9 Word Classes

Gear 3

Introduction to 9 Word Classes

Parts of Speech

There are 9 parts of speech, namely,

1.  [(Nouns)]

2.  [(Pronouns)]  

3.  Verbs

4.  Adjectives    xx

5.  Adverbs      ~~~~~~

6.  Conjunctions  

7.  Prepositions     

8.  Interjections

9.  Determiners

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1.  Nouns are names of people, animals, things and places.

     There are 5 main types of nouns. 

      a)  Abstract Nouns

      b)  Collective Nouns

      c)  S/P Countable Nouns  (Common Nouns)

      d)  Material Nouns

      e)  Proper Nouns

     Nouns are used either as a Subject or an object in a sentence.

     [John] threw (a stone) at (Peter).

In the sentence, [John] is the subject; (a stone) and (Peter) are the objects.  The nouns after Verb or Preposition are functioned as objects.

    

2.  Pronouns are words to replace the nouns mentioned earlier.  We use

     Pronouns to avoid repeating the nouns.  (Refer to Gear 2)  Besides 4 personal

     pronouns there are 6 other kinds of pronouns.

       [John] threw (a stone) at (Peter).

        [He] threw (it) at (him). 

         P1            P3        P3

So we can conclude that nouns can be replaced by P1 when they are used as a subject and P3 when they are used as an object.

3.  Verbs are words expressing actions or the state of being. 

     Ordinary verbs shows actions.  Verb-to-be shows the state of being. 

     The tense of the verb is subjected to time changes. 

     There are 12 tenses in the Active voice and 8 tenses in the Passive Voice. 

     Here are the 9 tenses to view.  (You have learnt 8 tenses already in 

     Gear 1 and 2. )

     A.  Present Tenses

     a)  Simple Present Tense

     b) Present Continuous Tense

     c)  Present Perfect Tense                 III

     B.  Past Tenses

     a)  Simple Past Tense

     b)  Past Continuous Tense

     c)  Past Perfect Tense

     C.  Future Tenses

     a)  Simple Future Tense

     b)  Future Continuous Tense

     c)  Future Perfect Tense

4.  Adjectives are words used to describe people, animals, things and

     places.  In other words, they are used to modify nouns.  They are  either

     placed before a noun or after Verb-to-be.  There are 2 types of

     adjectives in terms of position:  a)  attributive adjective  b)  predicative adjective.   

     The  attributive adjective is placed before a noun.  The predicative adjective

     is placed after Verb-to-be.

5.  Adverbs are words which tell us more about Verbs in action, Adjectives 

     and Adverbs of Manner.

     There are 5 main types of adverbs.

     a)  Adverbs of Manner tell us How an action is done.

     b)  Adverbs of Place tell us Where an action takes  place.

     c)  Adverbs of Time show us When an action takes place.

     d)  Adverbs of Frequency tell us How Often an action happens.

     e)  Adverbs of Degree show us To What Extent an action is done.

6.  Conjunctions join words, phrases and sentences.

7.  Prepositions are words that are used to show the relationship between

     the noun, the Objective Case of Personal Pronouns (P3) and the rest of

     the sentence.  It is placed before a noun, a pronoun (P3) and a Gerund

     (F2).  It often forms phrases with a Noun, Verb or an Adjective. 

8.  Interjections are words showing strong feelings of fear, surprise, anger,

     excitement and so on.

9.  Determiners are a class of words that are used with nouns.  They give the ideas

     of ‘which /whose/ how much /how many/near / far’ of the things we refer to. 

     Traditionally, they have been considered as adjectives or pronouns.