Thursday

MARCH 12, 2018

PARTS OF SPEECH
LITTLE GUIDE TO SPEAK ENGLISH WELL

SUBMITTED BY:
Hafiz Rehman Ahmad
PARTS OF SPEECH
Little Guide to Speak English Well

PARTS OF SPEECH
The words used in a sentence are divided into different kinds or classes according to the
work they do in the sentence. These kinds or classes are called Parts of Speech.

They’re eight in number:

 Noun
 Pronoun
 Adjective
 Preposition
 Verb
 Adverb
 Conjunction
 Interjection

NOUN
Noun is a word we use to name a person, a place, a thing or an idea we can see, touch,
smell, taste, hear or think of:-

Examples:-

People: Farmer, Mechanic, Father, Professor Khalid, Nouman, Awais Ali, Rimsha

Places: Ocean, Canada, Bahawalpur, Lahore, Classroom, Canteen

Things: Scissors, Giraffe, Pen, Tugboat, Skateboard, Braces, Drill

Ideas: Love, Inspiration, Courage, Anxiety, Eagerness, Happiness

All nouns are either common or proper nouns:

Common Noun:
A Common Noun names any person, place, or thing.
Examples: Basketball, Video, Wizard, Coin, Woman, and Coach.

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Proper Noun:
A Proper Noun names a particular person, place, or thing and begins with a capital
letter.
Examples: Awais Ali, Rimsha, Faisal, and Iqra Murtaza.

Difference between a common and a proper noun:

Common Nouns Proper Noun

Hospital Bahawal Victoria Hospital Bahawalpur

Women Rimsha, Iqra, Irum

School Govt. Sadiq Dan High School Bahawalpur

Newspaper Daily Pakistan, Nawa-i-Waqt

Stadium Dring Stadium Bahawalpur

Poet Mirza Asad Ullah Khan Ghalib

Some specific types of nouns:

Collective Noun:
A Collective Noun names a group of people or things.
Examples: Family, Army, Club, Class, Audience and Group
Compound Noun:
A Compound Noun is a noun consisting of more than a single word. It could be
separate words such as Social Studies, Physical Education, and Dining Room.
It could be two words joined by a hyphen such as Merry-Go-Round, Thirty-Three,
Sister-In-Law, and Great-Grandmother.
It could be a combined word such as Schoolteacher, Bookkeeper, Landlord, and
Headmaster.

PRONOUN
A Pronoun is a word used in place of one or more nouns.
We use pronouns to:
 Refer to a noun (called its antecedent) that usually comes before the pronoun
 Make our writing clearer, smoother, and less awkward

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In the sentence, “Awais feels that he can win the race,” he is the pronoun, and Awais is
the antecedent.
In the sentence, “Fiaz and Rehman know that they are best friends,” they is the pronoun,
and Fiaz and Rehman are the noun antecedents.

There are several types of pronouns.

Personal pronouns:
Personal pronouns refer to people and things.

They are divided into three categories called:

First Person: Referring to the person who is speaking: I went to the mall.
Second Person: Referring to the person spoken to: Awais, can you see the
bus?
Third Person: Referring to anyone or anything else: Rimsha saw us do this
assignment.

The following table shows these three categories of personal pronouns:

Singular Plural

First Person I, My, Me, Mine We, Our, Ours, Us

the person speaking

Second Person You, Your, Yours You, Your, Yours

the person spoken to

Third Person He, His, Him, She, Her,

Some Other Person Hers, It, Its Or They, Their, Theirs, Them
Hers, It, Its
Thing

In addition to personal pronouns, there are several other types of pronouns:

 Reflexive Pronouns
 Interrogative Pronouns
 Demonstrative Pronouns
 Indefinite Pronouns
 Relative pronoun
 Possessive Pronouns

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Reflexive Pronoun:
A Reflexive Pronoun is a type of pronoun that is preceded by the Adverb,
Adjective, Pronoun, or Noun to which it refers, so long as that antecedent is
located within the same clause.
A Reflexive Pronoun is formed by adding -self or -selves to certain personal
pronouns.
Like Myself, Himself, Herself, Itself, Ourselves, Themselves, Yourself and Yourselves.

The sentence, “I found it myself,” contains the Personal Pronoun I and the Reflexive
Pronoun myself.
Hisself and theirselves are NOT real words.
Examples:
 I was in a hurry, so I washed the car myself.
 You’re going to have to drive yourself to school today.
 He wanted to impress her, so he baked a cake himself.
 Rimsha does chores herself because she doesn’t trust others to do them right.
 That car is in a class all by itself.
 We don’t have to go out, we can fix dinner ourselves.
 You are too young to go out by yourselves.

