PARTS OF SPEECH: PART ONE

 In total English has eight parts of speech and grammar is about how these parts
function in the sentence as a whole, e.g., Dancing cow (dancing is an adjective
and not a verb), crying stone (crying is describing, modifying or telling us more
about the stone so it is an adjective)
 The eight ‘parts of speech’ are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns,
prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. These classes are based on the role
they play in various kinds of phrases.
o Naming words:
I. Noun
II. Pronoun (stands in place of a noun)
o Asserting/doing words
III. Verbs
o Modifying words
IV. Adverbs
V. Adjectives
o Joining words
VI. Conjunctions (and, but)
VII. Prepositions
o Exclamatory words
VIII. Interjections

NOUNS

 This is the name of a person, thing, place or an idea, e.g., ‘coat’, ‘John’, ‘peace’,
etc.

Classification

 Nous are either proper or common.

o Proper nouns name specific places (AIU, Nigeria, Nairobi), persons (Peter,
Oliech) or even animals (Simba). They mostly begin with capital letters, e.g.,
Nairobi, Jeremy. Proper names are used to refer to specific individuals that both
the speaker and hearer can identify and therefore do not need devices such as
articles, modifiers, etc., that render nouns more identifiable. One cannot say *the
Mount Kenya or several Mount Kenyas.
o Common nouns do not name specific persons, places or things, e.g. the name
‘cup’ is the name given to all cups, large, small, old, new, etc. Other common
nouns include names of persons (father, sister), places (town, county), animals
(dog, fish), things (house, road), activities (running, birth, speaking), qualities
(beauty) and ideas or concepts (truth, peace). They begin with a lower case
letter, unless they start a sentence. They need devices such as articles, modifiers,
etc., to render them more identifiable, e.g., the car, several cars, etc.
 Nouns are either concrete or abstract.
o Concrete nouns name objects that can be perceived by the senses, e.g., book,
man, etc.
o Abstract nouns name ideas, qualities, feelings, state, or action that cannot be
perceived through the senses, e.g., equality, courage, love, etc.

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 Another grammatical distinction between nouns are those that can be counted
(count[able] nouns) and those that refer to substances such as water, sand, air,
wood, etc., (mass/uncountable nouns). In English, mass nouns do not pluralize
unless used in the special count sense, e.g., ‘…like the sands of the sea shores’ or
like ‘waters of the sea’
 Compound nouns are two or more words that have been joined together to name
one person, one place, or one idea, e.g., ice cream, Rift Valley, landlady,
chalkboard, and sister-in-law. Compound nouns are written in three different
ways. (If you are not sure how to write consult the dictionary).
i. Closed, e.g., chalkboard
ii. Hyphenated, e.g., mother-in-law, attorney-general
iii. Open, e.g., outer space.
 A collective noun is singular in form yet refers to a group e.g., class, team, choir,
club, crowd, group, committee, organization, team, etc.

Characteristics of Nouns

 Characteristics are features that identify something.

 Nouns are often preceded by determiners, e.g., the village, some countries, many
cars, an apple.
 The singular/plural distinction is obligatory for concepts that can be counted
(number). Thus it consists of a stem plus an optional marker of plurality. Plural of
(countable) nouns are formed in a variety of ways:
o Adding [-s] or [-es], e.g., path/paths; kiss/kisses.
o More substantial changes as in man/men; child/children; mouse/mice.
o No change as in sheep/sheep.
o Other words ending in [-f] or [-fe] form their plural in [-ves], e.g., leaf/leaves;
knife/knives; life/lives, etc. These words must be learned since the rule does not
apply uniformly; giraffe/giraffes; chief/chiefs, etc.
o While nouns ending in [-y] form their plural in [-ies], e.g., diary/diaries;
industry/industries, those with a vowel before [-y] form their plural in the usual
way, e.g., journey/journeys.
o Words borrowed from other languages into English usually adopt the plural form
which exists in the parent language. See the Latin and Greek examples below:
(Latin) append-ix/append-ices; ind-ex/ind-ices; nucle-us/nucle-i, etc.
(Greek) criteri-on/criteri-a; thes-is/thes-es.
 Though collective nouns are technically singular, usually when preceded by the
indefinite article ‘a’, it is considered plural, and when preceded by the definite
article ‘the’ it is considered singular.

