SYNTAX AS PARTS OF SPEECH

by

CHRISTINE JOY B. ORO

PART OF SPEECH – a category to which
a word is assigned in accordance to its
syntactic functions. In English, the
main parts of speech are noun,
pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition,
conjunction, and determiner.
 NOUN
Noun makes up the largest class of words in most languages,
including English. A noun is a word refers to a thing (book), a person
(Christine Joy Oro), an animal (cat), a place (Capiz), a quality
(softness), an idea (justice), or an action (yodeling). It’s usually a
single word but not always.

Noun – is any member of a class of words that typically can be

combined with determiners to serve as the subject of a verb, can be
interpreted as singular or plural, can be replaced with a pronoun and
refer to an entity, quality, state, action or concept. (Merriam-Webster
1828)
Noun – is from a latin word “nomen” which means name or a word
that denotes a thing.
 Categories of Noun
1. Common Noun and Proper Noun
a. a common noun refers to a person, place or thing but is not the name of a particular person place or thing.
(animal, sunlight, happiness)

b. Proper Noun – is the name of particular person, place or thing; it usually begins with a capital letter.
(Abraham Lincoln, Argentina, World War I)

2. Collective Noun – a noun that names a group of people or things, such as flock or squad.

3. Gerunds – are nouns that are identical to the present participle (-ing form) of a verb as in “I
enjoy swimming more than running.”
4. Attribute Noun – a noun that modifies another noun that immediately follows it such as
“business” in business meeting.

5. Count Noun – a count noun is a noun that refers to an object or idea that can form a
plural or occur in a noun phrase with an indefinite article or without numerals.
Contrast with mass noun (uncountable nouns) most common nouns in English are
countable.
• 5. Mass Noun – (noncount Noun) refers to something that cannot be
counted. Mass nouns are normally not used after determiners “a” or “an” or
after a number. They have only one form and are used with singular verb
forms, as in “Portuguese is one of the languages they speak.” “The
information was unclear.”
 PRONOUN
Pronoun is from a Latin word “pronomen” pro-for and
nomen- name.
Pronouns – are any of a small set of words in a language
that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and
whose referents are named or understood in the context.
Pronoun – refers to either a noun that has already been
mentioned or to a noun that does not need to be named
specifically.
 Categories of Pronouns
1. Personal pronouns – refer to a person or people speaking or
writing (first person), the person or being spoken to (second
person), or the people or things (third person). Like nouns,
personal pronouns can function as either the subject of the verb
or the object of the verb or preposition.
2. Interrogative Pronouns – is a pronoun which is used to
make asking questions easy. There are just five interrogative
pronouns. Each one is used to ask a very specific question or
indirect question. Some, such as “who” and “whom,” refer only to
people. Others can be used to refer to objects or people. An
interrogative word or question word is a function word used to
ask a question, such as what, when, where, who, which, whom,
whose, why, and how. They are sometimes called wh-words,
because in English most of them start with wh-. They may be used
in both direct questions and in indirect questions.
3. Possessive Pronouns – refers t things or people that belong
to someone. The main possessive pronouns are mine, yours, his,
hers, its, ours, and theirs.
4. Demonstrative Pronouns - A demonstrative pronoun is a
pronoun that is used to point to something specific within a
sentence. These pronouns can indicate items in space or time, and
they can be either singular or plural. Demonstrative pronouns,
Pronouns that point to specific things: this, that, these, and those,
as in “This is an apple,” “Those are boys,” or “Take these to the
clerk.” The same words are used as demonstrative adjectives when
they modify nouns or pronouns: “this apple,” “those boys.
5. Relative Pronouns - A relative pronoun is used to
connect a clause or phrase to a noun or pronoun. The
clause modifies, or describes, the noun. The most
common relative pronouns are who, whom, whose,
which, and that. Sometimes when and where can be used
as relative pronouns as well. Relative pronouns are
placed directly after the noun or pronoun they modify.

For example:
The driver who ran the stop sign was careless.
The children, whom we love dearly, need better
educations.
6. Reflexive Pronouns - Reflexive pronouns are used when the
subject and the object of a sentence are the same. Take the
sentence, "She took herself to the hospital." In this example, "she" is
the subject of the sentence. "Took" is the verb. But who did she
take? The answer is "herself," a terrific illustration of a reflexive
pronoun at work. One of the biggest markers for reflexive
pronouns is their ending. They always end in -self or -selves and
refer back to a previously mentioned noun or pronoun. Another
giveaway is the fact that these pronouns serve as the object of a
sentence, always coming after the verb.
For example:
I taught myself to play the guitar.
7. Intensive Pronouns - Intensive pronouns are identical to reflexive pronouns—
myself, yourself, ourselves, himself, herself, itself, and themselves. However, intensive
pronouns do not serve a grammatical function in a sentence; instead, they add
emphasis by reiterating the subject of the sentence (known as the pronoun’s
antecedent). When we use an intensive pronoun to add emphasis to a sentence, we
generally place it after either its antecedent or the direct object of the verb.