Interrogative Pronoun:
An Interrogative Pronoun is a pronoun which is used to make asking questions
easy. There are just five interrogative pronouns. Each one is used to ask a very
specific question or indirect question
These pronouns are What, Which, Who, Whom, and Whose.

What – Used to ask questions about people or objects.

Examples:
 What do you want for dinner?
 I wonder what we’re doing tomorrow.
 What is your friend’s name?
 What time are we supposed to be there?

Which – Used to ask questions about people or objects.

Examples:
 Which color do you prefer?
 Which of these ladies is your mother?
 She asked which train to take.
 Which seat would you like?

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Who – Used to ask questions about people.

Examples:
 Who is that?
 Who was driving the car?
 I’m wondering who will be at the party.
 Who is going to take out the trash?

Whom – Used to ask questions about people.

Examples:
 Whom did you speak to?
 Whom do you prefer to vote for?
 You should ask whom to call.
 Whom do you live with?
Whose – Used to ask questions about people or objects, always related to possession.
Examples:
 Whose sweater is this?
 Whose parents are those?
 I wonder whose dog knocked our garbage can over.
 Whose phone is that?

Demonstrative Pronoun:
A Demonstrative Pronoun is a pronoun that is used to point to something specific
within a sentence. These pronouns can indicate items in space or time, and they
can be either singular or plural.
When used to represent a thing or things, demonstrative pronouns can be either
near or far in distance or time:
 Near in time or distance: This, These
 Far in time or distance: That, Those

In the sentence,
Awais, is this yours?
This is the demonstrative pronoun
Yours is the personal pronoun.
Examples:
 This was my mother’s ring.
 That looks like the car I used to drive.
 These are nice shoes, but they look uncomfortable.
 Those look like riper than the apples on my tree.
Indefinite Pronoun:
An Indefinite Pronoun often does not refer to a specific or definite person or thing.
It usually does not have a definite or specific antecedent as a personal pronoun
does.

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In the sentence, “Everybody will select another to help with everything,” the three
italic & bold words are all indefinite pronouns since they take the place of a noun
and do not refer to a specific or definite person or thing.

These are all indefinite pronouns:

All Each More One

Another Either Most Other

Any Everybody Much Several

Anybody Everyone Neither Some

Anyone Everything Nobody Somebody

Anything Few None Someone

Both Many No one

Remember That:
 Indefinite pronouns are never plural. They are always singular.
 Because indefinite pronouns are singular, the pronouns or verbs used to refer
to them should also be singular
Examples:
 Many are called, but few are chosen.
 Somebody ate my sandwich!
 Everyone says she is beautiful inside and out.
 No one wants to hear about my health problems.
 Either choice has its advantages.
 Everything has gone well for us.
Relative Pronoun:
A Relative Pronoun is one which is used to refer to nouns mentioned previously,
whether they are People, Places, Things, Animals, or ideas.
Relative pronouns can be used to join two sentences.

There are only a few relative pronouns in the English language. The most common
are which, that, whose, whoever, whomever, who, and whom.
In some situations, the words what, when, and where can also function as relative
pronouns.

Examples:
 The cyclist who won the race trained hard.

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 The pants that I bought yesterday are already stained.

 The four team leaders, whomever the committee selects, will be at
tomorrow’s meeting.
 Where did you buy the dress what you wore last week?
 The book, when it was finally returned, was torn and stained.
 The store on the corner, where we usually buy all of our art supplies,
burned to the ground.

Possessive Pronoun:
Possessive pronouns are the pronouns that help us show possession. Usually to
show possession, we have two options that are grammatically correct.
First, we can use an apostrophe and s:
 Rimsha’s brother was named Awais.
Or, we can use of:
 The brother of Rimsha was named Awais.

Here are a few ideas to get you started:

 I becomes My or Mine
 You becomes Your or Yours
 He or She becomes His or Her
 Her becomes Hers
 It becomes its

Examples:
 This is my cat, not your cat. (Sounds repetitive)
 This cat is mine, not yours.

 I didn’t have my book so Jenny lent me her book. (Sounds repetitive)

 I didn’t have my book, so Jenny lent me hers.

 Your car is a lot faster than my car. (Sounds repetitive)

 Your car is a lot faster than mine.
Common Noun Examples
Possessive pronouns are often accompanied by common nouns.
The following are some examples of common nouns that are frequently
used in the same sentences as possessive pronouns.

