Date: 10/24/2021 Lecture 0 Day 1 1

Lecture 0
Parts of Speech.........................................................................................................................................2
What is a Part of Speech?...................................................................................................................2
What is Grammar?.............................................................................................................................3
What is a Verb?....................................................................................................................................3
What is a Noun?..................................................................................................................................3
What is an Adjective?..........................................................................................................................4
What is an Adjective?..........................................................................................................................4
What is an Adverb?.............................................................................................................................5
What is a Pronoun?.............................................................................................................................5
What is a Preposition?........................................................................................................................6
What is a Conjunction?......................................................................................................................7
What is an Interjection?.....................................................................................................................7

Preparations: Abdulsalam Adil Hasan

Date: 10/24/2021 Lecture 0 Day 1 2

English Lecture 0:
Parts of Speech

What is a Part of Speech?

We can categorize English words into 9 basic types called "parts of speech" or "word classes". It's
quite important to recognize parts of speech. This helps you to analyze sentences and understand them.
It also helps you to construct good sentences.

part of
function or "job" example words example sentences
speech
(to) be, have, do, like, English Club is a web site. I like
Verb action or state
work, sing, can, must English Club.
pen, dog, work, music,
This is my dog. He lives in my
Noun thing or person town, London, teacher,
house. We live in London.
John
good, big, red, well,
Adjective describes a noun My dogs are big. I like big dogs.
interesting
limits or "determines" a a/an, the, 2, some,
Determiner I have two dogs and some rabbits.
noun many
describes a verb, adjective quickly, silently, well, My dog eats quickly. When he is
Adverb
or adverb badly, very, really very hungry, he eats really quickly.
Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, some Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.
links a noun to another
Preposition to, at, after, on, but We went to school on Monday.
word
I like dogs and I like cats. I like
joins clauses or sentences
Conjunction and, but, when cats and dogs. I like dogs but I
or words
don't like cats.
short exclamation,
Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are
Interjection sometimes inserted into a oh!, ouch!, hi!, well
you? Well, I don't know.
sentence
Date: 10/24/2021 Lecture 0 Day 1 3

What is Grammar?

grammar (noun): the structure and system of a language, or of languages in general, usually
considered to consist of syntax and morphology
Grammar is the system of a language. People sometimes describe grammar as the "rules" of a
language; but in fact no language has rules*. If we use the word "rules", we suggest that somebody
created the rules first and then spoke the language, like a new game. But languages did not start like
that. Languages started by people making sounds which evolved into words, phrases and sentences. No
commonly-spoken language is fixed. All languages change over time. What we call "grammar" is
simply a reflection of a language at a particular time.

What is a Verb?

The verb is king in English. The shortest sentence contains a verb. You can make a one-word sentence
with a verb, for example: "Stop!" You cannot make a one-word sentence with any other type of word.
Verbs are sometimes described as "action words". This is partly true. Many verbs give the idea of
action, of "doing" something. For example, words like run, fight, do and work all convey action.
But some verbs do not give the idea of action; they give the idea of existence, of state, of "being". For
example, verbs like be, exist, seem and belong all convey state.
A verb always has a subject. (In the sentence "John speaks English", John is the subject and speaks is
the verb.) In simple terms, therefore, we can say that verbs are words that tell us what a subject does or
is; they describe:
• action (Ram plays football.)
• state (Anthony seems kind.)

What is a Noun?

noun (noun): a word (except a pronoun) that identifies a person, place or thing, or names one of them
(proper noun)
The simple definition is: a person, place or thing. Here are some examples:
• person: man, woman, teacher, John, Mary
• place: home, office, town, countryside, America
• thing: table, car, banana, money, music, love, dog, monkey
Date: 10/24/2021 Lecture 0 Day 1 4

What is an Adjective?

adjective (noun): a part-of-speech that modifies or describes a noun or a pronoun

An adjective is one of the nine parts of speech.
An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. It "describes" or "modifies" a noun (The big
dog was hungry). In these examples, the adjective is in bold and the noun that it modifies is in italics.
An adjective often comes BEFORE a noun:
• a green car
• a dark sky
• an interesting story

And sometimes an adjective comes AFTER a verb:

• My car is green.
• The sky became dark.
• His story seemed interesting.

But adjectives can also modify pronouns (She is beautiful). Look at these examples:
• They were empty.
• I thought it seemed strange.
• Those are not expensive.

Note that we can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautiful young French lady / it is
black and white).