1) a) A group of students has gathered around the accident. (Wrong)

b) A group of students have gathered around the accident. (Right)
c) The number of people claiming unemployment insurance this year have
more than doubled; a number of them does not even try to find work.
(Wrong)
d) The number of people claiming unemployment insurance this year has
more than doubled; a number of them do not even try to find work. (Right)

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 Note that indefinite articles do not specify. The indefinite article is marked by ‘a’
before a word that begins with a consonantal sound, and ‘an’ before a word that
begins with a vowel sound. A definite/specific article is marked by ‘the’.
2) a) Naomi saw a relative.
b) Elijah made an altar.
c) Mary likes cake.
d) Mary likes the cake.

 Nouns may change their forms to indicate possession or ownership (possessive

case), thus may have the optional marker of possession, e.g., Amy’s car, girl’s
dresses, etc.
 There will be some ambiguous examples for words that function sometimes as
nouns and sometimes as verbs depending on the context. (Refer back to the
example using the word ‘walk’ which was given during the last lecture).
 Nouns are found in certain positions in a sentence. You can find them:
o Before a verb: Subject
o After a verb: Object
o After a preposition. Prepositions are words that point out relationships between
words.
 English nouns typically reflect their biological sex. There are four (4) genders:
i. Masculine, e.g., lion, man, ox, he, him, his, etc.
ii. Feminine, e.g., she, her, hers, woman, lioness, heifer, cow, etc.
iii. Neuter/inanimate, e.g., it, its, chalk, earth, (usually they are not living). Every
noun that is not referring to a person or animal is considered neuter. In poetic
languages we find some exceptions, e.g., ships being referred to as if they
were female as in the following sentence ‘When the new ship was launched,
her decks were full of sailors’.
iv. Common, e.g., teacher(s), doctor(s), etc.
 When we replace a noun with a pronoun, we assign it gender.
o A masculine pronoun is used to replace nouns that refer to males.

3) The Vice Chancellor of AIU understood the vision. He explained it. The
people, though, did not understand him.

o Feminine pronouns replace nouns that refer to females.

4) The first lady is generous. She tries to change the country’s health sector.
The governors are supposed to support her.

o Though not always, English uses the neuter pronoun it to replace all the other
nouns. The noun ‘car’ is genderless.

5) John bought a new car. He wants to repaint it with the color red.

 Nouns have three (3) cases:

i. Genitive case: Possessive, e.g., Anne’s car was knocked. It is
important to note that the same construction used to express
ownership is not always one of possession. The phrase ‘My
professor’ has nothing to do with a professor I possess in the same
way that ‘My clothes’ refers to clothes that I possess.
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 ii. Accusative: objective/object
iii. Nominative: Subject

ADJECTIVES

 An adjective modifies or describes a noun or a pronoun. They limit or qualify the

meaning of nouns or pronouns by telling ‘what kind of’ (adjectives of quality),
‘how many’ (adjectives of quantity), ‘which one’, or ‘how much’.
 Adjective of quantity, e.g., ‘much’, ‘few’, ‘many’, can only precede the noun.

6) a) The students at the football game were many. (Wrong)

b) There were many students at the football game. (Right)
c) Good reasons for my lack of punctuality are few. (Wrong)
d) There are few good reasons for my lack of punctuality. (Right)

 When adjectives modify nouns or pronouns, they normally precede them. They
can only follow the noun they modify if they are connected to that noun by a
copulative verb like ‘be’, ‘become’, or ‘seem’ or by a verb of sense or feeling
such as ‘feel’, ‘taste’, or ‘look’.

7) a) There is green grass on this side of the fence

b) The grass seems green on this side of the fence

 There are rare cases where adjectives are used as nouns, e.g., ‘The poor will
always be with you’.
 The properties expressed by adjectives include:
o Age (young, old, etc.)
o Dimension (big, little, tall, short, long, etc.)
o Value (good, bad, etc.)
o Color (black, white, red, etc.)
o Physical characteristics (heavy, hard, smooth, etc.)
o Shape (round, square, etc.)
o Human propensity (jealous, happy, clever, etc.)
o Speed (fast, slow, quick, etc.),

Types of adjectives

The main types are descriptive, possessive, interrogative, and demonstrative.

