PARTS OF SPEECH

A part of speech is a term used in traditional grammar for one of the eight main
categories into which words are classified according to their functions
in sentences.

They are the foundation for English Grammar. There are eight parts of speech in
English. They are:
1. Noun
2. Pronoun
3. Verb
4. Adverb
5. Adjective
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Exclamation /Interjection

1. Noun:
Noun is a naming word. It names a person, a place, a thing or an animal.
Ram is a student. To the question who is Ram, the answer is: Ram is a
student. So, Ram is a noun. Student is common noun.

New Delhi is the capital of India. Here New Delhi and India are places. New
Delhi is a place in India and India is a country in Asia. So they are nouns of
places.

I have ten marbles. Marbles refer to things. Therefore, they are nouns.

Pet dogs are very faithful. Here dogs refer to noun (common).

So, here we saw that Noun is a naming word. It names persons, places,
animals and things.

There are many types of nouns:

1. Proper Noun: It refers to name of a person or a place.
Sudiksha is a proper noun.
Delhi is a proper noun.

2. Common noun: A name given commonly to people or things or animals.

School, hospital, bus, train, table, cycle, playground etc.

3. Collective Noun: A noun which indicates a group of people or, places or things
or animals.
A group of students, class of students
A group of islands
A bunch of keys
A packet of chocolates
A pack of wolves, a flock of birds, a pride of lions, a school of whales, a
clump of trees, a swarm of bees, a colony of ants etc.
 4. Abstract Nouns: Nouns that denote the qualities we cannot touch and see,
but we can only experience: goodness, kindness, love, anger etc.

5. Material Noun: Nouns that indicate the materials that are made of.
Gold chain, wooden table, diamond jewelry etc.,

2. Pronouns:
Words that are used in the place of nouns are known as pronouns. ‘Pro’ refers
to ‘proxy,’ or ‘to represent someone else.’ Pronouns represent the nouns.

Carefully read the following passage.

Swati is a good girl. Swati studies in class VII. Swati goes to Sai International
School. Swati loves to dance. Swati help her mother.

In this paragraph, we can use Swati as subject for the first time and from
next time we use ‘she’ in place of Swati. Therefore, ‘she’ is the pronoun.

The pronouns are: I, we, you, he, she, it, me, your, mine, our, us etc.

3. Verb: Verb is a doing word (action). It is used for actions that are done. They
explain what is being done. Words such as: to go, to come, to play, to eat, to
write and to call, are showing some actions, therefore, they are called verbs or
action words.
Jack  said  that he  wanted  to  see  me, but I  am  not sure whether to  believe  him.
To  make  him really  understand  how I  feel  I  think  I  should have  a talk with him as
soon as possible. 

4. Adverb (Add + verb) Adding something to the meaning of verbs. Adverb

qualifies or modifies the verb.

The English word adverb derives (through French) from Latin adverbium, from

ad- ("to"), verbum ("word", "verb"), and the nominal suffix -ium. The term
implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as modifiers of verbs
or verb phrases..

Example: 1. Ravi runs. (it only states what Ravi does). If we add an adverb
then it will be like this: Ravi runs fast. “Fast” is an adverb which adds or
qualifies the verb by stating ‘how’ Ram runs. ‘Fast’ is an adverb as it adds some
meaning to the verb.

Example 2: Swayam walks quickly. How Swayam does walk quickly. The word
‘quickly’ qualifies the verb or modifies the verb, hence it is an adverb.

Example 3: The dog barks ‘angrily.’ How does the dog bark? It barks angrily.
Angrily is then the adverb.

5. Adjective: (add + noun)

 Adjective comes from Latin nōmen adjectīvum. In Ancient Greek it means ‘additional
noun.'
Therefore adverbs are words that ‘add some meanings’ to the nouns or ‘qualify’ the
nouns..
Example 1: He is holding a black pen. Here black is an adjective. It answers the
question what type of pen he is holding. The answer is ‘a black pen.’

Example 2: Mohan is an angry person. It expresses what type of person Mohan is.
Therefore, the noun Mohan is qualified by the adjective ‘angry.’

Example 3: Gita is a beautiful girl. Gita is qualified as beautiful. Therefore, it is an

adjective.

Example 4: We can also use a speeding bus, sleeping dog, humble person, rich man,
poor girl, red shirt, dirty room, white paper etc., show the functions of adjectives.

6. Prepositions:
The word preposition comes from Latin: prae ("before") and Latin: ponere ("to put").
To indicate this, they are called postpositions (using the prefix post-, from Latin
post meaning "behind, after").

So, prepositions are words that are placed before nouns or pronouns : (pre=before),
position (to place).

