English Grammar

Parts of Speech
First Lesson
Why should we learn English?
Click HERE for watching the clip
(the importance of expanding your vocabulary
and understanding the different meanings
stemmed from pronunciation)
 Grammar and Syntax
What is Grammar?
* A set of rules in a language.
* An instrument to form meaningful sentences
(Thornbury, 1999)
* Grammar teaching is an indispensable part of
English Language Teaching (ELT).
 Grammar and Syntax
What is Syntax?
The study of the sentence and its structure
(for example, word order).
• Both Grammar and Syntax direct us how to
use the language correctly.
• for example:
Subject – verb agreement (the boy runs).
Word order (the pretty girl).
 Parts of Speech

A classification of the words within

a language according to their
grammatical category
 Open & closed class words
Open-class words Closed-class words
(=lexical) (=functional, mostly
connectors and
the words that convey
prepositions)
-words that convey
conceptual meaning.
grammatical meanings
-specify grammatical relations
New content words can
be added all the time.
New function words are rarely
added to the language.
Content words can be
switched in speech.
Children often omit them
(doggie _ barking).
 Nouns

People/animals -

Places -

Things -

Ideas -
Common/General proper/specific

Man Mr. Jones

America Mary’s pizza place
An apple Lilly’s house
Freedom Newton’s theory of gravity
--------------------------------
In summary, nouns refer to people or objects; they also
refer to abstract notions (theories, love, intelligence).
• Note: there are also collective nouns, which name a
group of people/things (family, crowd, team).
 Verbs

• Every sentence has a verb!

• a verb is a ‘doing’ (action) word
• a verb is a ‘state’ (BE) word
• Modals (can/should/may/must) / Semi-
modals (am able to/am ought to)
 Tense, Person, Number, Voice
1. Tense – past [walked], present [walk/ is walking],
future [is walking/will walk.
2. Person – first person – the speaker [I/we]; second
person – the addressee [you], third person – third
party [he/she/it].
3. Number – singular [apple, witch] , plural [apples,
witches].
4. Voice – active [I do homework], passive [Homework
is done (V3) by me].
 Adjectives

• She painted her walls with hideous colors.

• The coal mines are dark and cold .
• The room was filled with large , yellow boots.
silk,
office are
nouns
I have five minutes left. HOW MANY?
which
function
Is that a silk shirt? WHAT KIND?
as
modifies
Did you lose your office keys? WHICH?
here
 Adverbs
a word which modifies a verb (drive carefully), telling us about the
manner (‫ )אופן‬the action was done.
It can also modify an adjective (extremely pretty, fairly large),
 another adverb (very quickly, extremely slowly), and a sentence.

________LY

• It is too humid! DEGREE

• They went there. WHERE? (place)
• She left yesterday. WHEN? (time)
• He talked quickly. HOW? (manner)
Adjectives and Adverbs

• Adjectives - Describe the NOUN

• Adverbs - Describe the VERB
The dog barked.
Describe how he
Describe the dog
barked
ADJECTIVE
ADVERB
The fierce dog
barked loudly.
The girl kicked
the can. Describe how she
kicked
ADVERB

Describe the girl

ADJECTIVE
The young girl
angrily kicked
the can.
How can we modify
the ‘can’?
ADJECTIVE
The young girl
angrily kicked
the rusty can.
 Classwork
A) Parts of speech:
Listen to the song Impossible, and write down all the Nouns, Verbs,
Adjectives and Adverbs you find in the song.
You’ll find the song here:
Watch HERE to watch the clip

B) Grammatical sentences or not?:

Decide whether the sentences are grammatical or ungrammatical, for
example:
The tall girl – is NOT a sentence.
The tall girl runs fast – is a grammatical sentence.