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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: 334 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: 335 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. 336 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. 337