Example 1: I am going to the market for buying vegetables. I will come back within
half an hour. Please, take care of my pet dog till I come back. If it is urgent call me in
the cell phone.
Prepositions are words that are placed before nouns or pronouns in order to show
some relationship between the subject and the object.
Gagan goes to the market.

7. Conjuction: Conjunctions are linking words like and, or, but, then, because etc.,

i.They knocked down all the houses and they built a car park.

ii. Are there four or five people living in that house?

iii. My shoes look great but are not very comfortable.

Conjunctions are words that join words, phrases or sentences.

8. Interjections:
An interjection is a word or phrase that is grammatically independent from the
words around it, and mainly expresses feeling and emotion rather than meaning.
 Words that express some sudden feelings or emotions such or a word or phrase used
in exclamation such as Heavens! Dear me! Ah..! Ouch..! Wow! Bravo! Oh! whee! O Mi
Ghosh! Holy Crap! Lovely! Excellent! Great! Etc.

Example: Dear me! How long have you been away?

What a wonderful place it is!
How stupid of me!

A gerund is a verb that ends with -ing (such as dancing, flying, etc.), that functions as a
noun. ...
1. Drinking coffee is good for health.
2. Running fast is a good exercise.
3. Eating too much is a bad habit.
4. Drinking alcohol is injurious to health.
Here the words drinking, running, eating etc are GERUNDS, because they are verbs
ending in ‘ing’ but functions as nouns / subject.

A participle also ends in -ing like a gerund, but it does not function as a noun, instead,
they form the progressive tense of a verb. They can sometimes function as an adjective,
but not always.
1. Present participle – a verb ending in ‘ing, - eating, sleeping, dancing
2. 2. Past Participle - a verb that end either in ed, t,en, etc.- walked , sleep, slept
Eaten, broken etc., flown, hurt, put, cut, shut etc

Having done his work, he went home.

Wearing new dress, she went to the party.

Summary of ‘The Way Through The Woods’:

The poem begins with the mention of a road through the woods which was closed seventy years ago.
The road was left undisturbed. For so many years, the weather and the rain have undone the road
(destroyed) the road. The place was looking as it was before formation of that road. But now, no one
could tell if there was even a road through the woods. It is because the road has disappeared
beneath the bushes and scrub of different kinds of plants. It is hidden from the human eyes. After
the road was closed, trees were planted. Those trees have grown up now, and that road has become
the part of the wood itself.
But now the road (which is not seen, and which is now a part of wood itself) is full of activity and life.
It is occupied by the ring-dove that broods there and the burrowing badger which rolls in it playfully.
Now, if anyone goes and visits the woods in the late summer evening, he or she will come to know
that there is more to the road. The night air cools above the pools that are full of trout fish, and the
otter calls out to its mate. These creatures do not fear human presence because very few people
enter the woods.
 One could hear the trampling of a horse’s hoof when the horse isn’t physically present. Perhaps, it is
a ghost from the past when the road was used by men on horseback. One could hear the swish of
skirts moving amongst dew covered grass. From these sounds, one could tell the difference that
these people move in easy walk as if they perfectly knew where the road lay, even when a living
person wouldn’t be able to distinguish it because it is no longer the road that was there seventy
years back. The poet still feels that there is surely no road through the woods.

Word Galaxy
 Undone – destroyed
 Heath – open uncultivated land, usually covered with grass
 Badgers – carnivorous animals that can burrow into the ground
 Coppice – grove; growth of small trees
 Trout – a type of fish
 Anemones – plants with white, purple or red flowers
 Cantering – riding at a fairly fast pace
 Broods – sits upon eggs to hatch them
 Solitudes – a lonely place

Questions – Answers:

1.    Who can see where the old road ran?

Ans: The keeper of the woods can see where the old road ran.

2.    Why is the otter not afraid of men?

Ans: The otter is not afraid of men because very few people enter the woods.

3.    You will hear the beat of horse’s feet,

And the swish of a skirt in the dew.
a)    Which is the horse that is being referred here?
Ans: The horse once upon a time on which people used to roam in the woods.

b)    How and when it is present in the forest?

Ans: It is not physically present in the forest. That is one of the old memories of the poet.

c)    Does its presence appear natural to you?

Ans: No, the presence of the horse doesn’t appear natural to me because it is not physically
present there.

4.    Which lines tell you that the woods are full of life?
Ans: Following lines tell us that the woods are full of life:
-         That, where the ring-dove broods,
-         And the badges roll at ease,
-         Where the otter whistles his mate
-         On the trout-ringed pools
-         You will hear the beat of the horse’s feet
-         And the swish of the skirt in the dew
5.    What can be heard on late summer evening? What do you think causes these sounds?
Ans: The whistles of the otter can be heard on late summer evening. The otter can be seen
calling his mate. Also, the horse’s feet tapping, the swish of the skirt, can be heard. Actually
there is no presence of such things, it’ just poet’s imagination.