What is an Adjective?

adjective (noun): a part-of-speech that modifies or describes a noun or a pronoun

An adjective is one of the nine parts of speech.
An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. It "describes" or "modifies" a noun (The big
dog was hungry). In these examples, the adjective is in bold and the noun that it modifies is in italics.
An adjective often comes BEFORE a noun:
• a green car
• a dark sky
Date: 10/24/2021 Lecture 0 Day 1 5

• an interesting story

And sometimes an adjective comes AFTER a verb:

• My car is green.
• The sky became dark.
• His story seemed interesting.

But adjectives can also modify pronouns (She is beautiful). Look at these examples:
• They were empty.
• I thought it seemed strange.
• Those are not expensive.

Note that we can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautiful young French lady / it is
black and white).

What is an Adverb?

Adverb (noun): a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb, expressing manner, place,
time or degree; a word that can modify a phrase, clause or sentence
An adverb is a word that tells us more about a verb. It "qualifies" or "modifies" a verb (The man ran
quickly). In the following examples, the adverb is in bold and the verb that it modifies is in italics.
• John speaks loudly. (How does John speak?)
• Afterwards she smoked a cigarette. (When did she smoke?)
• Mary lives locally. (Where does Mary live?)

But adverbs can also modify adjectives (Tara is really beautiful), or even other adverbs (It works very
well). Look at these examples:
• Modify an adjective:
- He is really handsome. (How handsome is he?)
- That was extremely kind of you.
• Modify another adverb:
- She drives incredibly slowly. (How slowly does she drive?)
- He drives extremely fast.

What is a Pronoun?
Date: 10/24/2021 Lecture 0 Day 1 6

pronoun (noun): a word that takes the place of or represents a noun

Pronouns are small words that take the place of a noun. We can use a pronoun instead of a noun.
Pronouns are words like: he, you, ours, themselves, some, each... If we didn't have pronouns, we
would have to repeat a lot of nouns. We would have to say things like:
• Do you like the manager? I don't like the manager. The manager's not friendly.

With pronouns, we can say:

• Do you like the manager? I don't like him. He's not friendly.

A pronoun is a small word with a big job. In fact, a pronoun can take the place of an entire noun phrase.
In this way, pronouns help us use fewer words and avoid repetition.
Here are some examples of noun phrases and the pronouns that could replace them:

noun (phrase) pronoun

the car it
Anthony he
the big woman with black hair she
swimming it
learning English it
almost all French people they
my wife and I we

tip:-
pro + noun = "on behalf of" + noun

What is a Preposition?

preposition (noun): a part-of-speech usually coming BEFORE a noun phrase and connecting it to
another part of the sentence
A preposition is one of the nine parts of speech.
The name preposition (pre + position) means "place BEFORE". A preposition typically comes
BEFORE another word—usually a noun phrase. It tells us about the relationship between the noun
phrase and another part of the sentence. Some very common prepositions are: in, of, on, for, with, at, by
Look at these example sentences:
• The book is on the round table. (relationship in space)
• We will meet in November. (relationship in time)
Date: 10/24/2021 Lecture 0 Day 1 7

• I sent the information by email. (relationship of method)

Several other relationships are expressed by prepositions. In addition, more metaphorical ideas can be
expressed such as: in love, beyond doubt, under investigation
If a preposition does not come BEFORE another word, it is still closely linked to another word:
• Who did you talk to?
• To whom did you talk?
• I talked to Jane.

What is a Conjunction?

conjunction (noun): a part-of-speech that joins together words, phrases and clauses
A conjunction is one of the 9 parts of speech.
A conjunction is a word that connects two parts of a sentence. The very common word and is a
conjunction. Look at how it joins these words, phrases and clauses:
• bread and butter (joins two words)
• up the stairs and along the corridor (joins two phrases)
• Ram likes tea and Anthony likes coffee (joins two clauses)

Here are some other common conjunctions:

• and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so
• although, because, since, unless

And here are some more example sentences:

• Jack and Jill went up the hill.
• The water was warm, but I didn't go swimming.
• I went swimming although it was cold.

Conjunction Form
There is no special form for conjunctions. Many are short, simple words (but, for, since); and others are
two or three words (so that, in order that, as long as).

What is an Interjection?

interjection (noun): a part-of-speech that expresses emotion

Date: 10/24/2021 Lecture 0 Day 1 8

An interjection is one of the 9 parts of speech.

An interjection is a short word or phrase that shows emotion. It often stands alone, unconnected to a
sentence.
Typical interjections are:
• Ah! Er. Hey. Ouch! Umm.
• My God! Bloody hell!

And here are some interjections in context:

• Hey! Don't be so lazy!
• Well, let's think about it.
• Ouch! That hurts!
• Lima is the capital of...er...Peru.

Interjections are not normally used in formal writing, but they are common in speech (and therefore
informal and fiction writing), where they show emotions such as anger, surprise and interest as well as
convey hesitation.