(Here’s an Audiovisual Lecture on Parts of Speech in English Grammar: https://youtu.be/dnZqE00PxMI)
Parts of speech are important in English grammar because they help learners to know how to use a word correctly in a sentence. A part of speech is a category of words that perform similar grammatical functions. Another name for parts of speech is word classes: they are the groups into which English words are classified according to their functions in sentences. Learning the parts of speech helps us to know how to use a word correctly in a sentence.
For example, a noun names persons and things, and it enables us to communicate our ideas in a sentence. You need to name someone or something before you’re can talk about them clearly. The use of pronouns enables you to avoid repeating the name of the person or thing you’re talking about.
Verbs help us to talk about the actions or state of people or things we have named or mention in our speech and writing. For example, if you want to say something about Joseph, you need verbs to talk about what Joseph does, did or will do; you also need verbs to talk about who is, who he was, or who will be as the case may be.
Parts of speech indicate the different classes of words which do similar work. By learning these word classes, we learn how to use the appropriate words to communicate our ideas more clearly.
THE NOUN
A noun is a naming word. It is used in identify a person, place, thing or idea. Consider the following examples:
Person: The teacher asked Jim to stand up.
Thing: The boy opened the box and stole the money in it.
Place: Nigeria is made up of thirty-six states and the FCT.
Idea: Education is the greatest legacy.
Subclasses of Nouns
Type Description Examples
Proper Noun: Names a specific person, place, etc., e.g. Henry, Asaba, Rose, New York, Central School, Africa, etc.
Common Noun: Names a type of person, thing or idea, e.g. table, man, village, woman, market, teacher, room, plate, etc.
Abstract Noun: Refers to things you cannot see or touch, e.g. power, energy, happiness, hatred, knowledge, offence, etc.
Concrete Noun: Refers to things you cannot see or touch, e.g. pen, bucket, boy, desk, pot, wall, gate, office, cup, spoon, etc.
Countable Noun: Refers to things you can count: one, two… plates, pots, books, students, boxes, cups, buckets, tables,
Uncountable Noun: Refers to things you cannot count, e.g. sand, paper, food, knowledge, kerosene, petrol, coffee, etc.
Singular Noun: Refers to one, e.g. a cup, a spoon, an apple, an antelope, etc.
Plural Noun: Refers to more than one, e.g. two men, three cups, five apples, many houses, etc.
Collective Noun: The name of a group of things or persons, e.g. band, choir, a fleet of ships, family, a forest of trees, a bevy of ladies, etc.
Compound Noun: Consists of two or more words, e.g. blackboard, mother-in-law, bookshop, woman lawyer, etc.
THE PRONOUN
Pronouns are words we use to replace nouns in order to avoid repeating the names of people or things in our sentences. Examples: Esther is a British girl but she lives in Paris. She and her husband have been living in Paris since 2018. They love each other.
Types of Pronouns
Personal Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, they, me, him, her,
Relative Pronouns: who, which, that, whatever
Demonstrative Pronouns: this, that, these, those
Possessive Pronoun: mine, yours, his, hers, theirs
Reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself,
Interrogative Pronoun: which, who, what
Indefinite Pronouns: anyone, all, nobody, everyone, nobody, something, somebody, none, etc.
Reciprocal Pronouns: each other, one another
THE VERB
Verbs are used to talk about the actions of state of a person or thing. Consider the following examples:
Action: Mary sings beautiful songs. Dan repaired the generator. Olu ate all the food. Jack killed a lion.
State of Being: Mary is a singer. The earth is spherical.
TYPES OF VERBS
Lexical Verb: a main verb, e.g. play, go, come, eat, sing
Auxiliary Verbs: helping verbs, e.g. will, can, do, may, could, would, should, etc.
Finite Verb: shows tense, e.g. is, was, are, plays
Non-finite Verb: doesn’t show tense, e.g. being, been, to sing
Regular Verb: it forms its tenses in a regular way, e.g. work, worked, has worked, etc.
Irregular Verb: it forms its tenses in an irregular way, e.g. write, wrote, has written, drive, drove, has driven, etc.
Transitive Verb: requires an object, e.g. Olu killed an elephant. Intransitive Verb: requires no object, e.g. Bose fainted.
Inchoative Verb: it shows a change of state on its own, e.g. The bell rang; The door opened.
Causative Verb: expresses a cause, e.g. She allowed her children to watch the movie.
