function without changing its meaning.
They always go after indefinite pronouns, and after certain nouns in fixed structures.
b) TYPES:
 Determinative: (Look at the Determiners’ section)
 possessive adjectives
 demonstrative adjectives
 numeral adjectives
 interrogative adjectives
 indefinite adjectives
 Qualifying:
 Attributive VS Predicative:
 attributive: The first major function is to change or add some meaning to the noun they
precede.
 predicative: The second main function is to be complement to a verb. It completes the
meaning of the verb by describing what the subject or object is, does or experiences, or
how it feels.
 Gradable VS Ungradable:
 gradable (boiling, hot, warm, cool, cold, freezing): Those which refer to a quality that can be
measured on a scale. It has usually two extremes marked by two different adjectives, but
with other possibilities in between. These can be pre-modified by degree adverbs such as
very, so, too, really or quite.
 ungradable (dead/alive, female/male, open/closed, fantastic, terrible, fantastic, excellent): Those
which refer to conditions or situations with only two possible opposites, of which only one
is true or possible for every situation. There is no possibility in between. The choice of one
immediately prevents the other possibility.
 Positive VS Comparative VS Superlative: These are the degrees of an adjective or an adverb.
 positive: The neutral form of an adjective which is the base form to make the
comparative and superlative degrees.
 comparative: This form shows the equality or difference (superiority or inferiority)
between two people, things or situations as regards a quality or property.
 superlative: This form shows the supremacy in a certain quality something or
somebody has got as opposed to other things which could be group under the same
label.
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 VERBS:

a) FUNCTIONS:
To indicate and describe an action, an event or a state.
They must agree with the subject of the sentence, which is usually before it and must be explicit.
They may adopt a different form, either a simple word or complex verb phrase, depending on the
(verbal) tense.
We can distinguish between the conjugated forms and those which are non-finite (the infinitive
or base form; the gerund, present participle or - ing form; and the past participle).
b) TYPES:
 Main VS Auxiliary / Modal:
 main (work, study, revise, get, buy, listen, speak, write, read; do, be, have): It’s the verb which carries the
main meaning (the major semantic load)
 auxiliary (do, be, have, will/shall): It’s the verb which helps the main verb to express negation and
tense, and isn’t often translated.
 modal (can / could, may /might, will / would; shall / should – ought to, must, have to /had to): It’s a type
of auxiliary verb that adds another nuance of meaning (speaker’s opinion) to the main verb, such as
advice/suggestion, prohibition, permission, possibility.
 Regular VS Irregular: This distinction mainly affects the formation of the past simple tense and the
past participle used to make perfect tenses.
 regular (watch, listen, cry, kiss, ski, like, play, study): Those which finish in the past simple suffix –ed.
 irregular (be, begin, bring, catch, forget, find, meet, understand, teach, write): Those which do not follow
this rule, and have different forms for the past simple and the past participle than the infinitive or
base form. They must be learnt by heart.
 Transitive VS Intransitive:
 transitive (She hates insects): These verbs accept, and usually need to be followed at least by a
grammatical object/complement that defines their meaning. Some verbs have different kinds of
object (direct, indirect, manner, place and time).
 intransitive (He sneezed): These verbs don’t need, and usually don’t accept, any grammatical
object afterwards, since the meaning of the verb is already complete by itself.

 ADVERBS:

a) FUNCTIONS:
To usually describe and qualify what a verb says, but they can also modify the information
provided by adjectives, other adverbs, a clause or a whole sentence, and more rarely, a noun phrase.
To add more information about the circumstances of an action or situation.
Some adverbs keep the same form as adjectives.
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b) TYPES:
 Manner (slowly, quietly, aloud, happily, amazingly, fast, truly, carefully, easily, reasonably, together, badly, willingly):
tell us how something happens or is done. They usually end in –ly added to the corresponding adjective or
in the structure “in a(n) + ADJECTIVE + way”.
 Intensity (degree) (very, quite, rather, so, too, entirely/ completely, slightly, almost/nearly, only, thoroughly, enough):
tell us about the intensity of an adjective or another adverb.
 Focusing (especially, mainly, just, only, particularly, generally, simply, largely): they point to something.
 Evaluative (surprisingly, personally, obviously, reasonably, actually, logically): they indicate the attitude or opinion
of the speaker or writer towards a situation or an utterance.
 Place (above, abroad, ahead, anywhere, around, away, back, backward(s), behind, below, down, downstairs, downwards,
everywhere, far, forward(s), here, in, indoors, inside, inwards, near, nowhere, off, out, outdoors, outside, outwards, somewhere,
there, up, upstairs, upwards): tell us where something happens.
 Time (after, afterwards, again, ago, already, any more /any longer, at first, at last, at once, before, currently, early, every
day / week, formerly, last week/month, late, lately, long, meanwhile, next, next year /month, no longer / no more, now,
nowadays, presently, since, sometime, soon, still, today, tomorrow, tonight, then, yesterday, yet ): tell us when something
happens.
 Frequency (always, generally/usually, often / frequently, sometimes / occasionally, rarely, hardly ever, never, every now
and then, seldom; every day/week/year/Sunday/summer): tell us how often something happens.
 Quantity (little, much, very little, very much, so little, so much, too little, too much; once, twice, three times): tell us how
much/how many something happens.
 Probability (maybe, perhaps, possibly, probably): tell us how likely something is to happen.
 Affirmation (yes, certainly, indeed, obviously, of course, surely): they reaffirm or reassure something that is said.
 Negation (no, not, [not] at all, never): they deny or reject something that is said.

