MPU3022: ENGLISH LANGUAGE

PROFICIENCY

Week 1: 24 – 28 August 2020

MPU3022: ENGLISH LANGUAGE
PROFICIENCY

PARTS OF SPEECH /WORD CLASSES

-NOUNS
-PRONOUNS
-VERBS
-ADVERBS
Quiz on Parts of Speech
• Go to www.menti.com and use this code: 89 85 537
 NOUNS
- Proper nouns
- Common nouns (countable & uncountable
nouns)
-Singular & Plural nouns
-Gender
-Possessive Form
-Collective nouns
Proper nouns
• Used for a particular person, place, thing or idea
• E.g. Gary, Mum, Asia, Oxford Street, July
• Always begin with a capital letter

• Common Nouns
- Any noun that is not the name of a particular person,
place, thing or idea
- E.g. child, desk, movie, snake, hotel
• All common nouns may be either countable nouns or
uncountable nouns
- Countable nouns are nouns that can be counted.
• We use ‘ a, an, many, some, a few, a lot of ‘
• E.g. Molly ate an apple after lunch.
• Many people attended the concert last night.
- Uncountable nouns are nouns that cannot be counted
• We use ‘ much, some, a little, a lot of ‘
• E.g. There is not much information on this subject.
• A little encouragement goes a long way in boosting
his self-esteem.
Abstract Nouns
- Not concrete things that cannot be touched, seen,
tasted or heard.
- E.g. advice, experience, pity, beauty, hope,
• Singular & Plural Nouns
- There are many ways to form plural nouns
• E.g. Adding ‘s’ - pencils, ‘es’ - boxes
• changing ‘y’ to ‘ies’ – countries, changing ‘f’
• or ‘fe’ to ‘ves’ - shelves, changing the
• internal vowels : feet, men
Gender
- Is a classification of nouns, adjectives or pronouns as
masculine, feminine or neuter
• E.g Masculine : men, boys, male animals
• (bull, duck, dog, lion)
• Feminine : women, girls, female animals
• (cow, drake, bitch, lioness)
• Neuter : inanimate things (desk, bag),
• animals whose sex we do not know,
• and babies whose sex we do not know
Possessive Form
- We use apostrophe s (‘) for a singular nouns and
plural nouns not ending in ‘-s’
• E.g. The children’s room, the fairy’s wand.

- We use apostrophe alone for plural nouns ending

in ‘-s’
• E.g. The students’ files, the waitresses’ uniforms.
Collective Nouns
• Nouns that refer to a group of people or things

• E.g. a colony of ants, a band of musicians,

• a troop of monkeys, a bunch of keys
• a fleet of ships, a stable of horses
PRONOUNS
-Personal pronouns
-Reflexive pronouns / Emphatic
pronouns
-Demonstrative pronouns
-Possessive pronouns
-Relative pronouns
-Interrogative pronouns
-Reciprocal pronouns
Personal Pronouns
• Used to refer to oneself, the people one is talking to
or the people or things one is talking about
• E.g I, you, he, she, it, we , they ( as subject)
me, you, him, her, it, us, them (as object)
Reflexive Pronouns
- Refer to the person or animal that is the subject of
the verb
- E.g. Myself, yourself, yourselves, himself,
herself, itself, oneself, ourselves
Demonstrative pronouns
• Point to nouns
• E.g. this & that : singular/ these & those : plural
- ‘That’ and ‘those’ refer to persons or things further away
from the speaker
- ‘This’ and ‘these’ refer to persons or things close to the
speaker
- E.g. That is an expensive vase. This is my pet cat.