Ergative Verb: can be used both transitively and intransitively, e.g. open – Mark rang the bell (transitive); The bell rang (intransitive) – open, break, boil, roll, etc.
Stative Verb: refers to a state or condition, e.g. Can you see the board? (Don’t say: Are you seeing the board?); I like tea (Don’t say: I am liking tea); know, love, understand, etc.
Dynamic Verb: it is used to talk about actions, which can be durative, such as cook, write, work, swim, etc., or punctual, such as dive, swallow, catch, sneeze, explode, blink, etc. Durative dynamic verbs can be used in the progress sense, e.g. We watched the teacher drawing a triangle on the white board. Punctual verbs are used with the base form, e.g. I saw the goalkeeper catch Messi’s shot.
Linking Verb: connects a subject with its complement, e.g. Mr. Amadi was our Agric teacher. Susan felt ashamed.
THE ADJECTIVE
Types of Adjectives
Adjectives of Quality: They show the qualities in people or things, e.g. The Lord is good. The woman is kind.
Adjectives of Size: They indicate the sizes of persons or things, e.g. Bobby is a fat boy. He has a little sister.
Adjectives of Shape: These glasses suit people with round faces. People used to think the earth was flat or round, but the earth is spherical.
Adjectives of Age: The young man greeted the old man. Mr. Okon bought a new car yesterday.
Adjectives of Colour, e.g. red, brown, purple, yellow, black, white, orange, blue, pink, etc.
Adjectives of Nationality or Origin: He bought a Japanese car. He married an American woman.
Possessive Adjectives: These are identical to possessive pronouns (my, your, his, her, its, our and their), but they are used as modifiers: Your house is not far from the venue of our next meeting. Mr. Balogun bought his wife a car; he registered it in her name.
Demonstrative Adjectives: This, that, these and those are like demonstrative pronouns but when they are used to modify nouns or noun phrases, they are known as demonstrative adjectives: This house belongs to Uncle Eze; those women at the gate are his wives. These oranges are mine but that apple is not mine.
Interrogative Adjectives: Interrogative adjectives (which and what) are like interrogative pronouns, but are used to modify nouns and noun phrases:
Which boys broke the windscreen?
What book did the lecturer recommend?
Indefinite Adjectives: These resemble indefinite pronouns, but they are used as modifiers:
Many men beat their wives.
Some wives beat up their husbands.
There are few pieces of meat left in the pot.
THE ADVERB
An adverb describes a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Examples: It rained heavily yesterday. He is a very kind man.
Kinds of Adverbs: There are different kinds of adverbs, such as adverbs of time, frequency, place, manner, degree, relative and interrogative adverbs. Adverbs of Time: These include adverbs which answer the question “when?” Examples are today, tomorrow, now, then, soon; I will travel to Enugu tomorrow. Jesus is coming soon.
Adverbs of Frequency: These tell us about frequency of occurrence – that is, how often something happens. Examples are: once, twice, usually, daily, always, often, never, frequently, occasionally, sometimes, regularly, etc. •> I take my bath daily. •> He comes here twice a week.
Adverbs of Place: These adverbs indicate the place where something occurs, thereby answering the question “where?” Examples are: here, there, everywhere, and somewhere.
> Mark hid his purse somewhere.
> We went there for shopping.
Adverbs of Manner: Adverbs of manner usually provide answer to the question “how?” The following are examples of adverbs of manner: gently, softly, gladly, sorrowfully, fast, well, beautifully, etc. Such adverbs usually come after the verbs they modify:
> Johnson ran quickly into the room.
> You have spoken well.
Adverbs of Degree: They answer the question “how much?” or “to what extent?” Examples: very, quite, rather, etc.
She is very beautiful.
Tim works extremely fast.
Relative Adverbs: where, when, why, how, e.g.
> I saw Adamu when he was boarding the bus.
> I met Olu where he was playing with Folu.
> We don’t know she did it.
Interrogative Adverbs: when, where, why and how. They are used for asking questions:
>Why didn’t you come to school yesterday?
> When does the station open?
> How are you?
> Where do you live?
THE PREPOSITION
A preposition indicates a relationship between words and phrases in a sentence. Examples: Eze went to the market (direction). –Jude came by bus (manner). –Mary is inside the room (place). The meeting began at 4pm (time). The seminar will take place on Friday(time). They live in London (place).
