Topic Category: ENG - GRAM

PARTS OF SPEECH

The English language is composed of eight parts of speech: the noun, the pronoun, the verb, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection. Some words can be different parts of speech in different sentences with different meanings.

For example: well

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] They pulled a bucket of water from the well. [/responsivevoice]   (noun)

Her eyes welled with tears at the thought. (verb)

Are you well? (adjective)

He speaks well. (adverb)

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] Well! That’s a fine mess you’ve made. [/responsivevoice]   (interjection)

NOUNS

A noun is used to identify a person, place, thing or idea. There are several types of nouns; common, proper, concrete, abstract, singular, plural, countable, non-countable, collective, and possessive. Many nouns belong to multiple categories at the same time

Some examples of nouns are:

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] house [/responsivevoice]	singular, concrete, common, countable
Canadians	plural, concrete, proper, countable
[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] happiness [/responsivevoice]	abstract, non-countable, common
herd (of horses)	collective, common, countable, concrete
sugar	common, non-countable, concrete

VERBS

A verb expresses actions, events, or state of being in a sentence.  It also indicates whether an event happened in the past, present, or future. There are several tenses used to conjugate verbs.

Simple Present	I work in Ottawa
Simple Past	I worked in Prince Edward Island when I was younger.
Simple Future	I will work in British Columbia next year.
Present Progressive (Continuous)	I am working today.
Past Progressive (Continuous)	I was working when he called.
Future Progressive (Continuous)	I will be working all weekend.
Present Perfect	[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] I have been working on the project for six months. [/responsivevoice]
Past Perfect	I had worked on the file for three months before I transferred to a new project.
Future Perfect	I will have worked on this project for eight months by the time it’s done.
Present Perfect Progressive (Continuous)	I have been working here for seven years.I have been working here since 2014.
Past Perfect Progressive (Continuous)	I had been working there for three years when they closed.
Future Perfect Progressive (Continuous)	[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] I will have been working here for 24 years when I retire next year. [/responsivevoice]

PRONOUNS

Pronouns are used to replace a noun or another pronoun.  They are used to make sentences less repetitive.  There are several types of pronouns including the personal pronoun, demonstrative pronoun, interrogative pronoun, indefinite pronoun, relative pronoun, reflexive pronoun, and intensive pronouns. Pronouns agree with the word they replace for gender and number.

Examples:

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] Clara has a blue car. [/responsivevoice]  

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] She has a blue car. [/responsivevoice]  Her car is blue.

NOT: He has a blue car.

Clara drove Clara’s car to the garage,  The mechanic told Clara that Clara’s car needed new tires.  The mechanic installed the tires on Clara’s car.

Clara drove her car to the garage.  The mechanic told her that it needed new tires.  The mechanic installed them on it.  

Noun	replaced by
Clara’s	her
Clara	her
Clara’s car	it
the tires	them
Clara’s car	it

ADJECTIVES

An adjective describes a noun or pronoun.  It is usually placed before the word it describes.  When there are several adjectives modifying the same word, they are generally written in a particular order. The usual order is:  Quantity, Value/opinion, Size, Temperature, Age, Shape, Colour, Origin, Material.

Here is an example using most of the categories.  The three expensive large old square grey Gothic granite mansions were built in 1875.  (All of the underlined words describe the word ‘mansions’.)

Usually only two or three adjectives are used to describe a noun or pronoun at a time

Examples

Five books

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] Quaint cottage [/responsivevoice]  

Tiny kitten

Cold wind

Young colt

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] Circular paved driveway [/responsivevoice]  

Green dress

Spanish music

Metal door

ADVERBS

Adverbs are used to describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.  Adverbs that describe adjectives and other adverbs are usually placed before the word they describe.  When they describe a verb, they usually follow it.  Many adverbs end in -ly, but not all.

Examples

The house sold quickly. ( quickly modifies the verb sold)

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] The extremely steep hill was fun to slide down. [/responsivevoice]  (extremely modifies the adjective steep)

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] Carter is reading so quickly that he will need to go back to the library this week. [/responsivevoice]  (so modifies the adverb quickly)

PREPOSITION

Prepositions link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other parts of a sentence.  The word or phrase introduced by the preposition is called the object of the preposition.  A preposition usually indicates where something is located in time, space or logic of its object to the rest of the sentence.

The mouse is on the floor.

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] The mouse is behind the bookcase. [/responsivevoice]  

The mouse is hiding under the desk.

The mouse ran through the room during supper.

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] The cat pounced towards the mouse.   [/responsivevoice]  

Some of the most common prepositions are:

about	above	across	after	against
along	among.	around	at	before
behind	below	beneath	beside	between
beyond	but	by	despite	down
during	except	for	from	in
inside	into	like	near	of
off	on	onto	out	outside
over	past	since	through	throughout
till	to	toward	under	underneath
until	up	upon	with	within
without

CONJUNCTION

Conjunctions are used to link words and phrases.

Some of the most common conjunctions are:

and	but	or	nor
for	So	yet	so…as
both…and	either…or	neither…nor	whether…or

 Examples:

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] John, Paul, George and Ringo were the members of the Beatles. [/responsivevoice]  

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] Neither Fred nor George wanted to see the movie. [/responsivevoice]  

The soccer team wants to either have a pizza party or go bowling as a reward.

INTERJECTION

Interjections are words added to sentences to add emotion.  They are usually followed by an exclamation mark. 