6.    ‘As though they perfectly knew’ – Who do you think ‘they’ are? Why do you think so?
Ans: The word ‘they’ refer to the people who used to visit the road once upon a time. I think so
because only these people can be perfectly walk on the road because they were habitual to the
road.

7.    Which words tell you –

a)    That a woman is walking through the woods?
Ans: the swish of the skirt

b)    What lives in the pool?

Ans: trout-ringed pools

The Way Through The Woods Questions & Answers

Question 1: Who can see where the old road ran?

Answer: The keeper and the ghosts know where the old road ran.

Question 2: Why would anyone never know of the road?

Answer: Anyone would never know of the road because the road has now turned into a dense
forest.

Question 3: What is the road in the woods covered with now?

Answer: The road in the woods is covered with big trees, coppice, heath and thin anemones
now.

Question 4: Why is the otter not afraid of men?

Answer: The otter is not afraid of humans because they hardly see any.

Question 5: Which animals are present in the woods?

Answer: Animals and birds like doves, trouts, otters, horses are present in the woods.

Question 6: Who do you think the rider is?

Answer: The rider is a girl.

Question 7: Which lines tell you that the woods are full of life?
Answer: The lines that tell the woods are full of life are ‘where the ring-dove broods’ ‘and the
badgers roll at ease’, ‘trout-ringed pools’, ‘where the otter whistles’.

Question8: How would you describe the woods in your own words?
Answer: In the woods, trees have been planted and grown up around the path. The then road is
covered with coppice, heath and anemones. This is an area of uncultivated land. During
evenings, the cold wind blows through the woods. Birds and animals like doves, trouts, otters
are found brooding and playing amongst their mates. There is also the presence of a girl
cantering on a horse through the misty solitudes of the woods.

Question 9: What happens in the woods during summer evenings?

Answer: On entering the woods during summer evenings, you feel a cool night air around a
pool where trouts are making noises. The otters in the pool whistle to his mates. A beat of
horse’s feet is heard. The horse is cantered by a girl who rides the horse through the misty
solitude of the forest.

Question 10: Do you think the narrator is happy or sad about the road through the woods
having disappeared? Give reasons.
Answer: When reading the poem, we sense a conflict in poet’s mind. On one level he is
mourning the loss of the path. With its disappearance, one no longer has access to the beautiful
moments and creatures that exist within the forest. On the other hand, the closure has caused
resurgence in the surrounding life. Trees have been replanted and animals have returned. They
no longer remember or fear the ‘men’ that used to travel the path. The poet appreciates this
fact but the text still speaks about how he is missing the same road. Therefore, we can say that
he is sad about the road being disappeared through the wood.

Question 11: Choose the correct option:

(a) What is the writer talking about in this poem?
i. The woods
ii. The season
iii. A road

(b) Whom is the road hidden from?

i. From the animals
ii. From the people
iii. From the birds

(c) What has undone the road?

i. The people
ii. The animals
iii. The weather
 Compound /words

A. Directions: Put the two smaller words together to make a compound word.
1. sun + shine = ____________
2. camp + fire = ____________
3. back + pack = ____________
4. base + ball = ____________
5. sun + flower = ____________
6. rattle + snake = ____________
7. horse + back = ____________
8. skate + board = ____________

B. Find the compound word in each line.

1. I enjoy watching sunrise. ____________
2. There are many milkweed plants near the lake. ____________
3. The doorbell is not loud enough. ____________
4. That is very beautiful butterfly. ____________
5. The overcoat was too big for Sonu. ____________
6. We want to buy a houseboat. ____________

Types of Phrases
A ‘phrase’ is a group of words that has sense, but not complete sense.
It has no subject and predicate.

 Noun Phrase. A noun phrase is any noun or pronoun along with its

modifiers:
Examples:
1. The school children
2. Yesterday’s newspaper
3. An old and rusted slinky

 Verb Phrase. A verb phrase is any number of verbs working

together.
Examples: 1. Had been sleeping 2. Will contact 3. May have written
4. Will have been written
 Prepositional Phrase. A prepositional phrase always starts with a
preposition and ends with a noun or pronoun (and its modifiers) that is called
the object of the preposition:

 Through the wheat field

 Preposition: through

 Object of the preposition: the wheat field

 Into the box

 Verbal Phrases. There are three types of verbal phrases: participial

phrases, gerund phrases, and infinitive phrases. Each is explained below.
1. Participial phrases start with either a present or past participle. Here are some
examples of each.
 Phrases with present participles:

 Lounging by the pool

Chasing a butterfly
Watching silently

Phrases with past participles:

