Kandahar University

Engineering Faculty
ENG Fida Mohammad Sahil and ENG Samimulhaq samimi
First Year, 1st Semester [2017]

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Parts of Speech

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 Outlines
Parts of Speech
Noun
Pronoun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Interjection 3
 Parts of Speech

Division of words in a language is called parts of speech.

In English, parts of speech are divided into eight kinds, as following:

1. Noun
2. Pronoun
3. Verb
4. Adjective
5. Adverb
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection
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 1. Noun

Nouns are names for:

People: boy, woman, Maryam

Places: New York, Paris, home, store
Animals: dog, horse, worm
Things: car, book, computer
Ideas: honesty, beauty

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 Noun (Contd.)

There are:
1. Common Nouns: building, planet, boy
2. Proper Nouns: White House, Earth, George
3. Collective Nouns: conference, gang, union
4. Abstract Nouns:
Action: motion, activity, movement
Quality: beauty, goodness, whiteness
State: childhood, youth, friendship

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 Noun (Contd.)
In order to count nouns, in English we have:

1. Count/Countable Nouns: can be counted

Examples: book, class, boy

2. Non-count/Uncountable Nouns: can not be counted

Examples: water, rice, sugar

Note: to quantify uncountable things, we use quantifiers

(Units) like kilo, piece, can, parcel, glass.

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 Noun (Contd.)
Rules to make plurals of countable nouns:

Regular countable nouns: Take "s or es to get plural.

Examples: Books, Houses, Buses, Phone

Irregular countable nouns: There is no rule to make them plural,

instead they change their forms.
Examples: Women, Children, Mice

Note: Some nouns should not be in plural form, in case they are
not preceded by numeral adjective.
Examples: Deer, Sheep and Fish.

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 2. Pronoun

a word used instead of a noun to avoid the

repetition of noun.

a word that substitutes for a noun or noun

phrase.

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 Pronoun (Contd.)

Personal pronouns: Are used for showing possession or state.

Subject pronoun I You We They He She It

Object pronoun Me You Us Them Him Her It

Possessive pronoun Mine Yours Ours Theirs His Hers Its

Possessive adjective My Your Our Their His Her Its

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 Pronoun (Contd.)

Emphatic pronouns: Shows emphasis on an action.

Example: I myself told you to come on time.

Indefinite pronoun: Is used for indefinite or unclear things.

Examples: Someone, Anyone, Somewhere...

Distributive pronoun: Refers to every one in a group.

Examples: Everyone, Each one

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 Pronoun (Contd.)

Demonstrative pronoun: Is used to demonstrate or indicate something.

Examples: This, That, These

Relative pronoun: Is used to join two sentences.

Examples: Who, That, Which

Interrogative pronoun: Is used for asking a question.

Examples: What, Where, How, When

Reflexive pronoun: Shows the reflection of an action back to the subject.

Examples: I taught English myself. He advised himself.

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 3. Verb

a word that expresses an action or a state of

being.

Examples: eat, Walk, appreciate, Is, can

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 Verb (Contd.)

Kinds of Verbs

1. Main verb: Has particular meaning and isnt used for making
changes in a sentence.
Examples: look, sweep, provide

2. Auxiliary verb: Doesnt have particular meaning and is used for

making changes in a sentence.
Examples: is, should, do

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 Verb (Contd.)

Kinds of Main Verbs

Transitive verb: Its a verb that needs an object.

Examples: break, decorate, cut, build

Intransitive verb: Its a verb that doesnt need an object.

Examples: sleep, smile, live

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 Verb (Contd.)
Verb Regularity
Verbs are divided into the following two kinds when changing to
their past form(s):

1. Regular verbs: Kind of verbs that take (d or ed) for second and
third forms.
Examples: believe believed, trust trusted, kill killed

2. Irregular verbs: Kind of verbs that do not take (d, ed) for second
and third forms.
Examples: keep kept, read read, think thought, put put

Note: A verb can be used in five different forms:

Examples: get, got, gotten, gets, getting
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 Adjective
The simplest definition of an adjective is that it is a word that describes
or clarifies a noun.
Adjectives describe nouns by giving some information about an objects
size, shape, age, color, origin or material.

Its a big table. (size)

Its a round table. (shape)
Its an old table. (age)
Its a brown table. (color)
Its an English table. (origin)
Its a wooden table. (material)
Its a lovely table. (opinion)

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 Adjective (Contd.)

