WORD CLASSES

MAJOR CLASSES MINOR CLASSES

AUXILIARY VERB
NOUN VERB ADJECTIVE ADVERB
PRONOUN

PROPER COMMON COLLECTIVE CONCRETE ABSTRACT PREPOSITION

NOUN NOUN NOUN NOUN NOUN
CONJUNCTION
name of a a collection
name given can be name for a
particular or a number
to every perceived or state of being, INTERJECTION
person, of persons or
person or experienced a
place, or things as a
thing of the through any of concept, a
thing whole or as DETERMINER
same kind our fve senses quality
one group
 NOUNS
UNCOUNTABLE
COUNTABLE

Whole groups made of similar items:

equipment, furniture, traffic

People, Animals,
Substance (fluid, gas): water, gasoline
Plants, Objects,
Units of measurement
Material: paper, wood, cotton

Particle: rice, sugar, hair, flour

Some nouns can be either
countable or uncountable Abstraction, Languages,
according to the context Fields of study, Recreation,
Natural Phenomena
 NOUNS THAT ARE BOTH
COUNTABLE & UNCOUNTABLE
 NOUNS THAT ARE BOTH
COUNTABLE & UNCOUNTABLE
 NOUNS THAT ARE BOTH
COUNTABLE & UNCOUNTABLE
 FUNCTION OF NOUNS COMPLEMENT
OF PREPOSITION
DIRECT INDIRECT SUBJECTIVE OBJECTIVE
SUBJECT
OBJECT OBJECT COMPLEMENT COMPLEMENT

Practice: Identify the kinds and functions of nouns in the following sentences

1. Sheela took the dog for a walk.

2. The crowd gathered to watch the match.
3. My friend taught Carolina a Spanish song.
4. The Ganga is considered to be a holy river by Hindus.
5. Karan owe the bank a lot of money.
6. We will vote Zoya as the president of our literary club.
 DETERMINERS
A determiner is a structure-class word that precedes a noun and indicates characteristics
about the noun such as definiteness, possession or quantity

There are 5 main groups of determiners (DET):

ARTICLES a/ an, the

DEMONSTRATIVE DET. this, that, these, those
POSSESSIVE DET. my, your, his, her, its, our, John’s…
NUMERALS Cardinal (one, two,…); Ordinal (first,...)

Indefinite Q: all, both, some, several, any, no, more, few, less,
QUANTIFIERS many, much, every, each
Partitives: glass of, acre of, slice of,…
 DETERMINERS

There are 3 classes of determiners

Pre-determiners Central determiners Post-determiners

I met all my many friends at Johnson’s party.

Pre-determiner Central determiner Post-determiner

 ORDER OF DETERMINERS IN NOUN PHRASES
Pre-determiners
Quantifiers (all, both, half, each/ some of)
Fractions (one-third, two-fifths,…)
Multipliers (double, three times,…)

Central Determiners
Articles (the…)
Demonstratives (this..) mutually exclusive
Possessives (my…)
Interrogative determiners (which, what)
Exclamatory determiners - What a view!
Genitive determiner (John’s…)
Quantifiers (any, every, some)
Post-determiners
Ordinal numerals (first, second…)
Cardinal numerals (one, two,…)
Quantifiers (many, much, several, few, little, less,
least, more, most, other)
Partitives (bottle/jar/glass/loaf …of)
 Practice: Which is the correct phrase A, B or both?

ordinal + cardinal

ordinal + indefinite quantifier indefinite quantifier + cardinal

 ordinal + cardinal

ordinal + indefinite quantifier indefinite quantifier + cardinal

Fill in the gaps with: this, that, these, those, some, any, no, many, much, few, a few, little, a
little, all, every, each, both, either, neither, other, another

1. I don't know ... people who still use a
land-line phone.
2. It's still quite early, so we've had very ...
customers so far.
3. I don't like ... dress. This one's too bright,
and that one's too short.
4. Who's the ... boy, standing next to Kevin?
5. I would say I have ... friends, but not a lot.
6. ... man over there is my uncle Charlie.
7. ... news is good news.
8. Not ... of what he said was true.
9. ... bug is an insect, but not ... insects are bugs.
10. The committee interviewed ... candidate
separately.
11. Have you got ... brothers or sisters? Or are you
an only child?
12. ... books here in my bag are from the
university library.
13. The soup needs ... salt. Not much though, just
a pinch.
14. This restaurant is awful. Let's go to ... place.
15. ... her parents were artists, which inspired
Jane to become a writer herself.