Descriptive adjectives
 A descriptive adjective describes a characteristic or quality by answering the
question ‘what kind?’
o An attributive descriptive adjective modifies a noun and often precedes it, e.g.
‘A good student’.
o A predicate descriptive adjective makes a comment about a noun or pronoun,
e.g., ‘the work of the student was good’ with ‘was’ playing the role of a linking
verb.
o A substantive descriptive adjective functions as a noun, e.g., ‘the rich live in
good houses’.

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 o The comparative descriptive adjective is used when nouns have a greater, lesser,
or equal degree of an attribute. It is typically formed by adding the suffix [-er] to
the adjective, e.g., ‘tall/taller’; ‘nice/nicer’, etc, or using ‘not as…as’ or ‘as-as’.

8) a) Peter is taller than John.

b) Mary is not as old as Ruth.
c) Judy is as learned as George.

o A superlative descriptive adjective conveys the highest or lowest degree of an

attribute. It ends in [-est], e.g. ‘tallest’, ‘nicest’, etc.

9) a) Peter is the tallest in the class.

b) John is the least qualified for the job.

o Only certain kinds of adjectives, mostly those with one syllable, end in the
suffixes suggested above. Those with two or more syllables form comparative
and superlative using ‘more’ and ‘most’ as well as other irregular forms (e.g.,
good-better-best, bad-worse-worst).
o When the definite article ‘the’ is used in a phrase with a comparative or
superlative adjective, the comparative is used when two things or people are
being compared and the superlative form for more than two things or people.

10) a) Of my two brothers, James is the most intelligent. (Wrong)

b) Of my two brothers, James is the more intelligent. (Right)
c) Of all my sisters, Mary is the most educated (Right)

Possessive adjective
 A possessive adjective describes or modifies a noun by stating who possesses it.

Singular Plural
1st person my (common) our (common)
2nd person your (common) your (common)
3rd person his (masculine)
her (feminine) their (common)
its (neuter)

Interrogative adjective
 An interrogative pronoun asks a question about a noun and they are mostly in
front of the noun.

11) a) Which road leads to AIU?

b) From which country did you come?
c) What time did you come?

Demonstrative adjective
 Demonstrative adjective points out a noun. They are categorized according to
whether they are near (at hand) or remote (farther away) and whether they are
singular or plural

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 Near Remote
Singular This that
Plural These those

12) This car is Abigail’s but that car is Mary’s.

PRONOUNS

 A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun or another pronoun. It can
therefore refer to a person, place, animal, thing, activity, idea or concept.
 The noun or pronoun that the pronoun replaces is called the antecedent or its
referent. Consider the two sentences:

13) a) Mary eats the cake. Mary likes the cake.

In English this sounds strange, for one is expected to replace the second
occurrence of the word ‘Mary’ with a pronoun as well as replace the second
occurrence of ‘cake’ with ‘it’ to end up with the sentence:

b) Mary eats the cake. She likes it.

 One should be able to identify what noun it is replacing, e.g., ‘The headmaster…’
is replaced by ‘he’ not ‘she’.

Classification of pronouns

 Personal pronouns refer to one or more persons or things. Personal pronouns

change their form depending on their function in the clause. There are those that
can be used as the subject of a verb, and those that can be used as objects of the
verb.

Singular Plural
First person I/me we/us
Second person you/you you/you
Third person he/him
she/her they/them
it/it

14) a) I talked, and you listened.

b) The father saw him but spoke to us

o There is one basic rule concerning the order of object pronouns in English: the
direct object pronoun always precedes the indirect object pronoun unless the
indirect object pronoun has no preposition.

15) a) Fetch the newspaper and give to him it (Wrong)

b) Fetch the newspaper and give it to him (Right)

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 o Since direct and indirect object pronouns are identical in any given person and
number, sentences containing two consecutive pronouns of the same form are
not uncommon. In such instances, the context helps to disambiguate the
references.

16) The boys asked for the books, so I gave them to them. (The second ‘them’
is the indirect object because of the preposition ‘to’).