• Possessive pronouns
- Show possession, i.e., that someone or something belongs to
somebody
- E.g. mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
Relative Pronouns
• Introduces more information about nouns and
pronouns.
• Never begin sentences, begin a clause
• Describe or identify the noun or pronoun that
precedes it
• E.g. Who, whose, whom : for persons
which : for animals, things
• that : for animals, things, persons
Interrogative pronouns
• Used to ask questions
• We use ‘who’, ‘whose’ or ‘whom’ when we refer to
people
• E.g. Who is at the gate ?
• Whose is this mobile phone?
• Whom were you speaking to ?
- We use ‘which’ for persons or things of a limited
number
• E.g. Which of these books is yours?
• We use ‘what’ when we ask about things or activities
• E.g. What is that fish ?
• What are they doing in the room?
Reciprocal Pronouns
- Used to express a relationship between two people
• or things ( ‘each other’ , ‘one another’ )
• E.g. Andy and Dennis patted each other ‘s backs
• for a job well done.
• The lions fought one another over the chunks of
meat.
VERBS
•To-be, to-have, to-do
•Action verbs (sit, fly, eat)
•Imperatives
•Stative verbs
•Transitive & Intransitive verbs
•Phrasal verbs
•Modal Auxiliary verbs ( can, could, may, might,
shall, should, will, would, must, ought)
Action verbs
• Describe actions
• E.g. The villagers wash their clothes in the
• river.
• Imperatives
- A verb form used to tell us how to do things
- Used for direct orders, suggestions, directions,
instructions
- E.g. Read the passage carefully
- Look out ! There is a motorcycle !
Be, Have & Do
• Used to help another verb express an action
a) Be - is, am, are (present form)
was, were (past form)
b) Have - to mean ‘possess’
E.g. Denise has blue eyes.
- for actions
E.g. William had an argument with his mother.
c) Do - do , does (present form), did (past form)
E.g. I do know the answer. Did they come?
Adverbs
• Can be grouped into the following types:
- Manner : effectively, kindly, attentively
- Time : soon, last night, tomorrow, yet
- Place : there, here, everywhere, abroad
- Reason : since, because
- Frequency : seldom, often, rarely, never
- Degree : rather, quite, almost, hardly
- Duration : briefly, permanently, overnight
Adverbs of manner
• Answer the question ‘ How?’
• Placed after a verb or after its direct object
• E.g. Vincent shook the bottle of ketchup
vigorously.
• The nightingale sang sweetly.
• Adverbs of time
- Answer the question ‘When?’
- Come either at the beginning or end of a sent.
• E.g. Yesterday they went to the beach.
• The weather was fine this morning.
Adverbs of place
• Answer the question ‘Where?’
• Come after the verb or after the direct object.
• E.g. We are going outdoors to fly kites.
• Rover! Bring the toy here.
• Adverbs of reason
- Answer the question ‘Why ?’
• E.g. Lance is absent from school today
because he is ill.
• The team’s success was partly due to her
efforts.
Adverbs of frequency
• Answer the question ‘How often?’
• Can be placed – i) after the verb ‘be’
• E.g. He is often absent from meetings.
• Jimmy is seldom late.
• - ii) before all other verbs
• E.g. Sandy always goes to Siti’s house after
• school. Kim usually walks to school.
• - iii) before the 2nd word, when the
• verb consists of 2 or more words
• E.g. He will never catch up with us.
Adverbs of degree
• Answer the question ‘To what extent?’
• Can be placed i) after the verb ‘be’
E.g. The village was completely flooded.
The apples were rather unripe.
ii) before all other verbs
E.g. I would rather finish the food than waste it.
The girls nearly quarrelled over the matter,
iii) before an adjective or an adverb
E.g. Do not eat too quickly. You should read this
book. It is quite good.
Adverbs of duration
• Answer the question ‘How long?’
• Can be placed i) after the verb ‘be’
• E.g. She was briefly in charge of the department.
• The vending machine is temporarily out of use.
• ii) after all other verbs
• E.g. The heavy rain lasted for two days.
• We waited for ages for a taxi.
Let’s Quizizz

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TUTORIAL TASK
• Pair work
• Choose a text to discuss the relevance and purpose behind
the use of Parts of Speech/Word Classes found in the text.