PARTS OF SPEECH

PARTS OF SPEECH

In the previous post, A sentence and Different types of sentences, we learnt that a sentence is a group of words, arranged as per certain grammatical rules, to convey a single idea. In this post we shall learn about the grammatical aspects of the words that make a sentence.

Key words: Parts of speech, noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection.

Let us recollect some of the sentences that we came across in the previous post:

I play football.

You are late again.

The rose is a beautiful flower.

We are students.

They want food.

As we notice, each of the above sentences consists of two main components - an action (doing something) and a doer of the action. Accordingly, some words denote the actions, and some other words define the doers.

The words that denote an action are known as verbs. In the above sentences, play, are, is, want, are all action words. Doers of the action -  I, you, rose, We, They - are termed as nouns or pronouns.

All other words, football, late, beautiful, the, students, food, are accessory words that we add to convey a complete thought, but they are not the main actors nor do they represent the action. These words are either the recipients of the action or describe more about the action or tell us more about doers of the action.

Words that tell us more about the doers of the actions (noun) are called adjectives, and those describing more about the actions are known as adverbs. Beautiful, good, bad, strong, weak, etc., are all adjectives. Slowly, fast, late, quickly, heavily, etc., are all adverbs.

Thus, we see that while a sentence is made up of many words, not all words have the same job. Some words express a thing, other words define action. Some other words join one word to another word. In essence, each word acts like a building block, each having its own job or function.

When a group of words are put together into common categories according to their functions in a sentence, we term those categories as Parts of Speech. These groups are also referred to as lexical categories or word classes.

Traditional English grammar recognises eight parts of speech: the noun, the adjective, the pronoun, the verb, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection.   

Now, if we analyse the sentence below,

Ravi forcefully throws a big stone into the pond,

we can categorise the words as under:

¾    Ravi denotes the name of the person who throws a stone or performs the act of throwing. Ravi is a noun.

¾    forcefully tells us the manner how Ravi throws a stone; forcefully is an adverb.

¾    throws indicates the action performed by Ravi; throw is a verb.

¾    big tells us about the stone; big is an adjective.

¾    stone is the object that Ravi throws (object of Ravi’s action); stone is a noun.

¾    pond is the place where Ravi throws the stone; pond is a noun.

¾    into indicates the relationship between stone and pond; into is a preposition.

¾    a, the are known as articles in English. We shall know more about them.

Recognising parts of speech helps us to analyse a sentence and understand it. It also helps us to construct good sentences and identify mistakes, so that we succeed in conveying our ideas coherently and correctly.

The function of each part of speech (marked in bold) is explained below, with examples:

Noun - used to name a person, place, or thing.

Mr. Gandhi was a great leader.

Moscow is the capital of Russia.

The rose smells sweet.

Indians love to play cricket.

Adjective - tells us something more about the noun.

Gandhi was a great leader.

Ravi is a big boy.

The rose is a beautiful flower.

I purchased five mangoes.

Verb – we use to express an action or state.

The Sun rises in the east.

The students walk to the school.

Messi is a great football player.

You are late again.

Adverb - tells us more about a verb, adjective or another adverb.

I finished my lessons quickly.

This flower is very beautiful.

He ran quite fast.

My grandfather walks slowly.

Pronoun - words used in place of a noun.

Ravi is absent, because he is ill.

This book is mine.

Here is your book; take it away.

Preposition - indicates a typical relationship of a noun or a pronoun with other elements (noun, pronoun, verb or adjective) in a sentence.

I have a book about the world war.

All travellers sit under that tree.

The hall is full of people.

Conjunction -  joins different words, phrases, or sentences.

Ravi and Hari are cousins.

I ran fast but missed the bus.

The kid sleeps while the mother is awake.

Interjection - words used to express some sudden feeling.

Hurrah! We have won the game.

Alas! We lost the game.

To know for sure to which category a word belongs, we have to look not only at the word itself but also at its meaning, position, and use in a sentence.

Each part of speech explains not only what the word is, but also how the word is used. In fact, the same word can be a noun in one sentence and a verb or an adjective in another. This is explained with the help of some examples below:

Word: book

Books are made of ink, paper, and glue. (In this sentence, the word Books is a noun, the subject of the sentence).

Rekha packed the luggage while Ravi booked the tickets. (Here booked is the past tense form of the verb book, and its subject is “Ravi").

Word: dream

He often talked about his dreams. (In this sentence, dream is a noun, object of the preposition, about).

Sam always dreams of winning a lottery. (Here, dreams is the third person singular form of the verb, dream).

Word: Model

Aruna prepared a model of the Earth. (In this sentence, the word model is a noun, object to the verb, prepared).

Ramgarh is the model village for the whole district. (Here, the word model is an adjective, qualifying the noun, village).

We shall discuss in detail about each part of speech subsequently.

Generally, a simple positive sentence adheres to the following sequence of words:

Noun or pronoun (with adjectives, if any) + verb + adverb, if any + other necessary words

Africa (noun) + is (verb) + a continent (other necessary words).

My mother (noun with adjective) + cooks (verb) + well (adverb).