 Possessive pronouns replace a noun and specify the possessor of the replaced
noun.

Singular Plural
First person Mine ours
Second person Yours yours
Third person His
hers theirs
its

 An interrogative pronoun replaces a noun and introduces a question with the

different pronouns based on whether the replaced noun refers to something
animate (who, whom, whose) or inanimate (what).
o ‘Who’ takes the place of the subject of a verb, e.g.,

17) Who lives in the house?

o ‘Whom’ takes the place of the object or preposition of a verb

18) a) Whom did you see in the house?

b) To whom did you give the letter?

o ‘What’ takes the place of a subject or object of a verb or preposition that is

inanimate.

19) a) What happened? (Subject)

b) What did you see in the house? (Object of a verb)
c) With what did you write the letter? (Object of preposition)

 A demonstrative pronoun points to a specific place, person, thing, idea, and points
out to whether they are near or remote. Examples include ‘this’/ ‘these’ and ‘that’/
‘those’.
o The difference between a demonstrative pronoun and a demonstrative adjective
is that the former replaces a noun thus does not modify one while the latter
stands before a noun and modifies it.

20) a) This pen belongs to him. (demonstrative adjective)

b) This is the pen that belongs to him. (demonstrative pronoun)

 Reflexive pronouns refer to the same subject of a sentence or a clause. They reflect
the verb’s process back to the subject. It is a compound of personal pronoun plus
[-self], e.g., myself/ourselves; himself/themselves; yourself/yourselves, etc.

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 Avoid using the compound personal pronouns like ‘myself’ and ‘herself’ when a
simple personal pronoun will do.

(21) a) The meeting was co-chaired by the president and myself. (Wrong)
b) The meeting was co-chaired by the president and me. (Right)
c) Only John, Peter, and myself were involved in the project. (Wrong)
d) Only John, Peter, and I were involved in the project. (Right)

 Reciprocal pronouns complete an interchange of an action, e.g., ‘they

complemented each other’ or ‘The members shouted to each other’.
 Relative pronoun They serve two primary functions:
i) They represent a previous mentioned noun or pronoun known as the antecedent
or referent.

(22) John saw the woman who carried the basket.

ii) They introduce a relative clause which is a type of a dependent or subordinate

clause. This clause does not stand alone but must be linked to a previous one.
‘John saw a woman’= main clause
‘who cried in the courtyard=dependent clause
o In its function as the subject, the relative pronoun depends on whether the
reference is animate (who) or inanimate (which, that).

(23) a) John saw the woman who carried the basket.

b) John rented the house which was near the road.
[‘which’ is the subject of the verb was]

o As the object of a verb or preposition, a relative clause also depends on whether

the reference is animate (whom) or inanimate (which, that).

(24) a) Mary is the woman whom John saw.

b) Mary is the woman to whom John spoke.
c) John rented the house which James built.
[‘which’ is the object of the verb built, James is the subject]

o For possession within a relative clause, the possessive modifier whose is used.

(25) These are the people whose houses were destroyed.

[‘Whose’ is a possessive modifying ‘people’]

Pronoun antecedent agreement

 A pronoun must agree with the antecedent in number.

o When the antecedent used is singular, the noun used to refer to it must be
singular.

(26) a) Neither of the boys has memorized his part.

b) Everyone has found the book.

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 o When the antecedent is plural, a plural pronoun is used.

(27) Many of the representatives answer their mail faithfully.

o When two or more singular antecedents are joined by ‘or’ or ‘nor’ a singular
pronoun is used.

(28) a) Neither Peter nor Tom has gotten his pictures yet.
b) Peter or James must have left his sweater.

o When two or more singular antecedents are joined by ‘and’ they take the plural
pronoun.

(29) The mother and her son enjoyed their trip to New York.

 A pronoun must agree with its antecedent in gender.

o When a singular antecedent is masculine, use the pronouns ‘him’ or ‘his’.

(30) The man stood with his hand in his pocket.

o When the antecedent is feminine, use the pronoun ‘she’ or ‘her’,

(31) The girl finished her lab experiment.

o When the antecedent is neuter, use the pronoun ‘it’ or ‘its’

(32) The tree was loosing its leaves.