For instance:
“The surgeon general himself will oversee the operation.”
“They themselves indicated that the transactions might be illegal.”
“He did it himself, much to his father’s surprise.”
“We designed the album artwork ourselves.”

8. Indefinite Pronouns - indefinite pronoun is a pronoun that refers to non-specific

beings, objects, or places. Indefinite pronouns can represent either count nouns or
noncount nouns and include a number of sub-categories: universal (such as everyone,
everything), assertive existential (such as somebody, something), elective existential
(such as anyone, anything), and negative (such as nobody, nothing).
 VERB
Verb - from late Latin from verbum ‘word’. Verbs are the action
words in a sentence that describe what the subject is doing. Along
with nouns, verbs are the main part of a sentence or phrase, telling a
story about what is taking place. In fact, without a verb, full thoughts
can’t be properly conveyed, and even the simplest sentences, such as
Maria sings, have one. Actually, a verb can be a sentence by itself,
with the subject, in most case you, implied, such as, Sing! and Drive!
 CATEGORIES OF VERBS
1. Action Verb – are word that express action (give, eat, walk, etc.) action verbs can
either be Transitive or Intransitive.
2. Transitive Verbs – always has a noun that receives the action of the verb called
direct object.
“Luisa raises her hand.”
3. Intransitive Verbs – this verb never have has a direct or indirect object. Although an
intransitive may be followd by an adverb or adverbial phrase, there is no object that
receives its action.
“Luisa rises slowly from her seat.”
4. Linking Verbs – this connects the subject of a sentence to a noun or adjective that
renames or describes the subject. This noun or adjective is called the subject compliment.

“Jason became a business major.”

5. Helping Verbs – are used before an action or linking
verbs to convey additional information regarding aspects of
possibility (can, could etc.) or time (was, did, has, etc.) the
main verb with its accompanying helping verb is called
verb phrase.
Teju is (helping verb) going (main verb) to Florida.
 ADVERB
An adverb is a word that is used to change, modify or qualify
several types of words including an adjective, a verb, a clause,
another adverb, or any other type of word or phrase, with the
exception of determiners and adjectives, that directly modify
nouns. A good way to understand adverbs is to think about them
as the words that provide context. Specifically, adverbs provide a
description of how, where, when, in what manner and to what
extent something is done or happens. Normally, we can spot an
adverb by the fact that it often ends in –ly, but there are lots of
adverbs that don’t end in this way. Moreover, adverbs can be used
in many combinations with each other.
 CATEGORIES OF ADVERB
1. Adverbs of Manner - are used to tell us the way or how something is done.
"She plays piano." - An adverb of manner can be added to the verb (play) to modify its meaning
and give us more information on how she plays piano.
"She plays piano beautifully.“ "He left the room quickly." "He quickly left the room.“

2. Adverbs of Time - Adverbs that change or qualify the meaning of a sentence by telling us
when things happen are defined as adverbs of time.

An adverb of time is just what you might expect it to be – a word that describes when, for how
long, or how often a certain action happened. You will notice that many adverbs of time are the
same as adverbs of frequency. There is quite a bit of overlap between these two types of
adverbs – so much so that some instructors choose to mention one or the other but not both.
Adverbs of time often work best when placed at the end of sentences.

For example:
Robin Hood swindled the Sheriff of Nottingham yesterday.
I’m sick of living in chaos, so I’m going to clean my house tomorrow.
3. Adverbs of Degree - Adverbs of degree tell us about the intensity of something.
Adverbs of degree are usually placed before the adjective, adverb, or verb that they
modify, although there are some exceptions. The words "too", "enough", "very", and
"extremely" are examples of adverbs of degree.
4. Adverbs of Frequency - Adverbs of frequency tell us how often something is
done. It include; always, constantly, continually, frequently, infrequently,
intermittently, normally, occasionally, often, periodically, rarely, regularly, seldom,
sometimes etc.

