Word classification
The most common way to classify words is by their parts of speech. Traditional English grammar classifies words based on eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. You can categorize a word into one of these groups by analyzing its function or role in a sentence. Think about how the word affects or relates to the words around it. Some words may fall into more than one category.
In English, words
are classified into parts of
speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. The word function is classified as
both a verb and a noun. All words belong to categories called word classes (or
parts of speech) according to the part they play in a sentence.
The main word
classes in English are listed below.
· Noun
· Verb
· Adjective
· Adverb
· Pronoun
· Preposition
· Conjunction
· Determiner
· Exclamation
A noun is a word that identifies:
·
a person (man, girl, engineer, friend)
·
a place (house, library, Chennai)
·
a thing (horse, wall, flower, country)
·
an idea, quality, or state (anger, courage, life, luckiness)
A verb describes what
a person or thing does or what happens. For example,
verbs describe:
·
an action – jump, stop,
explore
·
an event – snow, happen
·
a situation –
be, seem, have
·
a change – evolve, shrink, widen
An adjective is a
word that describes a noun, giving additional information about
it. For example:
·
an exciting adventure
·
a green apple
·
a tidy room
An adverb is a word that is used to give information
about a verb, adjective, or other
adverb. They can make the meaning of a
verb, adjective, or other adverb
stronger or weaker, and
often appear between
the subject and its
verb (She nearly lost everything.)
Pronouns are used in place of a noun that is already known or has already been mentioned.
This is often done in order to avoid
repeating the noun. For example:
Laura left early because she was tired. Anthony brought the avocados with him.
That is the only option left.
Something will have to change.
Personal pronouns are used in place of nouns referring
to specific people or things, for example I,
me, mine, you, yours, his, her, hers, we, they, or them. They can be divided into various
different categories according to their role in a sentence, as follows:
Preposition
A preposition is a word such as after, in, to, on, and with.
Prepositions are usually used in front of nouns
or pronouns and they show the
relationship between the noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence.
They describe, for example, the position of
something, the time when something happens, or the way in which something is done.
Conjunction
A conjunction (also called a connective)
is a word such as and, because, but,
for, if, or, and when. Conjunctions are
used to connect phrases, clauses, and sentences.
The two main kinds are known as coordinating
conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.
A determiner is a word that introduces a noun, such as a/an, the,
every, this, those, or many (as
in a dog, the dog, this dog, those dogs, every dog, many dogs).
The determiner the is sometimes known as the definite article and the determiner a (or an) as the indefinite article.
Exclamation
An exclamation (also called an interjection)
is a word or phrase that expresses
strong emotion, such as surprise,
pleasure, or anger. Exclamations
often stand on their own, and in writing they are usually followed by an
exclamation mark rather than a full stop.
