PARTS OF

SPEECH
AHMAD HUSSAIN
● Words are divided into different kinds or classes, called
Parts of Speech, according to their use; that is,
according to the work they do in a sentence. The parts of
speech are eight in number:
● 1. Noun
● 2. Pronoun
● 3. Adjective
● 4. Verb
● 5. Adverb
● 6. Preposition
● 7. Conjunction
● 8. Interjection
 Noun
● A Noun is a word used as the name of a person, place,
or thing; as, Akbar was a great King.
● Kolkata is on the Hooghly.
● The rose smells sweet.
● The sun shines bright.
● His courage won him honour.

● Note: The word thing includes (i) all objects that we can
see, hear, taste, touch, or smell;
● and (ii) something that we can think of but cannot
perceive by the senses.
● Kinds of Noun
Common Noun- A Common Noun is a name given in
common to every person or thing of the same class or kind.
Example: Asoka was a wise king.
● The noun Akbar refers to a particular king, but the noun king
might be applied to any other king as well as to Akbar. We
call Akbar a Proper Noun, and king a Common Noun.

Similarly,
Ranra is a Proper Noun, while girl is a Common Noun.
Behram is a Proper Noun, while boy is a Common Noun.
Peshawar is a Proper Noun, while city is a Common Noun.
India is a Proper Noun, while country is a Common Noun.
● A Proper Noun is the name of some particular person or
place,
[Proper means one's own. Hence a Proper Name is a
person's own name.]
Note: Proper Nouns are sometimes used as Common
Nouns; as,
● 1. He was the Lukman (= the wisest man) of his age.
● 2. Kalidas is often called the Shakespeare (= the greatest
dramatist) of India.
● A Collective Noun is the name of a number (or
collection) of persons or things taken together and
spoken of as one whole; as,
● Crowd, mob, team, flock, herd, army, fleet, jury, family,
nation, parliament, committee.
● A fleet = a collection of ships or vessels.
● An army = a collection of soldiers.
● A crowd = a collection of people.
● The police dispersed the crowd.
● The French army was defeated at Waterloo.
● The jury found the prisoner guilty.
● A herd of cattle is passing.
● An Abstract Noun is usually the name of a quality,
action, or state considered apart from the object to which
it belongs; as.
✔ Quality - Goodness, kindness, whiteness, darkness,
hardness, brightness, honesty, wisdom, bravery.
✔ Action - Laughter, theft, movement, judgment, hatred.
✔ State - Childhood, boyhood, youth, slavery, sleep,
sickness, death, poverty.
● The names of the Arts and Science (e.g., grammar,
music, chemistry, etc.) are also Abstract Nouns
● Another classification of nouns is whether they are
“countable” or “uncountable”.
● Countable nouns (or countables) are the names of
objects, people, etc. that we can count,
e.g., book, pen, apple, boy, sister, doctor, horse.
● Uncountable nouns (or uncountables) are the names
of things which we cannot count,
e.g., milk, oil, sugar, gold, honesty. They mainly denote
substances and abstract things.
● Countable nouns have plural forms while uncountable
nouns do not. For example, we say “books” but we
cannot say “milks”.
 Pronoun
● Pronoun means ‘for a noun’.
● A Pronoun is a word used instead of a Noun.
● Pronouns are essentially special types of nouns and are the main word in
a noun phrase or (more usually) the only word in a noun phrase. They fall
into a number of classes, here listed with examples:
● 1. personal pronouns I, you, we, they
● 2. possessive pronouns my, mine, your, yours
● 3. reflexive pronouns myself, yourself
● 4. demonstrative pronouns this, these, that, those
● 5. reciprocal pronouns each other, one another
● 6. interrogative pronouns who, what, which
● 7. relative pronouns which, who, that
 Kinds of Pronoun
● Personal Pronouns: All the personal pronouns have distinctions in
person (first, second, third). Most also have distinctions in number
(singular, plural) and in case (subjective, objective, genitive).
● The subjective case applies when the pronouns are the subject of a
finite clause:
I know that she lives in Coventry and that he lives in Birmingham.
● When the pronoun is not the subject of the clause, the objective case is
used. Examples;
● She knows me well.
● He has told her about me.
● You must go with him
● Possessive Pronouns: The possessive pronouns are the ‘genitives’ of
the personal pronouns. There are two sets:
● One set contains the possessive determiners, a subclass of
determiners
A possessive determiner is dependent on a noun: Here is your book.
● The other set of possessives contains the possessive pronouns, a
subclass of pronouns. A possessive pronoun functions independently:
This book is yours.
● Reflexive Pronouns: When -self is added to my, your, him, her, it, and
-selves to our, your, them, we get what are called Compound
Personal Pronouns.
● They are called Reflexive Pronouns when the action done by the
subject turns back (reflects) upon the subject; as,
I hurt myself.
We hurt ourselves.

