Types of Word Classes/Parts of Speech

(Open Class)
Site: KWASU-Virtual
Course: GNS101 - Use Of English I
Types of Word Classes/Parts of Speech
Book:
(Open Class)
Printed by: ADAM AREMU
Date: Thursday, 17 October 2024, 11:13 AM
 Description
Nouns Pronouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs Propositions Conjunctions.
 Table of contents
1. Nouns

2. Verbs

3. Adjectives

4. Adverbs
 1. Nouns
Nouns: A noun is a naming word. It names people, places or things. Nouns are also labels for person or things.
Words are classified as nouns based on their functions and their derivational suffixes in sentences instead of
their meaning. We also recognize words as nouns based on the words that signal them in sentences.

e.g.

the a

My an

Types of nouns.

(i) Proper nouns: These types of nouns refer to specific people and places and are usually written with an initial
capital letter. They do not appear after the determiner ‘a’ and ‘the’.

Examples.

Stephen

Mary

Abubakar

Africa

Nigeria

Lagos

(ii) Common nouns: common nouns classify things into types of general categories.

Examples

Car

Dog

Flower

Chair

Road

Market
(iii) Concrete nouns: concrete nouns refer to physical things like people, objects and places, things that can be
observed and measured. They may be singular or plural.

Examples

Guitar

Table

Clothes

Door

Box

Bag

(iv) Abstract nouns: Abstract nouns refer to ideas, processes, occasions, times and qualities; they cannot be
touched or seen.

Examples

Happiness

Weak

Birth

Confinement

Joy

Love

(v) Count nouns: count nouns are distinguished in terms of singular and plural. They take plural inflections or
markers and obey the rule of number.

Changing nouns to plural forms

Nouns ending in –y form their plurals by changing the –y into –ies

e.g

story stories

penny pennies

lorry lorries
2. Nouns ending in -o, -s, -sh, -tch and x often form their plurals by adding –es

e.g

mistress mistresses

box boxes

flash flashes

watch watches

3. Nouns ending in –f (except –ff) or –fe change to –ves in the plural

e.g.

hoof hoves (sometimes hoofs)

life lives

wife lives

knife knives

4. Irregular nouns change a vowel or use a suffix different from –s

e.g.

mouse mice

tooth teeth

ox oxen

child children

5. Some nouns have the same form for both singular and plural

e.g.

sheep sheep

fish fish (sometimes fishes)

water water

sand sand
(vi) Non-count nouns: Non- count nouns refer to substances and qualities that cannot be distinguished in
terms of singular and plural. They have no plural forms. They may be concrete or abstract.

Examples

silver silver

information information

hockey hockey

traffic traffic

(vii) Collective nouns: Collective nouns refer to groups of people, animals or things.

Examples

A crowd of people

A hive of bees

A galaxy of stars

A fleet of cars

Noun derivational suffixes

ment accomplish + ment accomplishment

ance accept + ance acceptance

al arrive + al arrival

ant assist + ant assistant

y deliver + y delivery

ure depart + ure departure

or conduct + or conductor

er teach + er teacher

ion accumulate + ion accumulation

The possessive case.

Both regular and irregular singular and plural nouns are used in sentences to show possession
E.g

(a) add ’s to singular nouns and plural nouns not ending in –s:

A child’s voice

Russia's exports

The people’s choice

The horse’s mouth

The government’s decision

Men’s clothes

(b) add the apostrophe alone (’) with plural nouns ending in –s:

A girls’ school

The eagles’ nest

The smiths’ car

(c) Nouns ending in ‘s’ take the apostrophe alone:

Mr. Jones’s / Jones’s house

Yeats’s / Yeats’ poems

Charles’s /Charles discovery

(d) In compound nouns and titles the last word takes the ’s:

my brother-in-law’s guitar

Henry the Eight’s wives

(e) In compound plural nouns, the apostrophe comes after the ‘s in the last noun element.

e.g. my sister-in-laws’ apartment

my brother-in-laws’ house
Read through the extract below and list all the nouns in it.

EXERCISE:

CHRISTMAS EVE

Something dead strange has happened to christmas. It’s just not the same as it used to be when I was a kid. In
fact I’ve never really got over the trauma of finding out that my parents had been lying to me annually about the
existence of Santa Claus.

Assignment:

write the plural forms of the following nouns.

