English Parts of Speech

English Parts of Speech
- Nouns
  - Explanation
    - A noun is often defined as a word which names a person, place or thing. Here are some examples of nouns: boy, river, friend, Mexico, triangle, day, school, truth, university, idea, John F. Kennedy, movie, aunt, vacation, eye, dream, flag, teacher, class, grammar. John F. Kennedy is a noun because it is the name of a person; Mexico is a noun because it is the name of a place; And boy is a noun because it is the name of a thing.
  - Proper Nouns
    - Proper nouns are nouns which begin with a capital letter because it is the name of a specific or particular person place or thing. Examples: Mexico, John F. Kennedy, Atlantic Ocean, February, Monday, New York City, Susan, Maple Street
  - Common Nouns
    - Most nouns are common nouns and do not begin with a capital letter.
    - some plural nouns formed in different ways (child - children, person - people, mouse - mice, sheep - sheep).
- Verbs
  - Explanation
    - A verb is often defined as a word(or group of words) which shows an action(such as eat), an event(such as happen) or state of being. Every sentence must have a verb. In the sentence "She is a smart girl", there is no action but a state of being expressed by the verb IS.
  - Verbs change their form to give different meanings
    - tense (past, present, future)
    - person (first person, second person, third person)
    - number (singular, plural)
    - voice (active, passive)
  - Verbs often accompanied by
    - verb-like words called modals (may, could, should, etc.)
    - auxiliaries(do, have, will, etc.)
    - to give them different meanings
  - Subject and Object
    - Explanation
      - The subject is what does the action of the verb and the object is what receives the action. In the sentence "Bob ate a humburger", Bob is the subject or the one who did the eating and the hamburger is the object or what got eaten.
    - Transitive
      - A verb which has an object is called a transitive verb. In other words transitive verbs are used with a direct object. In the sentence "She wrote a letter", the verb "wrote" is transitive and the word "letter" is the direct object. Some examples of transitive verbs are: throw, buy, hit, love.
    - Intransitive
      - A verb which has no object is called an intransitive verb. Intransitive verbs are used without a direct object. The verb "die" as in "He died suddenly", is intransitve. Some examples are: go, come, walk, listen.
- ,
- Pronouns
  - Explanation
    - A pronoun is often defined as a word which can be used instead of a noun.
  - Features of pronoun and it's forms when act as an object or subject
    - Unlike nouns, personal pronouns(pronouns that show person) sometimes have different forms for masculine/male, feminine/female and neuter (he-she-it). Also unlike nouns, personal pronouns have different forms depending on if they act as subjects or objects (he-him, she-her). A subject is a word which does an action and usually comes before the verb, and an object is a word that receives an action and usually comes after the verb. For example, in the sentence "Yesterday Susan called her mother", "Susan" is the subject and "mother" is the object. The pronoun "she" can be used instead of Susan and the pronoun "her" can be used instead of mother.
      - Examples:
        Object / Subject
        I like it / she likes me
        We like you / She likes us
        You like me / She likes you
        He likes me / She likes him
        She likes me / She likes her
        They like me / She likes them
        It's nice / She likes it
        They're nice /She likes them
  - Possessive form
    - That's my book. That's mine.
      That's our book. That's ours.
      That's your book. That's yours.
      That's his book. That's his.
      That's her book. That's hers.
      That's their book. That's theirs.
- Prepositions
  - Explanation
    - A preposition is a word or group of words(such as: in, from, to, at, out of, on behalf), used typically before a noun or pronoun to show direction, place, time, manner and amount. For example in "at night" and "after breakfast", "at" and "after" are prepositions. In other words a preposition is a word which shows relationships among other words in the sentence. The relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount.
  - Object of the preposition
    - A preposition always goes with(and almost always before) a noun or pronoun which is called the object of the preposition. For example in "at night" and "after breakfast", "night" and "breakfast" are objects of prepositions.
  - Prepositional phrase
    - The preposition and the object of the preposition together are called a prepositional phrase. For example "at night" and "after breakfast" are prepositional phrases.
  - Examples
- Conjunctions
  - Explanation
    - A conjunction is a word that joins words, phrases or senteces. In the sentence "Bob and Dan are friends" the conjunction "and" connects two nouns. In the sentence "He will drive or fly", the conjunction "or" connects two verbs. In the sentence "It is early but we can go", the conjunction "but" connects two groups of words.