When Compound Personal Pronouns are used for the sake of

emphasis, then they are called Emphatic Pronouns. E.g. They
themselves admitted their guilt.
● Demonstrative Pronoun: A pronoun that points out an
intended referent (person, place or thing). There are four
demonstrative pronouns:
● Singular: this, that Plural: these,
those
● Examples: This is for you.
That doesn’t make sense.
These are tasty.
You may take those.
● Reciprocal Pronouns: A Pronoun or pronominal phrase (as
‘each other’) that expresses a mutual action or relationship
between the individuals indicated in the plural subject.
● There are two reciprocal pronouns, and they have genitives:
each other, one another; each other’s, one another’s
The partners trusted each other completely.
My brother and I borrow one another’s clothes.
● Interrogative Pronouns (who, whom, whose, what, which) take the
place of unknown subjects and objects in questions. e.g. Who said that?
What happened?
● One set of the interrogative pronouns has distinctions in gender and
case:
● It is normal to use who for both the subjective and objective cases, and
to reserve whom for formal style. The other interrogative pronouns,
which and what, have only one form. Which, what and whose may also
be determiners. We use who and whom when we refer to persons:
Who is your favourite pop singer? (Subjective Case)
Who (or whom) have they appointed?
Whose is that towel? (Genitive Case)
● Which can be either personal or non-personal:
Which is your sister?
Which (of the drinks) do you prefer?
● What is normally only non-personal:
What do you want?
● Relative Pronouns: A pronoun (that, which, who and whom) that
introduces a relative clause referring to some antecedent).

● Relative Pronouns do two jobs at once: they are used as the subjects or
objects of verbs, like other pronouns; at the same time, they join clauses
together, like conjunctions. Compare:
What’s the name of the blonde girl? She just came in.
What’s the name of the blonde girl who just came in?
● Indefinite Pronouns refer to persons or things in a general, and not in a
particular way. Examples:
Everybody was pleased with the speech.
No one was absent today.
Somebody has stolen my watch.
Did you ask anybody to come?
● Pronoun One: The pronoun one has two distinct uses:
● 1. Generic one has the meaning ‘people in general’:
Example: If one is really concerned about the environment, one must be
prepared to make personal sacrifices.
● The use of generic one is generally restricted to formal style. Generic one
does not have a plural form.
● 2. Substitute one is used as a substitute for a noun; example:
A: How is your new computer?
B: I preferred the old one.

● Substitute one has the plural form ones:

All his novels are good, but the early ones are the best.
 The Adjective
● A word used with a noun to describe or point out, the person,
animal, place or thing which the noun names, or to tell the
number or quantity, is called an Adjective.
● So we may define an Adjective as a word used with a noun to
add something for its meaning.
● [Adjective means ‘added to’].

Examples: 1. Sita is a clever girl. (Girl of what kind?)

2. I don't like that boy, (Which boy ?)
3. He gave me five mangoes. (How many mangoes?)
4. There is little time for preparation. (How much time ?)
● Positions of Adjective
● Attributive: Adjectives placed before nouns are in attributive
position. For example, green shirt; my noisy son.

● Predicative: Adjectives placed after a verb like be, seem,

look are in predicative position. For example, she looks
happy. The house is enormous.
 Kinds of Adjectives
● Adjectives of Quality or State (Descriptive Adjectives): Adjectives of
quality show the kind, state or quality of a person or a thing etc.
Examples: The foolish old crow tried to sing.
The proud boy refused to help me.
Kiran is a fat girl.

● Adjectives of Quantity: Adjectives of quantity show how much of a thing

is meant.
Examples: He showed much tolerance.
Take great care of your health.
John lost all his wealth.
● Adjectives of Number (or Numeral Adjectives): Adjectives of number
show how many persons or things are meant, or in what order a
person, or a thing stands.