1. baby 11.man

2. child 12.photo

3. country 13.piano

4. aircraft 14. sheep

5. foot 15. shelf

6. key 16. storey

7. kilo 17. thief

8. woman 18. story

9. leaf 19. tooth

10. loaf 20 wife

Gender

Gender has to do with sex of animals and human beings. There are three genders associated with nouns. These
are;

1. Masculine gender associated with the male sex for both human beings and animals.

2. Feminine gender associated with female sex for both animals and human beings.

3. Neuter gender associated with inanimate things.

Examples:

masculine feminine

1. boy girl
2. bridegroom bride

3. husband wife

4
. widower widow

5. brother sister

6. father mother

7. nephew niece

8. son daughter

9. uncle aunt

10. actor actress

11. king queen

12. waiter waitress

 2. Verbs
The verb is usually seen as the nucleus of the English clause and sentence. Verbs usually bear the weight of
tense, person and number in the sentence and these three features constitute the markers of agreement in the
clause and sentence. There are two types of verbs – Lexical and Auxiliary. Examples of lexical verbs are talk,
play, classify, sweep, etc. Two classifications of auxiliary verbs are identified in English: Primary (do, have, be) and
Modal (can, may, shall, will; could, might, should, would; must, ought to, used to, need, dare). The lexical verbs are
open, while the modal auxiliaries are closed system verbs.

1. Lexical Verbs

There are five basic verb forms of the lexical verbs:

1. Base (V): walk, sing, cut.

rd
2. –s forms (3 Person singular present) (V -s): walks, sings, cuts
3. Past (V –ed1): walked, sang, cut
4. –ing Participle (present participle) V –ing: walking, singing, cutting
5. –ed Participle (past participle) V –ed2: walked, sung, cut

Exercise 1

1. Identify the kinds of verbs represented by each of the three examples of verbs in the discussion on the
verb forms.
2. Give three representative examples of your own.

1. Regular and Irregular Verbs

Another way of classifying verbs with respect to morphology is the difference between regular and irregular
verbs. As can be seen in the previous section on verb forms, the structure and spelling of the examples in
numbers 3 and 5 (V-ed 1 & 2) indicate the structural difference in the three words used to illustrate the forms of
verbs.

V BASE kick love fry

V –ing -ING PARTICIPLE kicking loving frying

V–s -S FORM kicks loves fries

V -ed PAST/-ED PARTICIPLE kicked loved fried

These verbs are regular because it is possible to predict their other forms with the knowledge of their base.
Most English verbs are in this category. Derived verbs from other classes like nouns also fall into this category –
even if they are irregular words in their primary classes. For example, ‘man’ is an irregular noun. However, it
becomes ‘manned’ as a V –ed form of a derived verb.

In spite of the possibility of predicting the forms of regular verbs, we should note that each regular verb must
still be learned individually because of other spelling peculiarities and rules that inform the inflection of verbs in
English; e.g. doubling of root consonants at the point of affixation:

1. Permit permitting permitted

Another instance is the treatment of –y:

1. lay/lays laid

hurry/hurries hurried

lie/lies lying

It can be seen in each of the three examples above that –y is treated differently.

1. The dropping of –e is another manifestation of inconsistency in the spelling of regular verbs in English.

save saving saved

dye dyeing dyed

The rule of –e dropping is observed in the case of ‘save’ but not so with ‘dye’ as seen in this example.

Exercise 2

Identify other instances of inconsistencies in the application of the three spelling rules discussed above.

Irregular Verbs in English have a varying number of distinct forms which make them to be problematic for even
L1 users of English. Those using the language as a second language must therefore take pains to learn each
irregular form on its own.

Attempt to describe the trend noticed in the following set of irregular verbs:

*Indicate the BASE (V) V –ed1 V –ed2

classification

e.g. all alike Put put put

All different Write wrote written

Come came come

 Sing sang sung

Spell spelt spelt

Spoil spoilt spoilt

go went gone

Sleep slept Slept

Cut cut Cut

Catch caught caught

Bind bound bound

Read read Read

Saw sawed Sawn

Slide slid Slid

1. The Auxiliary Verbs in English (do, have, be) also present an interesting picture. They can function as
lexical verbs especially when they occur in the sentence as the only verb form.

For instance, in: I have the book. Have is a lexical verb because it is the only verb in the sentence. Compare with
this sentence: The boys have written the essay. The words in italics are verbs; have is the auxiliary, while written
is the lexical verb.

Let us briefly discuss them in turns.

1. Have

Base have

-s form has

Past had

-ing form having

-ed participle had (but it occurs only as lexical verb)

1. Be

The base form of this verb is be and it has eight different forms:
st
1. 1 person singular present am: I am going home.
rd
2. 3 person singular present is: She is my sister.
nd st rd
 nd st rd
3. 2 , 1 and 3 persons plural present are: You/We/They are invited.
st rd
4. 1 and 3 person singular past was: I/She was invited.
nd st rd
5. 2 person, 1 and 3 person plural past were: You/We/They were invited.
6. –ing form being: He is being foolish.
7. –ed participle been: I/They/You/ have been invited.

These eight forms are to be mastered and should not be misused or misrepresented in our sentences.