I You This Him They Them

It Me That Her We

In the following example sentences, the common noun is in bold, and the
possessive pronoun is in italics & Underlined.

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 I lost my watch.
 This is her birthday.
 I’m going to give you your money back.

ADJECTIVES
An adjective modifies (qualifies or limits the meaning of) a noun or a pronoun.
It answers the questions,
 What kind?
 Which one(s)?
 How many?
 How much?
The words a, an, and the are the most frequently used adjectives. Although they are sometimes
referred to as articles or noun markers, they are really adjectives, plain and simple.

Use a before words that start with a consonant sound (a joking man or a lucky lottery player) and
an before words that start with a vowel sound (an hour’s wait or an interesting story).

An adjective can come before or after the noun or pronoun it describes.

Examples:
 Awais read an interesting story. (What kind of story?)
 The recent article has that information. (Which article?)
 Rimsha paid fifty dollars for the jacket. (How many dollars?)
 Much space was devoted to her artwork. (How much space?)
 Older cards are found on the table. (Which cards?)
 Tall players and intelligent coaches were interviewed by the interested reporter.
(Which players? Which coaches? Which reporter?)
There are several types of adjectives:

Proper Adjective:
A Proper Adjective is formed from a proper noun.
 Italian Bread
 Herculean Strength
 Midas Touch
 Bahawalpuri Sohn Halwa

Compound Adjective:
A Compound Adjective is a word composed of two or more words. Sometimes these words
are hyphenated.
 Landmark decision
 Black-and-blue mark
 Hometown hero

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Do not use a hyphen after an adverb ending in –ly.

 Newly painted mural
 Recently purchased

VERBS
A verb is one of the main parts of a sentence or question in English.
In fact, you can’t have a sentence or a question without a verb! That’s how important these
“action” parts of speech are.
The verb signals an action, an occurrence, or a state of being. Whether mental, physical, or
mechanical, verbs always express activity.

Physical Verbs:
Physical verbs are action verbs. They describe specific physical actions. If you can create a
motion with your body or use a tool to complete an action, the word you use to describe it
is most likely a physical verb.
Examples:
 Let’s run to the corner and back.
 I hear the train coming.
 Call me when you’re finished with class.

Mental Verbs:
Mental verbs have meanings that are related to concepts such as discovering,
understanding, thinking, or planning. In general, a mental verb refers to a cognitive state.
Examples:
 I know the answer.
 She recognized me from across the room.
 Do you believe everything people tell you?

States of Being Verbs:

State of being or Linking Verbs describe conditions or situations that exist. State of being
verbs are inactive since no action is being performed.
Examples:
 I am a student.
 We are circus performers.
 My brother is a doctor.
 Please is quiet.

Action Verbs:
Action verbs express specific actions, and are used any time you want to show action or
discuss someone doing something.

Examples:

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 Rimsha walked to school.

 Iqra reads a chapter in her book each night.
 Do you think it will rain today?
 Will you help me with my homework?

Transitive Verbs:
Transitive verbs are action verbs that always express doable activities. These verbs always
have direct objects, meaning someone or something receives the action of the verb.
Examples:
 Awais sent (transitive verb) a postcard from Lahore.
 She left the keys on the table.
 She usually leaves the books on the table.
Bolds: are Transitive Verbs.
Underlined: are the Direct Objects.

Intransitive Verbs:
Intransitive verbs do not need a direct object in order to complete their meaning. Many
are followed by an adjective, adverb, preposition or verb complement (gerund or
infinitive).
Examples:
 If Irum continues to be late for work, the boss will fire her.
(Continues is followed by an infinitive (to be), with no direct object.)
 The bomb exploded in the city center.
(Exploded is followed by a preposition of place with no direct object.)

Helping Verbs:
Helping verbs are used together with a main verb to show the verb’s tense or to form a
question or negative.
Examples:
 Rimsha is taking Awais to the airport.
 Unfortunately, our dinner has been eaten by the dog.
 She was baking a pie for dessert.
 Dad has been working hard all day.
 The bed was made as soon as I got up.
 Irum doesn’t a cricket player.
 Did Faisal bring coffee?

Stative Verbs:
Stative verbs can be recognized because they express a state rather than an action. They
typically relate to thoughts, emotions, relationships, senses, states of being, and
measurements.
Examples:
 Faisal feels rotten today. He has a bad cold.
 Do you recognize him? He is a famous rock star.

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 Do you know the answer?