Examples: We have two hands to work with. (Cardinals)

December is the last month of the year. (Ordinals).
There are several mistakes in your homework. (Indefinite
numeral adjectives).
Every word of it is false. (Distributive numeral adjectives).
● Demonstrative Adjectives: They are used with nouns to point out which
person or thing is meant. Demonstrative adjectives answer the question:
which?
Examples: This boy is stronger than James.
That boy is industrious.
These mangoes are sour.
Those rascals must be punished

● Interrogative Adjectives: Interrogative adjectives are used with nouns

to ask questions.
Examples: Whose book is this?
Which way shall we go?
What kind of man is he?
● Distributive Adjectives: Distributive adjectives are used with nouns to
refer to persons or things one at a time.
Examples: Each boy must do his best.
Either dress will do.
Every soldier fought bravely.

● Possessive Adjectives: Possessive adjectives are used with nouns to

show possession.

Examples: He is wearing my shirt.

Our house is near the park.
 Verb
● A word which denotes action or being of a subject. (What a subject is or
does).
Examples: He goes to college every day. (Action)
She is a doctor. (State)
Kinds of Verbs
Transitive Verb: A verb that denotes an action which passes over from the
doer or Subject to an object. Examples: He ate his meal; She drives the
car very fast.
Intransitive Verb: A verb that denotes an action which does not pass over
to an object, or which expresses a state or being.
Examples: The baby sleeps. (State).
There is a flaw in this diamond. (Being)
● Auxiliary or Helping Verb: A verb like be, have, do which is used with
another verb to make tenses, passive forms etc.
Examples: She was writing.
He had completed his work.

Kinds of Auxiliaries
Principal Auxiliaries: Be(is/am/are/was/were/been), Have(has/have/had)
and Do(Do/does/did) are called Principal Auxiliaries. They can be used
both as helping verbs and main verbs.
Examples: I am sorry. (Main Verb) ; I am writing a letter. (Helping Verb)
He has a pen. (Main Verb); He has broken the glass. (Helping
Verb)
I do my work regularly. (Main verb); I do not like him. (Helping
verb)
● Modal Auxiliaries: Will, shall, would, should, may, might, can,
could, and must are called Modal Auxiliaries or Modal Verbs. They
always take first form of verb after them.

Examples: I shall help you.

I would like to thank you.
It may rain today.
They might come tomorrow.
My grandfather could speak many languages.
 The Adverb
● An Adverb is a word which modifies the meaning of a Verb, an
Adjective or another Adverb.
● An adverb tells us about when, where or how something happens.

Examples:
She sang beautifully. (Modifies the meaning of the verb ‘sang’)
I am terribly tired. (Modifies the meaning of the adjective ‘tired’)
He went terribly quickly. (The adverb ‘terribly’ modifies the meaning of the
adverb ‘quickly’).
Actually, I can’t come. (Modifies the whole sentence).
You are completely out of your mind. (Modifies the prepositional phrase
‘out of your mind’)
 Kinds of Adverbs
● Adverbs of Manner: It shows how or in what manner.
Examples: He performs his duty honestly.
She works lazily.

● Adverbs of Place: It shows where.

Examples: Stand here; I have looked for him everywhere

● Adverbs of Time: It shows when.

Examples: He is leaving today.
I want to see him now.
● Adverbs of Frequency: It shows how often.
Examples: Ali often visits me. I have been to London twice.
She seldom comes here. We usually take breakfast at 7 a.m.

● Adverbs of Degree or Quantity: They are used to show how much, or

in what degree or to what extent.
Examples: These mangoes are almost ripe. I am so glad.
I am fully prepared. These books are too expensive.

● Adverbs of Probability: They show how sure we are about something.

Examples: He probably knows about your address. I shall certainly help
you.
She can obviously do this job.
 The Preposition
● A word which shows relation between two nouns, between a noun and
an adjective, between a noun and a verb or between a pronoun and
verb.
Examples: The book is on the table. (Noun-noun)
I was anxious for the result. (Adjective-noun)
She was waiting for her father. (Verb-noun)

● Note: Generally, prepositions are placed between words, but sometimes,

they are placed at the end of sentences.
Examples: What are you laughing at?
I have a house to live in.
 Some commonly used prepositions
With, from, under, on, in, of, to, through, for, by, at, up, off,
between, among, about, above, across, against, along, etc.