Correct Use of Prepositions
Prepositions of Place:
a. IN: in Europe, in Asia, in Africa, etc. (continents)
in Ghana, in France, in Nigeria (countries)
in Delta, in Bayelsa, in Lagos, in Enugu, in Kano (states)
in Asaba, in Ojo, in Abeokuta, in Jos, in Onitsha (in cities, towns)
in the Cocoa House, in the Glass House, in Continental House, in the State House,
in the White House (names of buildings)
b. ON: on Kano Street, on Abiola Street, on Etim Inyang Crescent, on Ring Road, on Martins Street in Lagos, on Market Road, on Awolowo Road, Ikeja, etc. (streets)
c. AT: at 20 Igbede Road, at 14 Opebi Road, at 35 Abeokuta Street, at 50 Baale Street, at 12 Effurun Road, etc. (numbers of buildings or houses)
Prepositions Showing Time:
a. IN: in January, in March, in May, in July, etc. (months)
in 2005, in 1894, in 2011, in 1988 (years)
in the morning, in the evening, in the night (period of the day)
in a month’s time, in an hour, in two days, in a year (period of time)
b. ON: on Sunday, on Wednesday, on Saturday (days of the week)
on February 2nd, August 10, on November 5th, on the 16th of June (date)
c. AT: at ten, at 7.45 a.m.; at dusk, at noon, at midnight (time of day)
THE CONJUNCTION
Kinds of Conjunctions
There are 4 types of conjunctions: coordinating, subordinating, correlative conjunctions, and conjunctive adverbs.
Coordinating Conjunctions: This type of conjunction connects two grammatical structures of equal rank. One easy way to remember them is to use the acronym FAN BOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, SO. The uses of coordinating conjunctions are:
For Adding Things Together: Use ‘and’ to join parts of a sentence, e.g. John and James we’re apostles of Christ. Jim and I attended the seminar. He washed the cups and the plates.
2. For Indicating Opposite Ideas: Use ‘but’ and ‘yet’ to join words that express opposite ideas, e.g. Samson was physically strong but morally weak. Rose likes rice but she hates beans. He has never been to France, yet he speaks French fluently. She is a married woman, yet she flirts with every other man.
Alternative Coordinating Conjunction: Use “or” to show choice or possibilities, and use “nor” to present an alternative idea to an already mentioned negative idea, e.g. They will make the payment today or
> Take it or leave it.
> We shall visit Grandma today or tomorrow.
> I do not like boxing nor wrestling. I just like football. >
Subordinating Conjunctions: This type is used to begin a dependent clause; it connects a dependent clause to an independent clause in a sentence. Examples are: as, when, until, since, before, while, if, because, although, etc.
> You won’t succeed unless you up, you’ll miss the flight.
> I won’t go to work if it rains.
Olu was sleeping when we visited him.
Both Okon and Umaru are guilty of the same offence.
Either John or Jack will be picked for the job.
He is yet to tell us whether he will arrive today or tomorrow.
Conjunctive Adverbs
It is used to join ideas together in a sentence. Examples: therefore, finally, also, likewise, however, then, this, accordingly, similarly, moreover, hence, besides, instead, nevertheless, otherwise, consequently, meanwhile, next, furthermore, conversely, still, nonetheless, etc.
Like a coordinating conjunction, a conjunctive adverb can be used to connect two independent clauses:
> Junior was unable to complete the on Thursday as agreed; however, he completed it on Friday.
> Rose had a fever; otherwise, she would have attended the seminar.
> There was a heavy rain; hence, the match was cancelled.
Feeling And Interjection
Greeting: Hello, Jane! How are you? Hi! How are you?
Pain: Oh! You’ve wounded me. Ouch!
Sadness: Alas! I have no money.
Joy: Hurrah! I’ve been picked for the job.
Surprise: Gosh, is that the time? What! Good Heavens
For a more detailed audio-visual explanation of the English parts of speech and their importance in English grammar, watch the following video lecture: https://youtu.be/dnZqE00PxMI
EBOOKS:
- Good Success in English: A Study Package or Good Success in English: A Study Package for Effective English Learning
- Good Success English Handbook
About the Author
Benjamin Abugu is a university graduate with a flair for content writing. He is an English teacher with over twelve years experience, a published author of many books (both paperback and eBook editions), a blogger and Youtuber.
0 Comments