Model Verbs:
Modal verbs are auxiliary verbs that are used to express abilities, possibilities, permissions,
and obligations.
The modals and semi-modals in English are:
 Can/could/be able to
 May/might
 Shall/should
 Must/have to
 Will/would
Examples:
 I can help you next Monday.
 Iqra can’t speak French.
 Awais is able to solve complicated math equations
 I won’t be able to visit you next summer.
 When I was a child I could climb trees.
 Can you lend me ten dollars?
 Could I have your number?
 You may start your exam now.
 You may not wear sandals to work.
 May I help you?
 We may go out dinner tonight. Do you want to join us?
 They might not buy a house at all.
 Shall we go for a walk?
 Should I call a doctor?
 The proposal should be finished on time.
 I shouldn’t be late. The train usually arrives on time.
 You should check that document before you send it out.
 You ought to have your car serviced before the winter.
 James shouldn’t teach him words like those.
 You must have a passport to cross the border.
 Elisabeth has to apply for her visa by March 10th.
 I need to drop by his room to pick up a book.
 I had to work late last night.
 I needed to drink a few cups of coffee in order to stay awake.
 Awais has lived in Hasilpur for years. His Punjabi must be very good.
 You must try this wine. It’s excellent.
 You have to visit us while you’re in town.
 You must not drive over the speed limit.
 You mustn’t leave medicines where children can get to them.
 You don’t have to park the car. The hotel valet will do it for you.
 Tim doesn’t have to go to school today. It’s a holiday.
 You didn’t have to shout. Everyone could hear you.
 You needn’t worry about me. I’ll be fine.
 Faisal will pick you up at 7:00am.
 Ali won’t be happy with the results of the exam.
 Will you please take the trash out?
 Would you mind if I sat here?

Phrasal Verbs:

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Phrasal verbs aren’t single words; instead, they are combinations of words that are used
together to take on a different meaning to that of the original verb.
Examples:
 Be sure to put on a life jacket before getting into the boat.
 We left out the trash for pickup.
 It’s time to get on the plane.
 What will she think up next?
 I’m having some trouble working out the solution to this equation.
 We’re going to have to put off our vacation until next year.
 Stand up when speaking in class, please.
 We’ll have to wake up early if we want breakfast.
 Take off your shoes before you walk on the carpet.

Irregular Verbs:
Irregular verbs are those that don’t take on the regular spelling patterns of past simple and
past participle verbs.

Here are nine that are used more often than the rest:

Go Get Say

See Think Make

Take Come Know

Examples:
 Go get your brother. It’s time to eat dinner.
 In this example, all three irregular verbs (go, get, and eat) are in base form.

 I want to build a sand castle like the one we built last year.
 In this example, the irregular verb build is in base form. The irregular verb built is
the past simple form of “build”. When you look at the complete list of examples,
you’ll notice that built is also the past participle of the irregular verb “build”.

 He bet me that I couldn’t run five miles without stopping. I proved him wrong; I
ran seven miles before I had to catch my breath.
 In this example, bet is a past simple form. When you look at the complete list,
you will see that all three forms of “bet” are the same. Next, in the same
sentence, the irregular verb run is in base form. In the next sentence, ran is the
past simple form of “run” and had is the past simple form of “have.” Meanwhile,
catch is base form.

 I awoke to find that a spider had bitten me. Although the wound didn’t bleed, it
itched terribly.

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 In this example, the irregular verb awoke is the past simple form of “awake.”
Bitten is past participle form of “bite” and bleed is base form.

 Let’s drink some of this lemonade. I drank some yesterday and found it
delicious.
 In this example, the irregular verb drink is in base form. Drank is the past simple
form of “drink,” and found is the past simple form of “find.”

ADVERB
An Adverb is a word that modifies (qualifies or limits) a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

Adverbs modify verbs:

 Awais ate quickly. (How did he eat?)
 I walk there. (Where did I walk?)
 Faisal will eat soon. (When will Faisal eat?)

Adverbs modify adjectives:

 Rimsha is very happy.
(Very modifies the adjective happy and answers the question, to what extent?)
 The program was too unrealistic. (Too modifies the adjective unrealistic and answers the
question, to what extent?)

Adverbs modify other adverbs:

 Awais walks too quickly.
(Too modifies the adverb quickly and answers the question, How quickly?)
 He moved rather recently.
(Rather modifies the adverb recently and answers the question, How recently?)

What adverb tells?

Tells Examples

When? She always arrives early.

How? He drives carefully.

Where? They go everywhere together.

In what way? She eats slowly.

To what extent? It is terribly hot.

