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Parts of speech
What are parts of speech? They are the eight
categories that words can be put into, according
to how they are used in a sentence.
Prepositions are words that are placed in front of
nouns, pronouns and gerunds (the –ing form of
the verb) to show the word’s connection with
another word.
A dress made of silk.
The plate on the table.
The balcony behind the house.
Interjections are words that are added to a
sentence to express emotion. They are not
connected to the sentence grammatically and are
often followed by an exclamation mark.
Ouch! You stepped on my toe.
Hey! That was my seat.
Wow! You look great, what happened?
Nouns
Nouns are words that refer to a person (Anne,
doctor), a place (kitchen, Norway), a thing (table),
an activity (running) or a quality (sorrow).
Nouns in the plural
For most nouns we add an -s to make the plural:
One roof, two roofs
One safe, two safes
But:
One leaf, two leaves
One knife, two knives
When a noun ends with an o that follows a
consonant, you add an -s or –es:
Infinitive
Present
Past
Past participle
To walk
walk
walked
walked
To smile
smile
smiled
smiled
This is quite simple. But there is a whole list of irregular verbs as well. Here are some examples:
Infinitive
Present
Past
Past participle
One piano, two pianos
But:
One potato, two potatoes
To be
is/are
was/were
has/have been
To make
make
made
made
There are also some nouns whose plural forms
have more radical spelling changes. Here are some
of them:
To blow
blow
blew
blown
One man, two men
One tooth, two teeth
One child, two children
One foot, two feet
There are some nouns which keep the singular
form in the plural:
One sheep, two sheep
One fish, two fish
One horse, two horses
One boy, two boys
One donkey, two donkeys
Language work shop
There are, however, some exceptions to this rule.
Here is a list of the most common exceptions:
Write sentences using the following nouns
in the plural – one sentence for each noun:
Baby, bush, thief, tax, church, life, mouse,
hero, monkey, book.
The table above gives only three examples. Most dictionaries have a list of all irregular verbs. In order to
get them right it is a good idea to learn them by heart.
Agreement
In English, verbs in the present tense have to agree
with their subjects in number and person.
Basically, a singular subject takes a singular verb
and a plural subject takes a plural verb. Most of
the forms, however, are similar. For the majority
of verbs you add an -s only in the 3rd person
singular.
I walk
You walk
He/she/it
walks
We walk
You walk
They walk
The most common verbs are an exception to this
general rule. They are irregular and are
­conjugated differently from regular verbs:
If the noun ends in -ch, -sh, -s, -x and -z,
we add -es:
One brush, two brushes
One clutch, two clutches
If the noun ends in y and there is a consonant in
front of the -y, the -y is changed to -ie before we
add the -s:
One body, two bodies
One lady, two ladies
When a noun ends in -f or -fe we usually add an
-s, but sometimes the -f or -fe is changed to -v and
-ve before the -s:
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CHAPTER 5 words, words, words
A verb tells us what the subject is doing or what is
being done to the subject; it can also tell us about
the subject’s state of being. A verb carries out the
action in a sentence.
Students read books.
Students are taught new things every day.
Students are smart.
I am
You are
He/she/it is
We are
You are
They are
I was
You were
He/she/it was
We were
You were
They were
I have
You have
He/she/it has
We have
You have
They have
I do
You do
He/she/it does
We do
You do
They do
Regular and irregular verbs
The verb has four forms: the infinitive, the
present, the past and the past participle. Regular
verbs add -ed to the infinitive form to make the
past and past participle:
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Language work shop
Language workshop
Language workshop
In some cases it might not be obvious whether the verb should be singular or plural. Here are
some problem areas:
Write a text where you leave out all the
adjectives and adverbs. Ask a partner to
give you a list of adjectives and adverbs.
Fill in the gaps in the same order as your
partner listed the words and finally read
out the text in class.
1Write at least five of your own
sentences that include relative
­pronouns. Explain the grammatical
choices you make.
