- HubPages»
- Education and Science»
- Linguistics»
- English as a Foreign or Second Language
Learn English Online for Free: Parts of Speech
The Essential Language
Well.. English is my second language... and I am learning myself.. Thought it will be better if I share my "Learning Classes" with others...
Parts of Speech
There are numberless words in English. For the sake of convenience and better understanding, these words are classified into 8 sections termed as Parts of Speech. Allmost all the words in English language belong to any of these categories.
An English student is expected to have a basic knowledge of these Parts of Speech.
The main parts of speech are as follows:
1. NOUN
The name of a person, place or a thing, as for example, Nehru, Lincoln,America, China, Water, Glass, Stone etc...
2. PRONOUN
A word used in place of, for the sake of, a noun.
Example: I, We, You, He, It, They etc...
3.ADJECTIVE
A word qualifying a noun. Eg: Beautiful, blind, clever etc...
4 VERB
The word indicating an action or a state ie., Stand, sit, jump. write, throw(actions) , am is are was were (state) etc...
5. ADVERB
A word modifying a verb, an adjective or another adverb.
Example: a) Slowly, terribly, loudly (with verbs.)
b) so, too, much, still... (with adjectives)
c) very,quite,rather... (with adverbs)
6. PREPOSITIONS
Words showing the relation between one noun and another, a noun and a pronoun, or a noun and a verb.
Eg: at, in, on, since, for, of, between, over, under etc...
7. CONJUNCTION
A word usually joining two sentences
Eg: and, but, unless, if ,because... etc
8. INTERJECTION
A word expressing some kind of sudden emotion or feeling.
Eg: Alas! oh! well done! bravo! etc
A sentence is a combination of any of these parts of speech
Examples:
1. " He went to market, but came back home immediately."
In this sentence, each of the words belongs to a particular part of speech. They are as follows:
He- pronoun
to- preposition
but- conjunction
back- adverb
home- adverb
immediately- adverb
went- verb
market- noun
came- verb
2. "Every Indian loves Gandhiji because he is our freedom-giver"
Every- pronoun
Indian- noun
loves- verb
Ganfhiji- noun
because- conjunction
he- pronoun
is- verb
our- pronoun
freedom-fighter- noun
Exercise
Pick out the parts of speech of the words in the following sentences:
Shut the door and lie down.
Alas! He died of consumption.
Where are you going now?
Humpty- Dumpty sat on a wall.
I am going to tell you a story
The child is crying because it is hungry.
Tush! You speak as if your strings were mine.
However, there are three words (ie. A, An, The) commonly known as the Articles do not generally fall under these categories. They form a separate section and are used before nouns, and sometimes adjectives.
ARTICLES
Articles form an independent section in English. They have the function of pronoun/adjectives, and are a class by themselves. A correct understanding of articles is absolutely necessary for the standard as well as grammatical handling of English language, whether spoken or written. Articles in English are of two parts. Definite and Indefinite.