 PREPOSITIONS:

a) FUNCTIONS:
They are used as linkers between words or elements in a sentence.
They commonly show a relationship in time, space or direction, or a logical relationship between
two or more people, places or things. Some prepositions can show a different relationship (time, place or
other) depending on the context.
They are usually followed by a noun, a noun phrase or a pronoun, never a clause or a full sentence.
Prepositional phrases can also work as noun or adjective complements or connecting a verb with
its complement. Some adjectives and some verbs always take the same preposition.
b) TYPES:
 Simple (about, above, across, after, against, along, among, around, as, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between,
beyond, by, despite, down, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, opposite, out, outside, over,
past, round, since, than, through, to, toward(s), under, underneath, unlike, until, up, upon, via, with, within, without): they
are single-word prepositions.
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 Complex / Compound (according to, ahead of, along with, apart from, as far as, as for, as regards, as to, as well as,
at the expense of, away from, because of, by means of, close to, due to, except for, for the sake of, from among, from under, in
addition to, in between, in case of, in favour of, in front of, in place of, in return for, in spite of, inside of, instead of, near to,
next to, on account of, on behalf of, on top of, out of, outside of, owing to, such as, thanks to, up to, with respect to): they
consist of a group of words.

 CONJUNCTIONS:

a) FUNCTIONS:
They are used to link two sentences, two clauses, two phrases or two words within a sentence.
Some conjunctions, prepositions and adverbs can have the same form, but their use in a specific
context determines their right function. REMEMBER: the adverb modifies the verb, an adjective or an
adverb; the preposition links two words by explaining the relationship between the two; and a conjunction
connects two sentences, phrases or words, co-ordinating or subordinating one to the other.
b) TYPES:
 Simple VS Compound VS Correlative:
 Simple (and, or, but, although): they are made up of one word only.
 Compound (as though, as long as): they consist of two or more words.
 Correlative (both…and, either…or, neither…nor, not [only]...but [also]): they are formed by two
separate, but semantically connected items.
 Coordinating VS Subordinating:
 Coordinating (and, or, but): they connect grammatically independent elements, usually clauses,
with the same syntactic value.
 Linking (and, neither/nor, both…and, not [only]…but [also], neither…nor, as well as): they just
add one sentence, word or clause, to another, playing the role of a linking word or bond
between both.
 Disjunctive (or, either…or): they link together two words, clauses or sentences, by
signaling a choice between the two options.
 Adversative (but, however, nevertheless, nonetheless, all the same, [and] yet, still): they link
together two words, clauses or sentences, by indicating an opposition between both ideas.
 Subordinating (after, (al)though, as, before, if, since, that, until, when, whereas, while, once, so, as soon as,
provided that): they make a clause dependent of the main clause for the final sentence to complete its
meaning.
 Nominal (that /Ø, whether, who, which, what, when, where, why…): they lead a nominal
subordinating sentence.
 Adverbial: they lead an adverbial subordinating sentence.
- place (where, wherever)
- time (after, as, before, once, since, till, until, when, whenever, while, whilst, now that, as long
as, so long as, as soon as, no sooner … than, hardly…when)
- manner (as, as if, as though, like)
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- comparison (as…as, not as/so…as, such…as, more…than, so…that, less...than)
- purpose (in order to, so as to, so that, in order that, so, for)
- cause/reason (because, as, since, for)
- consequence/result (so, so that, so…[that], so much/many…[that], such…[that])
- condition (if, unless, provided [that], providing [that], as/so long as, on condition [that], in
case, assuming [that], supposing [that] )
- concession / contrast (although, though, even though, whereas, even if, while, whilst )

 INTERJECTIONS:

a) FUNCTIONS:
To express a sudden and strong emotional response (either positive or negative) such as pleasure,
surprise, pain, shock or disgust to a situation. Some interjections have different functions depending on
the situation.
Most interjections are one-word exclamations, consisting of the sounds we make, rather than
coherent words, which come at the beginning or at the end of what we say.
They are more common in speaking than in writing.
b) TYPES (According to the feeling they express)
 Surprise / Wonder (Oh!, Ah!, Eh!, Wow!, Hey!, Well!, Hello!, God!, Gosh!)
 Pain (Ouch!, Ow!)
 Relief (Phew!)
 Delight / Joy (Yeah!, Hurrah!, Hooray!, Bingo!, Eureka!, Yippee!)
 Pleasure (Ohh!, Mmm!, Ah!)
 Disgust (Ugh!, Yuck!)
 Grief / Pity (Alas!, Dear!, Oh!)
 Doubt / Hesitation / Disagreement (Umm!, Uh!, Er!)
 Mistake / Accident (Whoops!, Oops!)
 Disbelief (Bah!, Nonsense!, Bullshit!)
 Silence (Shh!)
 Scare/Fright (Shoo!, boo!)
 Curse (Damn!, Fuck!, Shit!, Crap!)