SUPPLEMENTARY 1
PARTS OF SPEECH
There are 8 parts of speech that are used to describe English words which are:
NAME / FUNCTION / EXAMPLE1. Noun / A noun is a word that refers to a thing, animal, place, quality, action, or idea. / There are desks and chairs in every classroom.
My teacher, Mrs Jones, comes from England.
2. Adjective / An adjective is a modifier or qualifier that modifies the meaning of a noun or phrase. / The talented teacher motivated the enthusiastic students.
3. Verb / A verb is a word that expresses an occurrence, act, or mode of being / We work in the mornings; we play sport in the afternoons; we study in the evenings.
4. Adverb / Modifies (tells you more about) the verb / He ran fast (how) at the athletics meeting yesterday (when).
5. Conjunction / A conjunction is any word or group of words, other than a relative pronoun, that connects words, phrases, or clauses: / She went to school although she was feeling ill.
6. Preposition / Prepositions are words that show time, place, movement, direction,relationship / The teacher sat on the chair behind her table in the classroom and spoke to her students.
7. Interjection / An interjection is a word that expresses strong emotion in a sentence: / Yikes! I'm late!
8. Article / The words ‘a’, ‘an’ or ‘the’ which precede nouns or adjectives / John won a prize for history.
Peter won the history prize.
The different parts of speech used in sentences.
Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech.
1)
noun / verbNaiman / is working
2)
noun / verb / adjective / nounChildren / love / funny / people
3)
noun / verb / noun / adverbSheena / speaks / English / well
4)
noun / verb / adjective / nounKelly / speaks / good / English
5)
noun / verb / adjective / noun / conjunction / pronoun / verb / pronounShe / likes / big / snakes / but / I / hate / them
Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech.
6)
interjection / pronoun / conj. / adj. / noun / verb / prep. / noun / adverbWell, / she / and / young / Nik / walk / to / school / slowly
A) Nouns
Nouns are words that name people, animals, places, things and ideas. They come in these forms: common , proper, collective and abstract.
Type of Nouns / UsageDeterminers / Examples
a) Common nouns
- Nouns that refer to people, animals, things and places in general. / A, an, a few, some, a lot of, several / Woman, boy, cow, tortoise, shoe, radio, village, museum
b) Proper nouns
- Nouns that refer to particular people, places or things. They always begin with capital letters. / -, The / Sultan Mahmud Shah, the Park Royal, Selangor, the Union Jack, Lorong Merbau
c) Collective nouns
- Nouns that are used to refer to groups of people, animals or things, taken together as a whole. / A, the / Gang of thieves, flock of birds, herd of cows, bouquet of flowers
d) Abstract nouns
- Nouns that refer to qualities, actions or states of being. / The / Sleep, confidence, fun, wisdom, thirst, work, disappointment, help
Countable and Uncountable Nouns
We should also know whether a noun is countable or uncountable:
Type of Nouns / UsageDeterminers / Examples
a) Countable nouns
- Nouns that can be counted and have singular and plural forms / A, an
A few, fewer, some, many, more, several, plenty of, etc. / Magazine, apple
Cats, farms, bicycles, mountains
b) Uncountable nouns
- Nouns that cannot be counted. They have no plural form. They take singular verbs.
- They are often the names for abstract ideas or qualities. / We cannot use a/an with these nouns. To express a quantity of one of these nouns, use a word or expression like:
A little, less, a lot of, some, much, more, plenty of, etc / - There has been a lot of research into the causes of this disease
- He gave me a great deal of advice before my interview.
- The have got a lot of furniture.
- Can you give some information about uncountable nouns?
BE CAREFUL with the noun ‘hair’ which is normally uncountable in English:
She has long blonde hair
It can also be countable when referring to individual hairs:
My father’s getting a few hairs now
Exercise 1
Complete the passage using each noun in the following list once. You will have to make some nouns plural.
concern / loneliness / decision / home / holiday / time / Foresttelevision / Australia / toy / brothers / Daniel / week
Daniel was feeling lonely because his two 1)______were away from 2)______studying abroad and it was the June 3)______. 4)______tried everything to cheer himself up. He played with his many 5)______but the 6)______would not go away. He tried going for a walk in the 7)______but this made him feel even lonelier. His mother was filled with 8)______for Daniel as he looked so sad and spent most of his 9)______staring miserably at the 10)______. At last, Daniel’s mother came to a 11)______. She would take Daniel to see his brothers even if it meant travelling all the way to 12)______and spend the remaining three 13)______of the holiday with the family united.