  - Coordinating conjunctions
    - Are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence.
      - Most common coordinating conjunctions
        The most common ones are and, or, but, and so which are used in the following ways:
        AND is used to join or add words together as in the sentence: They ate and drank. OR is used to show choice or possibilities as in the sentence: He will be here on Monday or Tuesday. BUT is used to show opposite or conflicting ideas as in the sentence: She is small but strong. SO is used to show result as in the sentence: I was tired so I went to sleep.
  - Subordinating conjunctions
    - Connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal
      - More common subordinating conjunctions
        after before unless although if until as since when because than while
  - Correlative conjunctions
    - Are pairs of conjunctions that work together. In the sentence "Both Jan and Meg are good swimmers," BOTH . . .AND are correlative conjunctions.
      - Most common correlative conjunctions
        both . . .and either . . . or neither . . . nor not only . . . but also
- Articles
  - Explanation
    - 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(AN) and THE, but they are used very often and are important for using English accurately.
  - Indefinite Ariticle
    - The word A is called the indefinite article because the noun it goes with, is indefinite or general. The meaning of the article A is similar to the number one, but one is stronger and gives more emphasis. It is possible to say "I have a book" or "I have one book", but the second sententence emphasizes that I do not have two or three or some other number of books.
  - Definite Ariticle
    - The word THE is known as the definite article and indicates a specific thing. The difference between the sentences "I sat on a chair" and "I sat on the chair" is that the second sentence refers to a particular, specific chair, not just any chair.
  - Usage of Articles
    - Many nouns, especially singular forms of countable nouns, must have an article. In English, it is not possible to say I sat on chair without an article,
      but a demonstrative or possessive adjective can be used instead of an article as in the sentences I sat on that chair and I sat on his chair.
      Whenever you see an article, you will find a noun with it. The noun may be the next word as in the man
      or there may be adjectives and perhaps adverbs between the article and the noun as in the very angry, young man.
- Adjectives
  - Explanation
    - An adjective is often defined as a word which describes or gives more information about a noun or pronoun. Adjectives describe nouns in terms of such qualities as size, color, number, and kind. In the sentence "The lazy, old, brown dog sat on the beautiful, expensive, new rug", the words lazy, old, brown, beautiful, expensive and new are adjectives which give more information about nouns dog and rug.
      Usually an adjective comes before the noun that it describes, as in "tall man". It can also come after a form of the word "be" as in The man is tall.
  - Demonstrative adjectives
    - Most adjectives do not change form whether the noun it describes is singular or plural. For example we say big tree and big trees, good time and good times. There are, however, some adjectives that do have different singular & plural forms. The common words "this" and "that" have the plural forms "these" and "those". These words demonstrate or point out what is being referred to.
  - Possessive adjective
    - Possessive adjectives Show possession or ownership. The words "my dog" or "my dogs" indicate that the "dog" or "dogs" belong to me. I would use the plural form "our" if the "dog" or "dogs" belonged to me and other people.
- Adverbs
  - Explanation
    - We know that an adjective is a word that gives more information about a noun or pronoun. An adverb is usually defined as a word that gives more information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and adverbs in terms of such qualities as time, frequency and manner. In the sentence "Sue runs fast", "fast" describes how or the manner in which Sue runs. In the sentence "Sue runs very fast", "very" describes the adverb "fast" and gives information about how fast Sue runs. Also in "speak kindly", "kindly" is an adverb.
  - How to create Adverbs?
    - Most, but not all adverbs end in -ly as in But not all words that end in -ly are adverbs (ugly is an adjective, supply and reply can both be nouns or verbs). Many times an adjective can be made into an adverb by adding -ly as in nicely, quickly, completely, sincerely.
  - Adverbs of time
    - Adverbs of time tell when something happens. Examples: Do it NOW. I will see you THEN. They will be here SOON. I can't meet you TODAY. Let's go TOMORROW. They told me YESTERDAY. Have you traveled RECENTLY?
  - Adverbs of frequency
    - Adverbs of frequency tell how often something happens. Examples: I ALWAYS do my homework We SOMETIMES get confused. He USUALLY gets good grades. I NEVER went skiing. She RARELY eats a big breakfast. He was ONCE on TV. He saw the movie TWICE.
- Mind mapping by Ahmad Azizi, July 2006 www.AmdZ.com Content from: www.eslus.com/LESSONS/GRAMMAR/POS/pos.htm (With some modifications.)