1. Modal Auxiliaries

The modal auxiliaries of English are: can/could; may/might; shall/should; will/would; must; ought to; used to;
need and dare.

An informed combination of auxiliaries and main verbs in English can produce over a hundred different
sentences. It is therefore expedient for a second language user of English to master the auxiliary verbs and their
uses.

1. Finite and Non-Finite Verbs

We can identify four features to differentiate between finite and non-finite verbs.

1. Finite verbs are marked for tense; e.g.

He plays/played football in Lagos.

1. Finite verb occurs as the verb element of a clause. In this case there is always an indication of
agreement/concord between the subject and the finite verb.

I am coming.

You/We/ They are coming.

He/She/It is coming.

However, if there is a modal auxiliary between the subject and the main verb, there is no concord because the
modal auxiliary bears the weight of agreement; e.g.

I/you/she/we/they will play football in Lagos.

1. Finite verb phrases have mood. Mood refers to the disposition or attitude of the speaker to the proposition
expressed in the sentence, especially as it affects the addressee. There are three main moods in English:
declarative (indicative/ statement of facts), imperative (expressing commands) and interrogative
(questions). A non-finite verb does not express moods.
2. The non-finite forms are infinite (to play), the –ing participle (playing), the –ed participle (played), and the
bare infinitive – it has the to-infinitive as its underlying structure (have).

Finite Non-finite

He plays very well. To play football in London is my ambition.

He is playing football. Playing football in London is fashionable.

He had been playing football before. Having been playing football in
London, he was given a free
passage.

Let us have him play football.

(This form has special uses as seen

in the example.)

As can be noticed from the examples, the clauses with only non-finite verb phrases cannot stand alone, because
the absence of the finite verb deprives them of complete senses. Let us avoid constructing sentences that do
not have finite verbs; e.g.

*Having cleaned the room does not make a complete sense. This kind of construction is called a non-finite
clause and it is a subordinate clause. It needs a finite clause to make sense; e.g. Having cleaned the room, Bisi
spread the mat on the floor. The underlined portion is a finite clause.

E. Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

The last classes of verbs to be discussed in this chapter are the transitive and intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs
transfer action from the actor to the direct object; e.g. verbs such as kick, sweep, build, play, write, etc.

Ade kicked the ball. In this sentence, we recognise that the actor Ade, performed an action on the ball, which is
the direct object.

Intransitive verbs do not transfer action in this way; i.e. these verbs do not need a direct object to realise their
meanings and make complete sense. Examples are: sleep, dance, arrive, etc.

Davido danced yesterday.

Some other verbs can take more than one object; they are called ditransitive verbs, e.g. give.

Ade gave Sammy the book. Both Sammy and the book are objects of the verb gave. While the book is the direct
object, Sammy is the indirect object.

Exercise

1. Find five examples each for the transitive and intransitive verbs in English.
2. Find two more examples of ditransitive verbs and use them in correct sentences.
 3. Adjectives
An adjective is a word that qualifies a noun or a pronoun. It provides extra information about nouns by giving
details of physical qualities like colour and shape, and psychological qualities like emotions, and by providing
evaluative judgments.

E.g.

Some green leaves

A heavy sack

A funny film

A good story

A foolish excuse

CHARACTERISTICS OF ADJECTIVES

(i) Position in relation to nouns.

Adjective can come before nouns (attributive adjectives) and after verbs (predicative adjectives)

e.g.

The large balloon (attributive).

A pure white stallion (attributive).

The balloon is large (predicative).

The essay is very good (predicative).

(ii) Grading: Adjectives can be graded in terms of positive/absolute (base), comparative (er, ier) and superlative
(est, iest) degrees so that nouns can be compared.

E.g.

A big car.

A bigger car

The bigger car.

The biggest car.

We form the comparative and superlative degrees of polysyllabic and some disyllabic adjectives by using ‘more’
and ‘most’ before the adjectives.
E.g.

Fortunate more fortunate most fortunate

Grateful more grateful most grateful

Diligent more diligent most diligent

Careful

Serious

Peaceful

Prayerful

Attentive

(iii) Irregularity: Some adjectives are irregular as in the following patterns.

