Parts of Speech in English Grammar

Study Notes

Parts of Speech

Nouns:
- Proper nouns: names of specific people, places, or things (e.g. John, London, Amazon)
- Common nouns: general terms for things (e.g. dog, city, company)
- Collective nouns: groups of people, animals, or things (e.g. family, herd, team)
- Abstract nouns: ideas or concepts (e.g. happiness, freedom, love)
Pronouns:
- Personal pronouns: replace nouns, referring to the speaker or others (e.g. I, you, he, she, it)
- Possessive pronouns: show ownership or relationship (e.g. my, your, his, her, its)
- Reflexive pronouns: refer back to the subject (e.g. myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself)
- Demonstrative pronouns: point out specific things (e.g. this, that, these, those)
Verbs:
- Action verbs: express physical or mental action (e.g. run, think, read)
- Linking verbs: connect the subject to additional information (e.g. be, seem, appear)
- Helping verbs: used to form the tense, mood, or voice of another verb (e.g. will, would, shall)
Adjectives:
- Modify nouns or pronouns, describing their qualities (e.g. big, happy, blue)
- Quantitative adjectives: express quantity (e.g. three, five, ten)
- Qualitative adjectives: express quality (e.g. good, bad, beautiful)
Adverbs:
- Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, describing manner, time, place, or frequency (e.g. quickly, very, well, yesterday)
Prepositions:
- Show relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence (e.g. in, on, at, with)
Conjunctions:
- Join words, phrases, or clauses together (e.g. and, but, or, so)
Interjections:
- Express emotion or feeling (e.g. oh, wow, ouch)

Sentence Structure

Simple Sentences: one independent clause
Compound Sentences: two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction
Complex Sentences: one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses
Compound-Complex Sentences: two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses

Tense and Aspect

Present Tense: actions happening now
Past Tense: actions completed in the past
Future Tense: actions that will happen in the future
Aspect:
- Simple Aspect: focuses on the action itself (e.g. I go, I went, I will go)
- Progressive Aspect: focuses on the ongoing nature of the action (e.g. I am going, I was going, I will be going)
- Perfect Aspect: focuses on the completion of the action (e.g. I have gone, I had gone, I will have gone)

Clause and Phrase

Independent Clause: a complete sentence with a subject and predicate
Dependent Clause: a clause that cannot stand alone, often starting with a subordinating conjunction
Phrase: a group of words that function as a single part of speech (e.g. noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase)

Parts of Speech

Nouns:
- Categorize into proper, common, collective, and abstract nouns
- Examples: John (proper), dog (common), family (collective), happiness (abstract)
Pronouns:
- Replace nouns with personal, possessive, reflexive, and demonstrative pronouns
- Examples: I (personal), my (possessive), myself (reflexive), this (demonstrative)
Verbs:
- Action verbs describe physical or mental action
- Linking verbs connect the subject to additional information
- Helping verbs form the tense, mood, or voice of another verb
- Examples: run (action), be (linking), will (helping)
Adjectives:
- Modify nouns or pronouns, describing qualities or quantities
- Examples: big (qualitative), three (quantitative)
Adverbs:
- Modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, describing manner, time, place, or frequency
- Examples: quickly (manner), very (degree), yesterday (time)
Prepositions:
- Show relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence
- Examples: in, on, at, with
Conjunctions:
- Join words, phrases, or clauses together
- Examples: and, but, or, so
Interjections:
- Express emotion or feeling
- Examples: oh, wow, ouch

Sentence Structure

Simple Sentences: one independent clause
Compound Sentences: two or more independent clauses joined by a conjunction
Complex Sentences: one independent clause and one or more dependent clauses
Compound-Complex Sentences: two or more independent clauses and one or more dependent clauses

Tense and Aspect

Present Tense: actions happening now
Past Tense: actions completed in the past
Future Tense: actions that will happen in the future
Aspect:
- Simple Aspect: focuses on the action itself
- Progressive Aspect: focuses on the ongoing nature of the action
- Perfect Aspect: focuses on the completion of the action

Clause and Phrase

Independent Clause: a complete sentence with a subject and predicate
Dependent Clause: a clause that cannot stand alone, often starting with a subordinating conjunction
Phrase: a group of words that function as a single part of speech
- Examples: noun phrase, verb phrase, adjective phrase