Parts of speech in grammar

Parts of speech

In grammar, a part of speech (also a word class, a lexical class, or a lexical category) is a linguistic category of words (or more precisely lexical items), which is generally defined by the syntactic or morphological behaviour of the lexical item in question. Common linguistic categories include noun and verb, among others. There are open word classes, which constantly acquire new members, and closed word classes, which acquire new members infrequently if at all.

What is a noun? It is a word used as the name or identification of a person, animal, thing, place or quality. Nouns can be divided into:

Common nouns: a noun that is not a proper name and which can refer to any member of a class of things, e.g. car, table, girl as opposed to Paris, John.

Proper nouns: the name of a particular person, place or thing, e.g. Rebeca, Arturo, Xochilt, Internet.

Count nouns: a noun which can be qualified in the singular by the indefinite modifier and can also be used in the plural, e.g. car (as in a car or cars) but not furniture.

Mass nouns: a noun which cannot be qualified in the singular by the indefinite modifier and cannot be used in the plural, e.g. furniture.

Abstract nouns: a noun that denotes a quality, condition or action rather than a physical thing, e.g. kindness, greed, love.

Concrete nouns: a noun that denotes a physical thing, e.g. house, rather than a quality, condition or action.

What is a pronoun? It is a word such as her, him, them, it, etc., used in place of, and to refer to, a noun, phrase, clause, etc. Pronouns can be divided into:

Personal: I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they.

Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, ours.

Reflexive: myself, yourself, himself, herself, ourselves, themselves.

Interrogative: who, whom.

Relative: who, whose, which, that.

What is a verb? It is a word or group of words that belongs to a grammatical class denoting an action, experience, or state, e.g. to do, to feel, to happen, to love.

What is an adjective? It is a word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun, as dark describes hair in She has dark hair, and sad describes him in “The story made him sad”.

What is and adverb? It is a word which describes or adds to the meaning of a verb, adjective or another adverb, such as very and quietly in “They were talking very quietly”.

What is a preposition? It is a word, or words, such as to, from, into, out of, etc, typically preceding nouns and pronouns, and describing their position, movement, etc., in relation to other words in the sentence.

What is a conjunction? It is a word used to link sentences, clauses or other words, e.g. and, but, if, or, because, etc.

What is an interjection? It is a word, phrase or sound used as an exclamation to express surprise, sudden disappointment, pain, etc. Wow! Oh my god! Excellent!

Test exercise

Test your ability to recognize four major word classes, or parts of speech. In each of the following sentences, one word has been italicized. What kind of word is it? After the number of the sentence, put the right abbreviation:

N for noun; V for verb (or part of the complete verb); ADJ for adjective; ADV for adverb

1. These coupons came in the mail. _________

2. Our relatives lived on a quiet street. _________

3. The patient forgot the appointment. _________

4. My sister opened the letter eagerly. _________

5. She used a small computer in her business. _________

6. The earthquake had weakened the foundations. _________

7. Our meeting was a very fortunate coincidence. _________

8. He always sent me stamps for my collection. _________

9. Our guide will explain the procedure. _________

10. The tour buses rarely stop here anymore. _________

11. The winds were stronger at the higher elevations. ________

12. The women in the shop demanded higher pay. _________

13. The club may organize a trip to Utah. _________

14. The fishing season begins tomorrow. _________

15. We expected a more reasonable proposal. _________

16. The police should have investigated the incident. ________

17. The commission will soon finish its report. ________

18. The article described plans for a new engine. ________

19. Complaints had come in from many sources. ________

20. Our guides were used to extremely cold weather. _______

Some important expressions

How often? ¿Qué tan a menudo?

How much? ¿Cuánto? (Incontable)

How many? ¿Cuánto? (Contable)

How fast? ¿Qué tan rápido?

How long? ¿Cuánto tiempo?

How high? ¿Qué tan alto?

How old? ¿Cuántos años? (personas) ¿Qué tan viejo, antiguo? (cosas)

A history of computer viruses

In the following report, “computer viruses” will be explained in detail. A lengthy and informative description of the evolution and history on microcomputer viruses will be given, to give you a background of their origin for some understanding of how they came to be. The next segment in the report is on how to combat computer viruses with the development of anti-virus applications. The current status of microcomputer viruses will also be discussed, naming the most common types of viruses and the most harmful type at this present

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