Our school life began with the Part of Speech, and until this day, we haven’t been able to do without it. It is only when we know these, that we can understand the rest of English grammar. Back then, the concept might have seemed complex to understand. But that is not going to happen this time.
We shall go over the concept of the various parts of speech, and take a look at each with simple examples.
Parts of Speech
What are “Parts of Speech” in the English language?
The thousands of words in the English language each have a specific use in a sentence. We cannot use any word in any place of a sentence. There are rules. To understand these rules, and to assign different roles to different words, we have the concept of Parts of speech. It is based on these various parts that a sentence receives a comprehensible meaning.
How many parts of speech do we have?
There a total of 8 basic concepts that make the parts of a sentence.
Which are the 8 parts?
The parts that make the speech are as follows:
1. Noun
2. Adjective
3. Pronoun
4. Verb
5. Adverb
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection
What is a Noun?
A noun is one of the most significant concepts of the parts of speech. They are the words that name people, places, or things. Note, that nouns include those words which one can see, touch, feel or taste, even those which we cannot.
For example, Roses are red; Violets are blue. They are both sweet-smellings flowers. I would love to grow them in my garden in Jersey.
In the above example, you will be able to spot the many kinds of nouns, which we will cover in our next lesson in detail. There are 8 types of nouns.
What is an adjective?
Sometimes, a noun is not enough to convey everything. An adjective adds more meaning to the noun. We also call them “describing words” since they help us describe the noun better.
For example, There are twenty boys in the class.
The word “boys” is a noun because it is naming the gender of the person. But the word “twenty” is adding more information about the noun. Hence, it is an adjective.
What are pronouns in the parts of speech?
Pronouns play a very important role in the parts of speech and the making of a sentence. Using the noun repeatedly makes a sentence monotonous and boring. It is for this reason that we use pronouns. They replace the nouns. When you find that you have to repeat the name of the person, place, or thing repeatedly, switch to its pronoun for polished writing.
For example one could say, John, is unwell today. John has sent a letter of absence to the principal. John said he will catch up on the notes tomorrow. John is going to visit the doctor too.
Do you see how using the noun “John” in every sentence makes the paragraph sound child-like? In such cases, use the pronoun “he.” The other pronouns are she, it, they, them, we, etc.
What should we know about verbs?
The words that express a state of action are all verbs. This is why we also call them action words. Let’s take into consideration the previous example. Words like is, sent, will catch up, and visit all denote some actions. Hence, they are verbs.
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Are adverbs different from verbs?
Adverbs have a similar duty like the adjectives, but only more. While adjectives add more meaning to a noun, an adverb adds more information about the verb, an adjective, or even another adverb.
For example, She pronounced the word quite correctly.
In this sentence, pronounced is a verb, since it expresses an action. But how did she pronounce the word? Quite correctly- So, quite becomes the adverb since it is adding more information about the verb.
What are Prepositions in the Parts of Speech?
A preposition is yet another important aspect in the part of a sentence. It usually accompanies a noun or a pronoun to demonstrate its position in relation to something else.
You will understand this better with a simple example. A fair little girl sat under the tree.
It is very clear from the example that the little girl is the noun. Under is the preposition, since it is showing the noun’s position. But what is the girl’s position in relation to? Yes, it is the tree. Therefore, the preposition defines the position of the noun or pronoun in relation to the other person or thing in the context.
What is a conjunction?
In the simplest terms, a conjunction is a word that joins other words or two different sentences. Many times, we end up splitting one simple sentence into two different ones. Use a conjunction to join them if both the sentences convey a related meaning.
For example, I ran fast. I missed the train.
We can fix the above two simple sentences with the help of conjunction since they are related. I ran fast but missed the train.
What is an interjection?
Sometimes, we experience sudden feelings when we something that surprises us, makes us happy, or extremely sad. Such words usually are prefixed with an exclamation mark. For example, Hurrah! We won the game. Another example of the same is Alas! She is dead after fighting for so many years.
In modern times, people also include the concept of Determiners and Articles in the Parts of Speech. But these 8 are the fundamentals of the concept. In the further lessons, we will take a look at each part in detail.
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