 Struck by lightning
Driven to succeed
Loaned out

Gerund Phrase. A gerund phrase is a present participle (and its modifiers) that

acts like a noun. It can take on a variety of jobs in the sentence. Here are a couple
of examples:
Practicing helped a lot. (subject)
I love reading. (direct object)
 Infinitive Phrase. An infinitive phrase is the infinitive and its modifiers:

 To sing
To walk all that way
To mix peanut butter and jam

 To give to charity is a noble thing. (subject)

 The neighbours have promised to stop playing the drums at night. (direct

object)

Appositive Phrase. An appositive phrase is a phrase that renames an earlier noun

or pronoun: Appositives are nouns or noun phrases that follow or come before a
noun, and give more information about it. For example, ... “a golden retriever” is
an appositive to “The puppy.” The word appositive is derived from the Latin
phrases ad and positio meaning “near” and “placement.”

My best friend, Nick Palacio, loves scuba diving.

We watched Sirius, the brightest star in the sky.

 My dream, to make it to the NBA, is what keeps me going. (infinitive

phrase)
Matthew’s special talent, bouncing on his head on the trampoline, gives him a
unique perspective on life. (participial phrase)

Absolute Phrase

Absolute phrases are the trickiest to identify. These phrases are not
closely connected to the rest of the sentence; they don’t describe a
specific word, but modify the whole sentence. They add extra
information and are usually separated by commas (or dashes).
At the heart of an absolute phrase you will find a noun or pronoun and
some modifiers.

Very often the modifier is a participle:

The tide coming in, most beachgoers were packing up.

Absolute phrase: The tide coming in.

Here are some more examples:

The semester finished, Karen sold all her textbooks.

Absolute phrase: The semester finished.

The ice finally frozen over, we went skating.

Absolute phrase: The ice finally frozen over.

Another way to form an absolute phrase is to add an adjective to your

noun or pronoun:

Her skin sweaty and hot, Tamara looked forward to having a shower.

A clause is a set of words that contain both the subject (who or what the
sentence is about) and the verb (describing the main action of the subject).
There are two types of phrases: independent and dependent categories.
Simply put, an independent clause can form a complete sentence on its own
whereas a dependent clause cannot (at least, not alone).

What are Independent Clauses?

An independent clause contains a title (and, who or what the sentence is
about) and a predicate (which tells us something about a topic, such as what a
title does). As mentioned, these clauses can serve as their complete
sentences, but can be combined with other clauses (either independent or
dependent) to form longer sentences. Consider this example:

Examples of Independent Clauses

  The squirrels are busy storing nuts for the winter.
 I like to swim laps to stay in shape.
 It is very important to brush your teeth twice a day.
 We can hardly wait to see the movie.
 Our planets revolve around the sun.
 The professor always comes to class fully prepared.
 It is good to tackle the hardest chores first.
 Cheetahs are the fastest land animals.
 Hiking and biking are my favorite summertime activities.
 She wants to travel the world and see wonderful sights.

What are Dependent Clauses?

As you have read, the dependent clauses cannot stand alone in a sentence, just as
tired people cannot work without coffee. A dependent clause (or subordinate)
begins with a subjective, such as, if, after, before, because, although and requires
the support of an independent clause to form a complete sentence.

Examples of Dependent Clauses

 What the girl did was not very helpful.
 He finally finished his novel, after months of research.
 The trophy goes to whoever wins the race.
 While I was asleep, the cat knocked over the plant.
 A helium nucleus has two protons, whereas hydrogen has only one.
 Where is the ice cream that was in the freezer?
 After Mike sneezed all over the hamburger patties, no one wanted to eat.
 The town where I was born is on the east coast.
 I can’t figure out why she said that.
 We will do whatever is necessary.

Types of clauses
All sentences contain at least one verb clause. Verb clauses are also referred to as
main clauses.
1. Main clauses

The nine main functions of noun clauses in English grammar are:

 Subject.
 Subject complement.
 Direct object.
 Object complement.
 Indirect object.
 Prepositional complement.
 Noun phrase complement.
 Adjective phrase complement.

Types of clause
 1. Independent clauses: An independent clause contains a
subject and a verb and expresses complete through. It can
stand alone as a sentence by it elf, an independent clause id
formed with
 Subject + Verb (+ Complement)
Example: Jet lag affects most long distance travellers
 2. Subordinate Clause / Dependent clauses: A Dependent Clause
begins with subordinators such as when, while, if, that, or who.
A dependent clause does not express a complete thought and
cannot stand alone as a sentence by itself, a Dependent clause
formed with
Subordinator + subject + verb (+Complement)
Example: Although there is no sure way to prevent jet lag.

When a sentence consists of a main clause and a subordinate clause they are

joined by a subordinating conjunction, also known as a subordinator such as
when, because, although, if, etc. Internet shopping is very popular today
because it is convenient. Because he was burnt by the kettle, he went to the
clinic.