Some Phrase Prepositions

According to, apart from, because of, by means of, in front of,
instead of, in spite of, on account of etc.
 Transportation Location Time

at At (Specific place) Specific time

Example: I am at the (Hour+mins)
university. At 9:15

on Train (Short time)

Bus On Monday
Plane Christmas
*Boat

in Car In (Long period of time)

Taxi in Weeks
Months
Years

by (Source of Close to, near by (End of time)

transportation) Example: I just passed by By the December
Car, Plane, train, boat your house. By the end of June
 The Conjunction
● A conjunction is a word which joins together words, phrases, clauses or
sentences.
Examples: Hassan and Hamid are brothers. (Joining words)
He wants to pass by hook or by crook. (Joining phrases)
She is a doctor and her brother is an engineer. (Joining
sentences)

Some commonly used conjunctions

And, but, or, for, nor, till, else, because, unless, until, while,
hence, since, thus etc.
 Kinds of Conjunctions
● Coordinating Conjunctions: The central coordinating conjunctions, or
coordinators, are and, or and but. They are used to link units of equal status:
Examples: I enjoy novels and short stories best of all.
You may pay by cash or credit card.
He was apologetic but he refused to intervene.
The coordinators may be reinforced by correlative expressions: both . . . and;
either. . . or; not only . . . but also:
Examples:
both Susan and her brother
either tea or coffee
Not only was the speech uninspiring, but it was also full of illogical statements.
● Subordinating Conjunctions: The subordinating conjunctions, or
subordinators, introduce subordinate clauses.
Examples:
The negotiations succeeded because both sides bargained in good faith.
If you like the service, tell the manager.
Some rules for the proper usage of
conjunctions
● 1. Coordinating Conjunctions
o AND ―The comma is needed if the 'and' is used to connect two
independent clauses.
• Paul went to Kenya for his holiday, and Steve went to Dorset.
• Jim's mother washed the floor, and his dad just sat in front of the fire.
o If, however, it is used simply to connect two elements in the same
clause or sentence, no comma is required.
• Paul and Steve went to sunny Barrow in Furness on holiday this year.
• He liked listening to rap and classical music.
● 2. OR― Again, a comma is required when or is used to separate two independent
clauses.
• I can cook something special tonight, or Jim can zoom down to the fish and chip shop.
• Sharon can get you a ticket to the concert, or Suzie could take you to that new fish and chip shop.
o If it is used to separate two elements in the same sentence, no comma is needed.
• You can have fish or chicken.
• Paul decided he wasn't that keen on Kenya or Dorset.
● BUT requires a comma when acting as a coordinating conjunction, connecting two
independent clauses.
• The weather was fine on Sunday, but we chose to stay in and watch TV.
• Jim's wife was a fine cook, but her pastry always tasted like clay.
o When used to connect two ideas with the idea of 'with the exception of', no comma is
needed.
• Everybody but Jim got a new pencil.
• It seemed like cake was given to everyone but me.
Rules for subordinating conjunctions
● When these are used to separate two clauses (a main clause and a
dependent or subordinate clause), no comma is needed:
• The cyclist fell off her bike because the road was icy.
• You cannot have any chocolate crumble unless you finish your main course.
● However, if the dependent (or subordinate clause) is put first in the sentence,
it must be offset with a comma.
• Because the road was icy, the cyclist fell off her bike.
• Unless you finish your main course, you cannot have any chocolate crumble.
● HOWEVER--- Two independent clauses can be connected by
coordinating conjunctions (with a comma) but cannot be connected by the
word however.
Using the word 'however' to connect two independent clauses is a
common mistake.
• Paul decided to go to Kenya, and Steve went to Dorset. (Correct)
• Paul decided to go to Kenya, but Steve went to Dorset. (Correct)
• Paul decided to go to Kenya, however Steve went to Dorset. (Incorrect)
● In the example above, it would be better to make the two clauses into
separate sentences.
• Paul decided to go to Kenya. Steve, however, went to Dorset.
You can use 'however' to express contrast. It is usually offset with a
comma.
• There was, however, no chance of any cricket being played on Wednesday.
• She, however, was a truly awful cook.
• My culinary skills are, however, second to none.
 The Interjection
● An Interjection is a word which expresses some sudden feeling or
emotion. Interjections may express-
(1) Joy; as, Hurrah! Huzza!
(2) Grief; as, alas!
(3) Surprise; as, ha! What!
(4)Approval; as, bravo!

Examples:
Hello! What are you doing there?
Alas! He is dead.
Hurrah! We have won the game.
Ah! Have they gone?
Oh! I got such a fright.
Hush! Don't make a noise.