Exercise 2
Complete the passage, choosing the correct nouns from the box.
metres emperor Great Wall of China armies road
walls years Shih Huang Ti China enemies
empire barbarians valleys world wall
mountains height year length places
The Great Wall of China is a huge (1)______that is found in (2) ______. This very tall and long wall was built along the northern border of China many hundreds of (3)______ago, in about the (4)______200B.C. It was built to protect the people in the (5)______of China against any attacks from the nvading (6)______of the (7)______.
Local feudal lords had been building some (8)______and forts for many years. They built them in (9)______where the armies of their (10)______, the barbarians, found it easy to attack them. Examples of such places were gaps in the (11)______.
But it was not until the reign of the great (12)______, (13) ______, who reigned from 221 to 210 B.C., that all these walls and forts were joined up and made into one long continuous giant wall. When the (14)______was all linked up, it reached the (15)______of about 2400 kilometres. It was, and still is, the longest wall that has ever been built in the (16)______.
The (17)______of the wall changes along the way. It varies from 6 (18)______to 16 metres high. The wall winds up mountains and down (19)______. Along the top of the wall, there used to be a (20)______that was more than 4 metres wide.
B) ADJECTIVES
Adjectives qualify or describe nouns and pronouns. They add interest and colour to sentences by describing or giving more information.
1. The adjective may come before a noun:
Example: The clever (adjective) boy won the prize
2. The adjective may follow a linking verb (is, am, are was, were):
Example: The boy is clever (adjective).
3. Adjectives may be formed from nouns:
Example: The boy is an athlete (noun). He is an athletic (adjective) boy.
There are several kinds of adjectives:
1. Descriptive adjectives or adjectives of quality (what kind)
These are the most commonly used adjectives.
Example: The loyal child…
2. Proper adjectives
These are proper nouns used as adjectives.
Example: The August winds are good for flying kites.
3. Adjectives of quantity (how many)
Two/many/several/few/some/most children…
4. Adjectives of order (position)
Example: He came first/second/last in the race.
5. Demonstrative adjectives (which one)
Example: This/That book…
6. Possessive adjectives (belonging to)
Example: My/his/her/our/their/your computer…
7. Interrogative adjectives (which one)
Example: Which/What/Whose lesson...
8. Compound adjectives
Adjectives joined by hyphens are called compound adjectives.
Example: a well-deserved result / a feather-light cake
Exercise 1
1. Keisha is ______(comfortable, comfort) in school.
2. The stories in this book have a lot of ______(variety, various).
3. I am ______(curiosity, curious) about the game.
4. Is the boy ______(confidence, confident) today?
5. He is not ______(responsibility, responsible) for his behaviour.
6. Are those books ______(valuable, value)?
7. A student must have ______(responsible, responsibility).
8. The little kid has a lot of ______(curious, curiosity)
9. My car is not ______(dependable, dependability)
10. The doctor has a bad ______(ill, illness).
11. That ______(generous, generosity) gentleman is very ______(rich, richness)
12. Those young girls are ______(playful, playfully) and never get any work done.
13. The policemen are ______(tired, tiring)
14. She looks ______(beautiful, beautifully) in that white dress.
Exercise 2
Read the following passage carefully. Then complete each of the blanks with the best adjectives.
The sea was (1) as the wing blew gently. The cruise liner (2) set sail an hour ago moved on steadily. It was my first journey on a ship and I was enjoying (3) moment of it.
From the deck of the ship, I could see some fish playing near the surface of the water. There were a couple of (4) blue whales following our ship. They were a sight to behold.
I enjoyed the company of the (5) people on the ship. The captain and his crew (6) attended to all my needs made me feel very (7). There were musicians and dancers to entertain us. The ship also had a (8) library of books. What I loved most about (9) cruise was the opportunity to meet (10) interesting people.
1. A strong C peaceful
B calm D turbulent
2. A who C which
B what D whom
3. A all C some
B very D every
4. A dark C darkest
B darker D most dark
5. A smart C friendly
B proud D indifferent
6. A what C which
B who D whom
7. A tired C comfortable
B queer D terrible
8. A good C best
B better D well
9. A this C these
B that D those
10. A much C many
B more D most
10