Word Classes

Prof. Ana Iudica

Topics
Nouns
▪ ▪
▪

▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
▪ 1. ▪

▪
▪
2. ▪

▪
3.
▪

▪
 Noun classes

PROPER
Names of specific people, places or occasions, and they usually begin with a capital letter:
Shakespeare, Chicago, January, Christmas, The Hague, The New York Times, Heathrow Airport,
Captain Andrews.
COMMON
Abstract: qualities, states or actions: humour, belief, honesty
OR
Concrete: people, places or things: girl, kitchen, car.

Some nouns may be either depending on their meaning:

concrete: Thomas can kick a football 50 yards.
abstract Thomas often plays football on Saturdays.
-----------------------
Countable: both plural and singular forms
OR
Uncountable: indivisible mass that cannot be counted

Some nouns may be either depending on their meaning:

There is not enough light in here. (non-count)
We need another couple of lights. (count)

Nouns that are ordinarily non-count can be converted into count nouns with two types of special use:
1. When the count noun refers to different kinds or varieties: The shop has a large selection of cheeses.
2. When the count noun refers to units that are obvious in the situation. I’ll have two coffees, please. (‘two
cups of coffee’)
Main Verbs
▪ ▪
▪
▪
▪
▪
1.
▪

▪
2. ▪

3.

4.
 Gradability Comparison

Adjectives ▪ Adjectives are typically gradable,

that is, we can arrange them on a
▪ We can also compare things and say
that something is hotter than
something else or that it is the hottest
scale of comparison. So we can
of a number of things.
Certain suffixes can be added to say that something is a bit hot,
nouns or verbs to make somewhat hot, quite hot, very ▪ There are three degrees of
adjectives. hot or extremely hot. comparison:
▪ -able, -ible disposable, audible ▪ We use intensifiers to indicate 1. Higher: Comparative: -er than…
▪ -al, -ial normal, racial, the point on the scale. Some / Superlative: The –est.
▪ -ed wooded examples are: fairly war, entirely 2. Same: as ___ as
▪ -ful hopeful different, pretty difficult, 3. Lower: less ___ than / the least
▪ -ic romantic incredibly dull, rather dark, too ______
▪ -ical historical old
▪ -ish amateurish ▪ Words of one syllable take inflections:
▪ -ive, -ative defective, older, oldest. Words with more than
communicative two syllables take the pre-modifiers:
▪ -less tasteless more and most. Words of two
▪ -ous, -eous, -ious famous, syllables can take either formIrregular
erroneous, spacious adjectives:
▪ -y tasty ▪ Good/ better/ best
▪ Bad/ worse/ worst
▪ Far/ farther-further/ farthest-
furthest
 Adjective classes
Pre-modifier of a noun Subject complement Object complement
• The adjective goes before • The adjective goes after a • The adjective goes after the
the noun. linking verb object

• Attributive function • Predicative function: • Predicative function:

• It was a comfortable ride. • The ride was comfortable • I find this book interesting.
Adverbs
▪

▪ ▪

▪ ▪

▪
Adverbs (examples)
Pronouns
1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.
Pronouns
 Personal Pronouns
The subjective case applies when the pronouns are
the subject of a clause:
Subjective case Objective case
First person
▪ I know that she lives in Coventry and that he lives
Singular I me
in Birmingham.
Plural we us
Second person
Singular/Plural
you you When the pronoun is the object of the clause, the
Third person objective case is used
Singular –masculine he him
- feminine she her ▪ She knows me well.
- non-personal it it ▪ He has told her about me.
Plural they them ▪ You must go with him.

The masculine and feminine forms apply when pronouns refer to human beings or other animate beings.
The distinction between the two genders is made on the basis of natural distinctions in sex. Some other
objects (such as ships or cars) or even personified abstractions (such as Death or Beauty) may be treated
as if they were persons. Otherwise, the non-personal pronoun it is used.
Possessive Pronouns
There are two sets of possessive Dependent Independent
pronouns.
First person
▪ One set is dependent on a noun: Here
is your book. Singular my mine
▪ The other set functions independently: Plural our ours
This book is yours. Second person
your yours
Singular/Plural
Nouns in the genitive case (possessive) Third person
also have these two functions:
Singular –masculine his his

▪ This is David’s book. (dependent) - feminine her hers

▪ This book is David’s. (independent) - non-personal its -
Plural their theirs
But unlike the nouns, most of the
possessives have separate forms for the
dependent and independent functions.
The two sets of forms parallel the forms for
the personal pronouns.
Reflexive Pronouns First person
The reflexive pronouns parallel the personal and possessive Singular myself
pronouns in person and number. There are separate forms
Plural ourselves
for the second person singular (yourself ) and plural
(yourselves), whereas there is only one form of the second Second person
yourself
person for the personal pronoun you and the possessive Singular
pronoun yours. Plural yourselves
Third person
The reflexive pronouns have two main uses: Singular –masculine himself
1. They refer to the same person or thing as the subject
- feminine herself
does:
• They behaved themselves for a change. - non-personal Itself
• You’ll hurt yourself. Plural themselves
2. They give emphasis to a noun phrase:
• She herself spoke to me.
• He wrote to me himself.
• I appealed to the captain himself.
Demonstrative Reciprocal
Pronouns Pronouns

1.