Kinds of Adjective

1. Adjective of quality or descriptive: The word tells about the

quality of a noun.
Examples: long, beautiful, huge, impressive

2. Adjective of quantity: The word tells about quantity of a noun.

Examples: some, little, enough, much

3. Demonstrative adjective: The word used with noun to point

out to a person or thing.
Examples: this, those, that

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 Adjective (Contd.)
Kinds of Adjective

4. Adjective of number or numeral: Is used to show that how

many persons or things are meant.
Examples: five, hundred, third

Numeral adjective is subdivided into three kinds as follows:

Definite numeral adjective: shows an exact number.
Examples: one, hundred (Called cardinal) & first, hundredth (Called ordinals)

Indefinite numeral adjective: Doesnt show an exact number.

Examples: all, no, many, few, a lot, several

Distributive numeral adjective: Refers to each one in a group.

Examples: any, each, neither, none
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 Adjective (Contd.)

Comparisons
Two nouns with adjectives can be compared:

1. Descriptive Degree: give information about nouns (describe nouns.)

Examples: good, bad, intelligent, hot, cold

Note:
The following endings are often found on adjectives:
Examples: -y (milky) -ous (joyous) -ful (hopeful)

-able (workable) -less (helpless)

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 Adjective (Contd.)
Comparisons
Two nouns with adjectives can be compared:

2. Comparative Degree: in this stage we compare two nouns with

each other.
Examples: He is taller than me. Our class is bigger than your class.

Note:
In most cases, add er to an adjective to make a comparison:
Examples: big bigger tall taller sweet sweeter

In adjectives with more than two syllables use more to compare:

Examples: handsome more handsome difficult more difficult
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 Adjective (Contd.)
Comparisons
Two nouns with adjectives can be compared:

3. Superlative Degree: when comparing more than two nouns with

adjectives, use the superlative.
Examples: He is the tallest boy in the class.

Note:
Add the and est to adjectives which use er. Use the most with adjectives
with more than two syllables:
Examples: Earth is big. Uranus is bigger. Jupiter is the biggest of all planets.

Algebra is difficult. Calculus is more difficult.

Nuclear physics is the most difficult of all subjects.
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 Adjective (Contd.)

Note:
There are some irregular cases of adjectives while using for comparison:

Examples:

Good better the best

Bad worse the worst
Far farther the farthest

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 5. Adverb
adverbs give information about verbs,
adjectives and adverb.

Adverbs are often formed by adding -ly to an

adjective.

Examples: He spoke quickly. (adjective = quick)

They are extremely intelligent.
She opened the box very carefully.
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 Adverb (Contd.)

Kinds of Adverb

1. Adverb of time: shows the time of an action.

Examples: everyday, yesterday, at 10 oclock

2. Adverb of reason: shows the reason of an action.

Examples: because, therefore

3. Adverb of manner: shows how an action is done.

Examples: fast, softly, well

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 Adverb (Contd.)
Kinds of Adverb

4. Adverb of frequency: shows the repetition of an action.

Examples: sometime, rarely, always, usually, never

5. Adverb of quantity: expresses the quantity or degree of and action.

Examples: too, very, so, extremely, tremendously

6. Adverb of affirmation and negation: confirm or refuse an action.

Examples: Yes, No, definitely, surely, certainly

7. Adverb of place: indicates the location of an action.

Examples: here, there, over there
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 6. Preposition

Prepositions are words that show a special relation

between two things.

a word used to join a noun or pronoun with the other

part of the sentence.

Prepositions also answers such questions as where?

when? and how?

Examples: The students are in the library.

John is coming by bus.
She leaves at 08:00 a.m.
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 7. Conjunction

Conjunctions are words used to join or combine two

words, clauses or sentences.
Examples: The students are in the library but I am in the class.
John is a smart man and he is very intelligent too.

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 8. Interjection

Interjections are words used to express strong and

sudden feelings, or used for liking or disliking
Examples: Mmmmm! This smells delicious.
Wow! What a nice car!
Oh! You are still here?

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 Article
Articles are words that modify nouns.
There are two types of articles:

1. DEFINITE ARTICLES (the)

Definite articles are used when the noun is known to the speakers.
Examples: The car I have is very expensive.
The question they want to ask is about homework.

Also used when the noun is the only one of its kind:
Examples: The sun rises in the east.
The moon is full.
The door is locked. (if there is only one door)
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 Article (Contd.)

2. INDEFINITE ARTICLES (a, an)

Indefinite articles are used when the noun is unknown to the
speakers. Used with singular count nouns only.

Examples: I have a car.

Ahmad has a test tomorrow.
They want to ask a question.

Use an with a noun the begins with a vowel sound:

Examples: an apple an examination, an hour

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 Affixes (Contd.)

Affixes are letters added to the beginning or end of a

word to change its meaning.

Letters added to the beginning of words for changing its meaning or form
are prefixes.
Examples: incomplete, abnormal, disable, improper

Letters added to the end of words for changing its meaning or form are
suffixes.
Examples: converse conversation help helpful
boy boyhood front frontier

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