For example:
I always do my homework on time. - In this sentence always shows us the frequency
(how often) I do my homework on time.
5. Adverbs of quantity in English indicate the quantity of an action. They are
usually placed after the verb and before the adjectives and other adverbs. These
adverbs are different from the adverbs of degree, because these adverbs express the
amount of the action and the adverbs of degree express intensity of the action. ”That
shop is very cheap” “This drink has too much sugar in it” “My friend is so generous”.
6. Adverb as an attitude Marker - Attitude adverbs usually refer to the
whole clause or sentence rather than just to a particular word or phrase.
The list of possible attitude adverbs includes: frankly, clearly, obviously,
naturally, fortunately, hopefully, really, surprisingly, astonishingly and
apparently.
ADJECTIVES
From a Latin word nomen adjectivum which means
“attribute name”. Adjectives are words that are used
to describe or modify nouns or pronouns. For
example, red, quick, happy, and obnoxious are
adjectives because they can describe things—a red
hat, the quick rabbit, a happy duck, an obnoxious
person. Adjectives take many forms.
 CATEGORIES OF ADJECTIVES
1. Quantitative Adjectives – Quantitative adjectives describe the exact or
approximate amount of a noun. Some examples include all, no, few, many, and little.
2. Demonstrative Adjectives – Demonstrative adjectives answer the question which
one? They point out particular nouns. Some demonstrative adjectives are this, that,
these, and those. For example: “He bought that sweater.” Here, that is a
demonstrative adjective that describes which sweater we’re referring to.
3. Descriptive Adjectives - Descriptive adjectives describe the characteristics of a
noun. They can tell you about a noun’s size, color, shape, taste, and more. Some
examples are small, red, round, friendly, and salty. For example: “The large, yellow
house is on the corner.” Here large and yellow are descriptive adjectives that
describe the house.
4. Numeral Adjectives - Quantitative adjectives describe the exact or approximate
amount of a noun. Some examples include all, no, few, many, and little.
5. Interrogative Adjective – Ask questions. They are always
followed by a noun.
“Which book?, What Answer?, Whose pen?”
6. Possessive Adjective – shows possession.
“my friend, her mother, his shoes”
CONJUNCTIONS
A conjunction is a part of speech that is used to
connect words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.
Conjunctions are considered to be invariable
grammar particle, and they may or may not
stand between items they conjoin.
 CATEGORIES OF CONJUNCTIONS
1. Coordination Conjunctions – it allows us to join words, phrases and clauses of equal
grammatical rank in a sentence. The most common coordinating conjunctions are for, and, not, but,
or, yet, so: FANBOYS

He bought a book and pen.

2. Subordinating Conjunctions – joins independent and dependent clauses. A subbordinating

conjunctions can signal a cause-and-effect relationship, a contrast or some other kind of relationship
between clauses. Because, since, as, although, though, while, whereas.

although it is raining, it is too hot today.

3. Correlative conjunctions - are always used in pairs. They are similar to coordinating
conjunctions because they join sentence elements that are similar in importance. Either…or, Neither…
or, Whether…or, Both…and, Not Only….But Also.

Both the pink and the blue are nice colors.

PREPOSITION
preposition is a word used to link nouns,
pronouns, or phrases to other words
within a sentence. They act to connect the
people, objects, time and locations of a
sentence. Prepositions are usually short
words, and they are normally placed
directly in front of nouns.
 CATEGORIES OF PREPOSITION
1. Preposition of Time – are used to refer to time in various aspects. (at, on, in)
she was born in 1986. , The party will start at 8PM. ,

2. Preposition of Place - A preposition of place is a preposition which is used to

refer to a place where something or someone is located. There are only three
prepositions of place, however they can be used to discuss an almost endless
number of places.

At – A preposition of place which is used to discuss a certain point

In – A preposition of place which is used to discuss an enclosed space
On – A preposition of time which is used to discuss a surface
Jessie wait for him at the corner
I’m growing tomatoes in my garden
please place the flowers on the table.
3. Prepositions of direction - indicate that something is headed for or directed
to somewhere. Prepositions of direction include prepositions such as into,
on, onto, through, to, toward.  
We watched the bus disappear into the tunnel.
These prepositions show direction of movement from somewhere:
He warned them to keep away from his apple tree.
Two tigers walking around are reported to have escaped from the circus.
4. Prepositions of agency
A preposition of agency describes a person or a thing that has caused or is
causing something to occur. Sentences containing prepositions of agency are
usually written in the passive voice and employ the prepositions by (for
people) and with (for things).
For example:
“The house was built by the three siblings.” (passive)
“The three siblings built the house.” (active)
5. Prepositions of instrument or device
A preposition of instrument or device is used when describing certain
technologies, machines, or devices. These prepositions are by, with, and on.
Typically, by refers to methods of transportation, whereas with and on describe the
use of machines and other devices.
For example:
“Aunt Patricia returned home by ferry.”
“She opened the locked door with an old key.”