Examples

Ouch! That hurts.

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] Wow!  I can’t believe it. [/responsivevoice]  

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] Some say all Canadian sentences end with, eh? [/responsivevoice]  

Hey!  Get back here!

Count and Non-Count Nouns

Some nouns can be counted (1 car, 2 cars, 3 cars…) while others cannot (1 sand, 2 sand, 3 sand…)  In general, non-count nouns are things that that you cannot count separately, such as sand or hair.  “A” and “an” are usually not used with non-count nouns and they use singular verbs and pronouns. 

Categories	Examples
Abstract Words	courage, time
Activities	walking, fishing, sailing
Fields of study	geography, science
Food	corn, chocolate, fish
Gases and Liquids	air, steam, water, milk, coffee
Materials	cotton, plastic, canvas
Natural Forces	heat, lightning
Particles	dust, sand, sugar, salt
Exceptions	advice, furniture, money, clothing, luggage, mail, information, homework, housework, work

NOTE:  When non-count nouns are measured, considered as pieces, or placed in containers, the plural can be formed. 

Examples:

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] I need some coffee. [/responsivevoice]  (A specific amount is not specified.)

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] Could you pick me up a cup of coffee?[/responsivevoice]   (A specific amount is specified.)

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] Could you pick me up a coffee?[/responsivevoice]   (A specific amount is not specified but it is implied or understood to be a cup.)

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”] I need soil for the garden.[/responsivevoice]   (A specific amount is not specified.)

[responsivevoice voice=”US English Male” buttontext=”Play”] I need five soils for the garden.[/responsivevoice]   (The unit for the quantity is neither specified nor implied.) It should read as, “I need five bags of soil for the garden”.

‘Collective nouns’ is the term for a singular noun that refers to a group of objects. When it refers to the group acting as one, the associated verb is singular.

Some common collective nouns are listed below.

batch of baking

bottle of milk

bouquet of flowers

can of pop

committee

cup of coffee

deck of cards

family

fleet of airplanes, ships

flock of birds

herd of cattle

jury of peers

murder of crows

pride of lions, peacocks

range of mountains

stack of librarians

team

wad of bills, money

wealth of information

Examples:

The family is eating supper in the dining room.  (they are acting as a single unit)

The jury are returning to their hotel rooms for the evening. (They are acting as separate units)

The flock of birds are flying all over the place. (Each bird is going in a different direction)

The flock is flying south for the winter. (All of the birds are going together)

Collective Nouns

‘Collective nouns’ is the term for a singular noun that refers to a group of objects. When it refers to the group acting as one, the associated verb is singular.

Some common collective nouns are listed below:

flock of birds

jury of peers

herd of cattle

murder of crows

fleet of airplanes, ships

pride of lions, peacocks

range of mountains

wealth of information wad of bills, money

The words until, before and after are called time words and are used to introduce a clause or a phrase.

Clause – Before you go to the store, you must get the money.

Phrase – Before 9 o’clock, you need to finish the project.

When you use a clause with until, before or after, this is called a Subordinate Clause. This clause may be used at the beginning or the end of a sentence. The Subordinate Clause needs the main clause in order to make the meaning complete.

If the clause is used at the beginning of a sentence, you should use a comma after the clause.

EXAMPLES

You may explain the notes after we have finished the discussion.

After we have finished the discussion, you may explain your notes.

A noun is a part of speech that is used to identify people, places, things, animals, ideas, actions or quality. Nouns are classified into many different groups: Common, Proper, Concrete, Abstract, Collective

Common	Proper	Concrete	Abstract	Collective
man	Italy	cat	bravery	flock
cities	Mrs. Jones	pencil	friendship	family
apple	John	March	pity	army
candy	February	mountain	honour	public

Use of the article a, an, or the signal that a noun is to follow.

Nouns may function as a subject or an object.

Examples: [responsivevoice voice=”US English Female” buttontext=”Play”]The bird flew to the nest.[/responsivevoice]   (bird – subject, nest – object)

Many singular nouns become plural by adding an -s at the end of the word. This makes them plural. (e.g. bug, bugs). Other times you may need to add _es to the noun if it ends in an s. (e.g. bus, buses)

Some nouns can be counted (1 car, 2 cars, 3 cars…) while others cannot (1 sand, 2 sand, 3 sand…)  In general, non-count nouns are things that that you cannot count separately, such as sand or hair.  “A” and “an” are usually not used with non-count nouns and use singular verbs and pronouns.

Table 4

Categories	Examples
Abstract words	courage, time
Activities	walking, fishing, sailing
Fields of study	geography, science
Food	corn, chocolate, fish
Gases & liquids	air, steam, water, milk, coffee
Materials	cotton, plastic, canvas
Natural forces	heat, lightning
Particles	dust, sand, sugar, salt
Exceptions	advice, furniture, money, clothing, luggage, mail, information, homework, housework, work

NOTE:  When non-count nouns are measured, considered as pieces, or placed in containers the plural can be formed.  

Examples:

1. I need some coffee.  A specific amount is not specified.
2. Could you pick me up a cup of coffee? A specific amount is specified.
3. Could you pick me up a coffee? A specific amount is not specified but it is implied or understood to be a cup.
4. I need soil for the garden. A specific amount is not specified.
5. I need five soils for the garden. The unit for the quantity is neither specified nor implied.  It should read as, “I need five bags of soil for the garden”.