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PREPOSITIONS
VERBS
ADJECTIVES
*ARTICLES
NOUNS
PRONOUNS
ADVERBS
INTERJECTIONS
CONJUNCTIONS


To keep it simple ‘parts of speech’ imply
groups of words of the same kind (by
function)
Words of the same part of speech can
substitute one another i.e. A huge country.
A tiny country.
Parts of speech are grouped into two groups:
a) The open set
b) The closed set

They are called open set because
new words can continuously be
added to the group.
They are called close set because no
new words can be added to the
group.
THE OPEN SET:
THE CLOSED SET:
NOUNS
PREPOSITIONS
ADJECTIVES
PRONOUNS
VERBS* (LEXICAL)
VERBS* (AUXILIARY)
ADVERBS
CONJUNCTIONS
INTERJECTIONS
ARTICLES*

Nouns are words that name: things (phone), people (Paul), animals (cow),
places (Mitrovica), actions (swimming), ideas (philosophy), etc.

They are classified into different groups so they can be: proper (Paul,
Mitrovica, etc.) and common (man, city, etc.)

Another criteria divides them into: countable (regular – lesson = lessons,
irregular – mouse = mice) and uncountable (water, honey)

Nouns can also be concrete (book, woman) or abstract (politics, fun)
As far as their function is concerned nouns are usually used as:
1.
2.
3.
Subject of the sentence: Paul called on the phone his friend.
Object of the sentence: Paul called on the phone his friend.
Object of the preposition: Paul called on the phone his friend.





Verbs are words that denote states (am, like) actions (take, buy) or occurrences
(become, happen)
Verb are grouped into: lexical (swim, talk) and auxiliary (primary aux. be,
modal aux. can)
Based on how they take past forms they are classified into : regular (drop –
dropped) or irregular (sink – sank)
Based on the kind of the action they convey they are: transitive (they require
an object buy, bring) and intransitive ( they require no objectstay, fly)
Based on their availability to be used in continuous tenses we group them as:
action verbs (sing = singing) and state verbs (love, hate but not loving, hating)
Verbs function as predicates of the sentence: Paul called on the phone his friend
•Predicate
•Lexical – because it stands alone
•Regular – because it takes ‘ed’ in past forms
•Transitive – because it requires an object
•Action - because it can be used in continuous
Adjectives most commonly function as compliments in a sentence:
He is very clever (subject compliment)
They call him stupid (object compliment)
Adjectives are words that describe nouns/noun phrases i.e.a Victorian house
an angry crowd of people.
 Adjectives are divided into the category of gradable and non-gradable
adjectives



Gradable adjectives can appear in three different degrees: positive (good,
small, boring), comparative (better, smaller, more boring) and superlative
(the best, the smallest, the most boring).
Gradable adjectives are divided into three subgroups based on how they
change into different degrees: a) regular short, b) regular long and c)
irregular
Regular short
adjectives + er/
est
Big = bigger/ the
biggest
Regular long +
more/most
Interesting =
more interesting
/ the most
interesting
Irregular change their
forms
Bad / worse /
the worst
One syllable adjectives and
two syllable adjectives
ending in – y, i.e. friendly
Two and more syllable
Good, bad, far

Adverbs are words that tell information about the circumstances of states and
actions (they modify verbs)
The most frequent adverbs are:
Adverbs of time – denoting the time of the action: We met yesterday.

Adverbs of place – denoting the place of the action: We met yesterday here.
Adverbs of manner – denoting how an action is done: We met yesterday here
quickly.
Adverbs of degree – denoting the scale of an occurrence: We met yesterday here
too quickly.
Adverbs of frequency – denoting how often something happens: We usually meet
here.
Subject pron.
Object pron.
Possessive adj.
Possessive pron.
I
Me
My
Mine
You
You
Your
Yours
He
Him
His
His
She
Her
Her
Hers
It
It
Its
Its
We
Us
Our
Ours
They
Them
Their
Theirs
Are placed before verbs
and function as subjects:
He saw me.
Are placed after verbs and
function as objects:
He saw me.
Tell possession and
must be always followed
by a noun:
That is my book.
Tell the possession and
are not followed by the
noun:
That is mine.
http://www.myenglishgrammar.com for more practice