6. Prepositions of reason or purpose

A preposition of reason or purpose describes why something has occurred or
will occur. Common prepositions of reason or purpose include for, through,
because of, on account of, and from.
For example:
“Everything I did was for you.”
“Through her bravery, we were able to escape unharmed.”
7. Prepositionsof connection
A preposition of connection describes possession, relationships,
or accompaniment. Of is used for possession, to for relationships
between people or things, and with for accompaniment.
For example:
“The Statue of Liberty is located in New York Harbor.”
“A well-written essay is impressive to teachers.”
“Lisa wanted to go to the concert with Victor.”
 INTERJECTION
An interjection is a word or phrase that is grammatically
independent from the words around it, and mainly expresses
feeling rather than meaning. Interjections are common in speech
and are much more common in electronic messages than in other
types of writing.

Oh, what a beautiful house!

Uh-oh, this looks bad!

 CATEGORIES OF INTERJECTION
1. Interjection for greeting- “Hello!, Hey!, Hi!”
2. Interjection for joy- “Hurrah!, Hurray!, Wow!”
3. Interjection for approval- “ Bravo!, Brilliant!, Well-
Done!”
4. Interjection for surprise – “Ha!, Hey!, What!, Oh!,
Ah!,”
5. Interjection for grief/pain – “Alas!, Ah!, Oh!, Ouch!”
 DETERMINERS
The term “determiner” refers to a grammatical form
which is used to indicate further information about a
noun. Like adjectives, they can express information such
as quantity, proximity, definiteness, and relationship.
Moreover, determiners are considered as “modifying
words” that specify the type of reference that a
particular noun has. They are commonly placed before a
noun or a noun phrase, in order to indicate whether the
speaker is referring to a specific thing or to something
of a particular kind.
 Difference Between Determiners and Adjectives
Determiners and adjectives are related in such a way that they both
modify a noun or a noun phrase. However, the main difference
between the two is that determiners are placed before nouns and
introduce them to the audience, while adjectives modify nouns by
providing further details about them. Another difference between the
two is that determiners cannot be graded unlike adjectives, which
can be expressed in different intensities. For instance, an object may
be big, bigger, or biggest. However, it cannot be “that-est”.
Furthermore, adjectives are only optional parts of a sentence, while
determiners are necessary and indispensable.
 Different Kinds of Determiners
1. Articles
There are only three examples of articles, and these are: the, a, and an. The article “the”
is considered as a definite article because it refers to a particular noun that is
mentioned in the text, while the articles “a” and “an” are called indefinite articles
because they point out to a class of noun mentioned in the sentence.
The indefinite articles “a” and “an” have the same function, but they are not
interchangeable. The former is used if it precedes a noun that starts with a consonant
(a bike; a gadget; a television), while the latter is used if the noun after it starts with a
vowel (an eggplant; an architect; an umbrella).

Sample Sentences:
The Eiffel Tower is a romantic destination.
Johnny is an Englishman.
Ethan is studying to be an engineer.
Quantifiers
As the name suggests, quantifiers are used to express the
quantity. It can answer the questions, “How much?” or “How
many?” Some examples of quantifiers include: a few, enough,
many, a little, most, some, any, and much.

Sample Sentences:

I have enough money.

We have much time.
She has few friends.
3.Demonstratives
This kind of determiners demonstrates and functions as pointers of a
particular noun. Basically, demonstratives indicate the position or location
of a noun from the point of view of the speaker. Some examples of
demonstratives include: this, these, that, and those.
The demonstrative “this” is used for singular nouns that are near the
speaker, while “these” is for plural nouns that are also close by. On the
other hand, the demonstrative “that” is for a singular noun that is further
away, and “those” is for plural nouns that are also far from the speaker.

Sample Sentences:
This laptop is mine.
That car is my uncle’s.
These cookies taste great.
Possessives
This type of determiners is used to express possession or
ownership of a noun. Possessive determiners are
different from possessive pronouns, because possessive
pronouns can be independent or can stand alone. Some
examples of possessives include: my, his, mine, our, their,
and her.
Sample Sentences:
This is my car.
Is this his house?
Her mom is very pretty.
Interrogatives
As the term implies, the interrogative determiners are used for
asking questions. The three examples of interrogatives are:
what, whose, and which.

Sample Sentences:
What toppings do you want for your frozen yogurt?
Which school do you prefer?
Whose baby are you watching?
 REFERENCES:
• http://info.trinity.nsw.edu.au/blog/what-are-the-main-challenges-facing-teachers

• https://study.com/academy/lesson/current-issues-and-trends-in-educationhtml

• https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/most-popular-trends-in-education/

• https://blog.labster.com/how-to-use-blended-learning

• https://sydney.edu.au/education_social_work/learning_teaching/ict/theory/mobile_learning.shtml

• https://www.teachthought.com/pedagogy/how-to-gamify-your-classroom/

• https://gradepowerlearning.com/what-is-inquiry-based-learning/

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• https://www.whatiselt.com/single-post/2018/10/09/What-is-Dogme-EL