3.

1 Parts of Speech
Practise Writing Correct English
 3.1.1 Parts of Speech
2

 All words are divided into grammar groups(word classes

or semantic groups) called parts of speech.
 A part of speech is a name given to a word based on the
job it does in a sentence.
 It is basically like a job title: teacher, doctor, lawyer, etc.
 A word can be a verb, a noun, an adverb, an adjective, a
pronoun, a preposition, an article, a conjunction or an
interjection depending on the job it does in a sentence.
 Understanding parts of speech will help you work towards
more complex language and sentence structure.
 Mastery of parts of speech is essential and the first step to
successful written or spoken communication.
 Verbs
3
 most important word in the English Language
 Two reasons:
• Every sentence must have a verb
• Only verbs have tenses (Present, Past, Future)
• To talk about different times, change the form of
verb
She loves singing.
I saw my best friend yesterday.
We shall arrive tomorrow.
 Verbs (cont.)
4

 A word that shows an action (describe things we

do or things that happen):
e.g. Father walks on the pavement.
The sun rose at six this morning.
 or a state of being(mental or physical state –
attitudes, thoughts, senses or belonging)
e.g. Mary is ill.
I am a lecturer.
I believe in angels.
 5 Verb classes
 English verbs are divided into two main classes,
strong and weak verbs:
(a) Strong verbs/irregular verbs: form their past tense
and past participle by changing the vowel of the stem:
 ride, rode, ridden, do, did, done, see, saw, seen, eat,
ate, eaten
(b) Weak verbs/regular verbs form its past tense and
past participle by adding -d or -ed (or in some cases -t)
to the stem/base form: walk, walked, walked, prove,
proved, proven
 Activity
6
Pick out the verbs in the following extract(fourteen
main verbs and one participle):
Socorro unhooked one of the white porcelain mugs
from the underside of the cabinet shelf and poured
it and turned the handle facing out and handed it to
the old man and he took it and nodded and went
back across the kitchen. He stopped at the table
and spooned two huge scoops of sugar out of the
bowl and left the room taking the sugar spoon with
him. John Grady put his cup and plate on the
sideboard and got his lunch bucket off the counter
and went out. What’s wrong with him? said JC.
Cormac McCarthy, Cities of the Plain, Picador, 1998
 Nouns
7
 A noun is the name of a person, place, animal, thing or
idea.
 Examples:
a person: Adam, Eve, woman, boy, doctor, neighbour
a place: Luderitz, Cimbebasia, Namibia, garden
an animal: cheetah, leopard, tortoise
a thing: building, tree, suburb, country
an idea, feeling: truth, danger, birth, happiness, anger
 Example sentences: Steve lives in Sydney, Australia.
Mary uses pen and paper to write letters.
 Types of Noun
8

(1) A common noun refers to people, places or things in general,

e.g. boy, country, bridge, city, birth, day, happiness.
 These are common things (ordinary objects) and are always
written with a small letter:
A boy is fishing from the rocks.
UNLESS it is at the beginning of a sentence:
Boys like girls.
 OR if it forms part of a name:
the Kunene River; Stein Street;
the University of Namibia,
Bank Windhoek, Nautilus Primary School
(2) A Proper Noun is a name that identifies a particular person,
place or thing,
9
e.g. Stuart, Africa, Tower Bridge, London, Monday.
 In written English, proper nouns begin with capital letters
because they are special names given to a person, place,
animal or object
They include:names, surnames and titles of people: Maurice,
Mr Jones, Dr Thompson
 geographical names : Australia, Pacific Ocean
 brand names: Kleenex, Kia, Coca Cola
 Institutional names: Bank of Namibia
 titles of books, films, songs and plays: King Lear
 educational subjects: Geography, English,
 days of the week; months: Wednesday, February
 Exercise: Copy the sentences below.
10
Change the small letters to capital
letters, and identify the nouns.
1. did you get the postcard i sent you last tuesday?
2. muslims study the koran; jews study the torah;
christians study the bible.
3. she received egyptian cotton sheets as a wedding
gift.
4. she teaches at st paul’s college, but her mother
teaches at cimbebasia primary school in windhoek.
5. on behalf of air namibia, captain conradie and his
crew welcome you on board to swakopmund.
 Pronouns
11

 A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun to avoid

repetition.
 Its function, therefore, is similar to that of a noun.
Example: Joe is at the cinema with Joe’s girlfriend.
Joe really enjoys spending time with Joe’s girlfriend.
his girlfriend. He - her
Subject pronouns: I, you, we, they, he, she, it
Object pronouns: me, you, us, them, him, her, it
 The
12
problems of Pronoun case
Subject pronouns replace nouns before the verb:
John and I travel a good deal.
My sister and I were very disappointed with the
service.
Object pronouns replace nouns after the verb:
He assisted me.
He gave the flowers to Jane and me.
and after prepositions:
She goes out with him.
Adjectives
13

 An adjective gives more information about a noun or a

pronoun.
 It makes the meaning more exact.
 Adjectives answer questions like: What colour? What
type? What size? Where does it come from?
 Examples: slow, weird, intelligent, lazy, Namibian
The pretty girl has a big dog.
I love Swiss chocolate.
 Adjectives (2) Order
14

 Adjectives are classified into two groups:

opinion and fact:
e.g. They drive an amazing, big, red, sports car.
 When we use two or more adjectives together,’
opinion’ adjectives (e.g. interesting, beautiful)
normally go before ‘fact’ adjectives (new, blue).
e.g. an interesting new film
a beautiful blue dress
a boring, long, old British film
 Categories (Fact Adjectives)
15
Adjectives answer questions about:
 quantity: (number) six
 Quality: good, bad, excellent
 size/weight: heavy, tiny, slender, scrawny, slim, obese, dense,
gigantic, vast, hefty
 age: young, ancient, babyish, old-fashioned, mature
 shape: circular, cylindrical, elliptical, crooked, flat
 colour: pink, metallic, pastel, transparent, silver, golden
 origin/location: French, Angolan, polar, lunar, southern, English,
Namibian, oceanic
 material: glass, wooden, concrete, cottony, plastic
 purpose: cooking, sleeping, running, tennis, sports,
school, industrial
 Fact Adjectives (2) Order
16

 When two or more fact adjectives come before a

noun, they normally go in the following order:
quantity+ quality + size + age + shape + colour +
origin + material + purpose + noun (SASCOMP)
e.g. a small rubber ball (size + material)
a young Spanish woman (age + origin)
a large, round, glass table (size + shape+
material)
white, leather, running shoes (colour +
material + purpose)
 Activity
 Fill in appropriate adjectives in the empty spaces in the passage below. Choose
17
from the words provided: compassionate exemplary moving title many
outstanding sentimental superb hostile greatest gutsy experienced
Million Dollar Baby is a ………….. account of a ……….. woman’s struggle to make
a name for herself in a …………………. world. This ………….. film has received
………..Oscars and the ………………… acting of Hilary Swank in the ……….. role
has been applauded as one of her ……….. performances . Clint Eastwood is
………… as the director, and the ………… Morgan Freeman carefully plays the role
of the …………… narrator. The film never becomes too ………..
 Complete the following activity by putting the adjectives in brackets in their
correct order.
1. A [middle-aged /tall / beautiful]woman
2. Two [white / small / paper] cups.
3. A [silk / pretty / black]dress.
4. A [plastic / large / square / pink] box.
5. A [industrial / dirty / large] town.