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PREPOSITIONS
Common Preposition
A common Preposition is a word that shows the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and
another word in the sentence.

Examples:
 The man swam under the bridge. (Under connects the idea of swam and bridge.)
 She walked down the aisle. (Down connects walked and aisle.)
 Rimsha walked around the campus and toward town.
(Around connects walked and campus. Toward connects walked and town.)

Here are the most commonly used Prepositions:

Aboard About Above Across
After Against Along Among
Around As At Before
Behind Below Beneath Beside
Besides But Between Beyond
By Despite Down Concerning
During For From Except
In Inside Into Like
Near Off On Of
Onto Outside Opposite Out

Over Since Through Past

Throughout To Toward Till
Under Underneath Until Up
Upon With Within Without

Compound Preposition:
Another type of preposition is the Compound Preposition. It does the same as a common
preposition but is composed of two or more words. Here are the most common compound
prepositions:

According to Ahead of Apart from As of

Aside from Because of By means of In addition to
In back of In front of In place of In spite of
Instead of In view of Next to On account of
Out of Prior to

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Adverb or preposition?
The difference between a Preposition and an Adverb is that an adverb answers the
questions, Where? When? How? To what extent? by itself.
But both common and compound prepositions need more than just themselves to answer
the same questions:

Examples:
 He fell down. (Down is an adverb because it takes only one word to tell where he
fell.)
 He fell down the stairs. (Down is a preposition because it takes more than a single
word to tell where he fell.)
 Awais walked aboard. (Aboard is an adverb because it takes only one word
needed to tell where Trey walked.)
 Awais walked aboard the ship. (Aboard is a preposition because it takes more than
one word to tell where Trey walked.)

CONJUNCTION
A Conjunction is a part of speech that is used to Connect Words, Phrases, Clauses, or Sentences.

There are three types of conjunctions:

 Coordinating Conjunctions
 Correlative Conjunctions
 Subordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating Conjunctions:
A Coordinating Conjunction is a single connecting word. These seven words are for,
and, nor, but, or, yet, and so.

Examples:
 The boys and girls worked at the fair.
(And joins the names boys and girls.)
 Awais or Rimsha can go with you tonight.
(Or joins the names Awais and Rimsha.)
 I would like to help you, but I will be busy tonight.
(But joins two sentences or complete ideas.)
 We must leave early so we can get to the wedding reception on time.
(So join two sentences or two complete ideas.)

Remember the made-up word FANBOYS when you memorize the coordinating
conjunctions. Each letter in this word (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So) stands for a
coordinating conjunction.

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Correlative Conjunctions:
Correlative conjunctions are pairs of connecting words.
These five pairs of words are:
1. Both/and
2. Either/or
3. Neither/nor
4. Not only/but also
5. Whether/or

Examples:
 Both Faisal and Awais are leaving the dance now.
(The correlative conjunctions join two names.)
 Not only will they leave now, but they will also not be here to help clean up.
(The correlative conjunctions join two sentences or complete ideas.)
 Either go with them or stay here and help.
(The correlative conjunctions illustrate a choice.)
 He went neither to the stadium nor to the concert hall during this vacation.
(The correlative conjunctions join two prepositional phrases.)

Correlative conjunction:
Subordinating conjunctions are parts of speech that join dependent clauses to independent
clauses. Sometimes referred to as subordinators or subordinate conjunctions, these important
words and phrases may also introduce adverb clauses.

Examples:
 As Iqra blew out the candles atop her birthday cake, she caught her hair on fire.
 Maham begins to sneeze whenever she opens the window to get a breath of fresh air.
 When the doorbell rang, my dog barked loudly.

INTERJECTION
An Interjection is a word that expresses strong feeling or emotion:
 An interjection usually comes at the beginning of the sentence.
 An interjection is often followed by an exclamation point (!) when the emotion is strong or
a comma (,) when the emotion is mild.
 Do not overuse interjections. Include one when you want to make your point. If you use
too many interjections, your writing loses its power and effectiveness.

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Here are some Common Interjections:

Aw Bravo Dam Dear me Eek Eh Gee Golly Hallelujah Gosh Hey

Goodness
Mmm Hurrah Oops Oh Ugh Wow Yippee Oh No Well Yes
gracious

Phew Hurray Ouch Horrors Rats Whoa Yea Really Whoops Yeah Alas

Examples:
 Aw, that feels wonderful.
 Alas! I’m lost in the wilderness.
 It’s time for me to go. Cheers!
 Congrats! You finally got your Master’s degree.
 Awais! Do you ever think before you speak?

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