2 Choose one text in this book and find
sentences containing who, which and
that. Try to figure out why the chosen
word is used.
1Words that end with -one, -body and -thing require a verb in the 3rd person singular: Everyone has to sit down.
2 Compound subjects require a verb in the plural: Mary and John are a happy couple.
(Exception: Fish and Chips [here this is one dish] is a national dish.)
3 Collective nouns perform differently in British and American English.
In AE they function as one unit and take a singular verb: The team is weak at the moment.
In BE the emphasis is often on the many members: The team are playing well.
Subjects that include a prepositional phrase can easily be confusing: A box of books is
heavy. But: The two boxes of books have to be moved.
4 Expressions of amounts require singular verbs: Ten dollars is not much these days.
5 There are some nouns which are singular although the form seems plural - the USA and
the news are such examples: The USA is a diverse country.
6 Plural nouns such as scissors and pants require a plural verb (The scissors are in the
drawer.). However; we say, “A pair of scissors is just what I need”.
Pronouns replace the noun. They take the
position and function of the noun but do not
have a specific name.
Students are smart people. They are smart
people.
Grammar is great.
It is great.
Relative Pronouns
Language workshop
Write a paragraph about what you did last weekend. Swap texts with a partner and correct
each other’s verbs. If there are any errors, you need to explain why they are incorrect.
Adjectives and Adverbs
Adjectives are words used to describe nouns. They
describe people, places or things. Adjectives also
help us to compare nouns.
Mona is young.
London is a big city.
He wore a yellow jumper.
There are three apples in the fridge.
Their car is better than ours.
The form of the adverb is usually an
adjective + -ly. There are some exceptions,
however. The adverbial form of good, for
instance, is well. And note that the adverb
hardly is not the adverb form of the
adjective hard.
Adjective: The grammar task is hard.
Adverb: She worked hard.
Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives or
other adverbs. They describe manner, place and
time; in other words, they tell us about how,
where and when something is done.
He walks slowly.
They left surprisingly early.
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CHAPTER 5 words, words, words
The verbs be, become, get, feel, look, seem, smell,
sound and taste require the use of an adjective.
The general rule for the use of the relative
pronouns who, which and that, is that who refers
back to a person (whom is the object form), which
refers back to a thing and that can be used with
both. In addition, who and which are obligatory in
unnecessary relative clauses. An unnecessary
relative clause (a clause is a group of related words
which contain a subject and a verb) is set apart
from the sentence with commas. If it is removed,
the message of the sentence stays the same.
For example:
My mother, who works as a doctor, is 49 years old.
The Norwegian handball team, who won a gold
medal in the Olympics, will be playing in the
world championship in December.
The Norwegian handball team who won a gold
medal in the Olympics will be playing in the
world championship in December.
In the first two examples, the information
between the two commas can be removed without
changing the message. Therefore, the relative
clauses are unnecessary. In the last example the
clause cannot be removed without changing the
meaning of the sentence; it is a necessary relative
clause.
Conjunctions join words that link parts of
sentences. There are three categories of conjunctions:
1. Coordinating conjunctions (and, but, or) join
two words, phrases and independent clauses.
Bill and Grace are married.
He told me he will leave tomorrow but I do not
think he will.
Will you leave tomorrow or are you staying
another day?
2. Subordinating Conjunctions (after, although,
as, because, before, how, if, once, since, than, that,
though, till, when, where, whether, while)
­introduce a dependent clause. A dependent clause
is one that cannot stand alone.
Though you might not love it, grammar is
important.
Although you are young, you still have to make
important decisions.
3. Correlative conjunctions: both …and, either …
or, neither…nor, not only…but also, so…as,
whether…or. These conjunctions always come in
pairs and join two equal parts of a sentence.
Both my son and my daughter are allergic to hard
work.
Neither students nor teachers like to do homework during the holidays.
The new boy in our class seems nice.
Lisa was angry after the match.
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