Bad worse worst

Good better best

Little

Order of Adjectives

When we use two or more adjectives together before a noun, we must put them in a certain order. Several
variations are possible but a fairly usual order is:
• Possessive adjectives such as (my, your, his) and this, that, those, these come first.
• Adjectives of size e.g. big, small, large, wide etc. come next.
• Adjectives of size are followed by general description adjectives e.g. dirty, smart, ugly, beautiful, agile etc.
• The Adjectives of shape follow e.g. round, square, oval etc.
• After these adjectives, we have the adjectives of age e.g. Old, young, new etc.
• The next adjectives are the adjectives of colour. E.g. blue, green, yellow, white etc.
• This is followed by the adjectives of material. E.g. steel, wooden etc.
• This is followed by the adjectives of origin. E.g. Austrian, Nigerian, French, English etc.
• These adjectives are followed by the adjectives of purpose. E.g. dining, reading etc.
Types of Adjectives
There are different kinds of adjectives in English. Some of them include:
• Demonstrative adjectives: These types of adjectives point to the objects they qualify in sentences. They include
words like; that, this, these those etc.
• Adjectives of quality: These types of adjectives show the quality of a thing. Some examples include such words
as dry, good, happy, small etc.
• Distributive adjectives: These types of adjectives distributive qualities to certain things or objects. They include
such words as each, every, either, neither etc.
• Quantitative adjectives: These types of adjectives quantify objectives or things. Some common examples are;
Some, any, many, much, little, few, etc.
• Interrogative adjectives: These types of adjectives are used interrogatively. They include such words as which,
what, whose, who, etc.
• Possessive adjectives: These types of adjectives show possession. Some common examples are; my, your, his,
its, our, their etc.
Some special uses of adjectives
• In English, adjectives of quality have the same form in the singular , and plural and for all genders. Some
notable examples are; a good boy, good boys, a good girl, good girls, a good film, good films etc.
• When two or more adjectives follow a verb, we put and before the last one. Example: The day was cold, wet and
windy.
We can put but if there is contrast of ideas. Example: The bag was small but heavy
• When two or more adjectives of colour precede a noun, we put and before the last one, but we don`t need and
when there is only one adjective of colour e.g. A blue and brown bag but a big brown bag.
• We can use both present and past participles as adjectives as in the following examples: The play was boring
(adj.), The audience was bored(verb)The noise was terrifying (adj.), every one was terrified ( verb)
 4. Adverbs
An adverb is a word that either modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb like itself. It is used to show how,
where, when, how often or to what extent an action takes place. This assertion is indicated in the sentences
below:
• I am dreadfully tired. (Here, the adverb modifies the adjective tired)
• Don`t speak so slowly. (In the second example, the adverb so modifies the adverb slowly).
• He is here. (In the last example, the adverb here modifies the verb is).
Adverbs are generally mobile, this implies that they can come at the beginning, middle and final positions of
sentences e.g
• Slowly, the boy won the race.
• The boy slowly won the race.
• The boy won the race slowly.
Kinds of adverbs
• Adverbs of manner: These types of adverbs show the manner in which an action took place. They answer the
question how. Some examples include; bravely, fast, happily,hard,quickly, well etc.
• Adverbs of place. These types of adverbs indicate the place where an action came on and they answer the
question where. Some examples include; school, down, here, near, there, up etc.
• Adverbs of time: These types of adverbs show the time of an action and they answer the question when. Some
examples include; now, soon, still, then this morning etc.
• Adverbs of frequency: These types of adverbs show how often an action comes up and they answer the
question how often. They include such words as; always, everyday, never, often, twice etc.
• Adverbs of degree: These types of adverbs indicate the extent to which an action comes on and they answer
the question to which extent. Some common examples are; almost, fairly, rather, quite, very, so, too etc.
• Adverbs of reason: These types of adverbs show the reason for an action and they answer the question why.
Some examples are; because, for, therefore, since etc.
• Adverbs of condition: These types of adverbs show the condition under which an action could come on and
they answer the question under which condition. Some common examples include; if, only, provided unless, etc.
• Adverbs of concession: These types of adverbs show allowance or what is conceded and they are introduced
by such words as; though, although, even though, even if etc.
• Adverbs of result: These types of adverbs show the result of an action and they are introduced by such words
as that, such that, therefore consequently etc.
Adverbs with the same forms as adjectives
The following are some examples of adverbs that have the same forms as adjectives.
back far left low still early fast little much straight enough ill long
more well
Adverbs Adjectives
• The train went too fast This is the fast train
• She went straight home Draw a straight line
• You can dial London direct The direct route is best
Comparative and superlative forms of adverbs
This may vary with regular one syllable adverbs and two or more syllables and irregular adverbs e.g.
Regular
Regular (one syllable): hard harder hardest
light lighter lightest
strong stronger strongest
Regular (Two or more syllables): quickly more quickly most quickly
slowly more slowly most slowly
Irregular
Irregular forms: badly worse worst
far farther farthest
little less least
much more most
well better best

Order of adverbs
Like adjectives, when two or more adverbs come in a string, they usually follow a particular order as indicated
below.
• Adverbs of manner usually follow adverbs of direction e.g. (i) Janet walked away slowly. (ii) Laide ran off
happily etc.
• Adverbs of manner usually come before adverbs of place e.g. (i) They were playing noisily outside (the house)
(ii) You can buy fruits more cheaply here
• Adverbs of time often come last e.g. A thief bugles their house usually at night