2.
 Interrogative Pronouns
▪ ▪

▪
▪

▪
▪

▪
▪
▪

▪ ▪

▪
Relative Pronouns Pronouns ‘One’

Subject Object Possessive

Personal who whom whose
Non-personal which which whose
that that -

The relative pronoun ‘that’, which is gender-neutral, may be

omitted in certain circumstances. The omitted pronoun is
sometimes called the zero relative pronoun.
▪ the teacher who (or that) taught me Chemistry
▪ the house which (or that or zero) we bought
▪ the person whom (or, less formally, who, that, or zero)
they appointed
▪ the student to whom you gave it (formal)
▪ the student who (or that or zero) you gave it to
 Indefinite pronouns
Indefinite pronouns are the largest group of pronouns. They refer to the presence (or absence) of a
quantity.
Example: Many have replied to the advertisement, and several have been interviewed.
The some-set of indefinite pronouns contrasts with the any-set:
Some – any / Someone – anyone / Somebody – anybody / Something – anything
The any-set is normal in negative contexts. Contrast: She has some close friends. / She doesn’t have
any close friends.
Some implies a quantity, though the quantity is not specified. Any does not imply a specific quantity;
the quantity is without limit.
Many of the indefinite pronouns may be postmodified. Of-phrases are particularly common:
somebody else / neither of us / several in our group / none of the people / something quite funny / a
few of my friends
 Conjunctions
Coordinating conjunctions Subordinating conjunctions
The coordinating conjunctions, or coordinators, The subordinating conjunctions, or
are used to link units of equal status: subordinators, introduce subordinate clauses
• I enjoy novels and short stories best of all. • The negotiations succeeded because both
• He was apologetic but he refused to sides bargained in good faith.
intervene.
• FANBOYS: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So After, Although, As, Because, Before, Even if,
Even though, If, In order that, Once, Provided
that, Since, So that, Than, That, Though, Unless,
Until, When, Whenever, Where, Wherever,
Whether, While
Subordinating Conjunction Phrases: As long as,
As soon as, In case, Now that, On condition that,
Rather than, So long as, Such that, Insofar as, In
order that
Prepositions
Prepositions
Prepositions of Time Prepositions of Place/Location
At, On, In, Before, After, Since, Until, During, By At, In, On, Above, Below, Under, Over,
Next to, Between, Behind, In front of, Inside,
Outside
Prepositions of Direction/Movement Prepositions of Agency or Means
To, Into, Onto, Through, Across, Up, Down, Out By, With, Through, Via
of, From, Toward, Past, Over
Prepositions of Manner Prepositions of Cause, Reason, or Purpose
With, Like, By, In Because of, Due to, Owing to, For, On account of
Prepositions of Comparison Prepositions of Possession
Like, As Of, With, Belonging to
Prepositions of Accompaniment 10. Phrasal or Compound Prepositions
With, Without According to, In front of, Next to, Apart from, In
spite of
“The beautiful
thing about
learning is that
nobody can
take it from
you.”
Let’s practice*
▪ ▪ ▪

▪ ▪ ▪

▪ ▪ ▪

▪ ▪

▪ ▪

▪ ▪

▪ ▪

▪ ▪

▪ ▪
Check your work
Noun Type Analysis
Countable, plural, refers to
Tables Common concrete noun objects used for various
purposes.
Uncountable, singular, refers to
Happiness Abstract noun
a state or emotion.
Paula Proper Noun Female name of a person
Verb Type Analysis
Base form, present simple;
Walk Regular verb follows the regular conjugation
pattern (walk, walked).

Ate Irregular verb Past form

Studying Regular vern Continuous form

Adverb Type Analysis
Describes how an action is performed; formed
Quickly Adverb of manner
from the adjective "quick."
Modifies the intensity of an adjective or adverb
Very Adverb of degree
(e.g., very happy, very quickly).
Indicates when an action took place; can modify
Yesterday Adverb of time
verbs (e.g., I saw him yesterday).
Adjective Type Analysis
Qualitative, describes a noun (e.g., beautiful
Beautiful Descriptive adjective
scenery).
Qualitative, comparative form (e.g., He is taller
Taller Descriptive adjective
than her).
Indicates an indefinite quantity, usually countable
Several Quantitative adjective
(e.g., several apples).
Pronoun Type Analysis
He Personal pronoun Third-person singular, refers to a male individual.
Their Possessive pronoun Indicates possession, plural form of "they."
Used to ask questions about a specific thing or to
Which Interrogative pronoun
introduce a relative clause.
Preposition Type Analysis
Indicates a position above or atop a surface (e.g., The
On Preposition of place
book is on the table).
Indicates accompaniment or instrumentality (e.g., She
With Preposition of agency
came with her friend).
Indicates a time frame in which something occurs (e.g.,
During Preposition of time
During the meeting, we discussed the project).
Conjunction Type Analysis
And Coordinating conjunction Joins two similar elements (e.g., I like tea and coffee).
Indicates contrast between two clauses (e.g., I like tea,
But Coordinating conjunction
but she prefers coffee).
Subordinating Introduces a subordinate clause, indicating contrast
Although
conjunction (e.g., Although it was raining, we went for a walk).