Grammar Review: The 8 Parts of Speech

We learned that English as a language contains the following 8 parts of speech:

 The Name Words in the Language

1. Noun (N) gives name to persons, places, things, and even ideas and feelings.
Ex. (1) I am a student of Western Institute of Technology.
Common Noun Proper Noun
(2) Mother took all the bowls out of the pantry and poured soup into each.
Countable Noun Mass Noun
(3) I breathe the fresh air and instantly felt the comforts of life in the farm.
Concrete (Invisible) Concrete (Visible)
Abstract Nouns
(4) The teachers led their respective classes during the fire drill.
Common/Concrete Noun Collective Noun
2. Pronoun (Pn) substitutes a noun (e.g. I, me, my, we, us, our, he, she, it, him, her, his, their, everyone,
somebody, nobody, one, other, none, all, etc.).

Ex. Melba claims she got her cooking skills from her mom.
N Pn Pn Pn

Personal Pronouns

Subjective Objective Possessive

Ex.
1st Singular I Me My (Mine) My bag is blue.
Person The blue bag is
Plural We Us Our (Ours) mine

Ex.
2nd Singular You You Your (Yours) Your school is
Person big.
Plural You You You (Yours) That big school is
yours.
Ex.
Singular He, She, It Him, Her, It His, Her, Its Its cage is
3rd (Hers) covered.
Person Plural They Them Their (Theirs) The covered cage
is its.

 The Descriptive or Modifying Words in the Language

3. Adjective (Adj) describes or gives a more specific meaning to a noun or pronoun by answering any of these
questions: (1) What kind?; (2) Which one?; (3) How many?; (4) How much? about the noun or pronoun it
modifies.
4. Adverb (Adv), on the other hand, modifies not the noun or pronoun but the verb, adjective and another
adverb such that:
a. an adverb modifying a verb answers the questions (1) Where; (2) When; (3) In what manner; (4) To
what extent
V Adv V Adv V Adv
Ex. (1) Clara went there.; (2) The guests left early. ; (3) The class ended abruptly. ; (4) The instruction was

Adv V
only partly understood.

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 b. an adverb modifying an adjective answers only one question: To what extent? The adverb usually
comes before the adjective.

N Adv Adj N Adv Adj Pn Adv Adj

Ex. (1) This soup is extremely hot. (2) Dinner is almost ready. (3) You are absolutely right!

c. an adverb modifying another adverb answers also only one question: To what extent?
N V Adv2 Adv1 N Adv2 Adv1 Adj
Ex. (1) The concert ended too quickly. (2) Your work is almost satisfactorily complete.

 The Connecting, Relating or Joining Words in the language

5. Preposition (Prp) is a word that relates a noun or pronoun that appears with it to another word in the
sentence. Different prepositions can affect the entire meaning of a sentence by changing the way the words
relate to each other.

Ex. ( toward ) ( by )
( above ) ( opposite )
The toy airplane flew ( in the back of ) the tree. Don’t touch the flowers ( in front of ) the
garden.
( around ) ( for )
( into ) ( inside )

Note: Many words that can be prepositions can also be adverbs depending on how they are used. Remember that
prepositions always have objects. Adverbs do not.
V Prp Object of Preposition
Ex. Preposition: The bird flew out the window.
V Adv
Adverb : We went out. (‘out’ here does not have an object)

Frequently Used Prepositions

About Behind Down Off Till
Above Below During On To
Across Beneath Except Onto Toward
After Beside For Opposite Under
Against Besides From Out Underneath
Along Between In Outside Until
Amid Beyond Inside Over Up
Among But Into Past Upon
Around By Like Since With
At Concerning Near Through Within
Before Despite Of Throughout Without

Compound Prepositions
According to Because of In place of Next to
Ahead of By means of In regard to On account of
Apart from In addition to In spite of Out of
Aside from In back of Instead of Owing to
As of In front of In view of Prior to

6. Conjunction (Cnj) is a word used to connect other words or groups of words. While prepositions simply relate
different words, conjunctions make a direct connection between words.

* The 3 Types of Conjunction:

a. Coordinating conjunctions:
and but for nor or so yet
Ex. (1) My friends and I ran the show. (2) She wore a simple yet elegant party dress.
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b. Correlative conjunction:
both. . . and either. . . or neither. . . nor not only. . . but also whether. . . or
Ex. (1) They found both their pets and their luggages. (2) Either you or I will receive the award.

c. Subordinating conjunction:
Frequently Used Subordinating Conjunctions
After Before Till
Although Even though Unless
As If Until
As if In order that When
As long as Since Whenever
As soon as So that Where
As though Than Wherever
Because Though While

Ex. (1) I jog in the park whenever I have time. (2) As soon as our teacher arrived, the class was quiet.
Main idea Subordinate idea Subordinate idea Main idea

7. Interjections (Intj) are words that express feeling or emotion and functions independently of a sentence.

Ex. (1) Aha! I just thought of the answer to your problem. (2) Do you, uh, believe that?

Note: An interjection is a part of speech even if a sentence can do without it because it comes out as utterances whether
consciously or not.

8. Verb (V) is a word that expresses time while showing an action, a condition, or the fact that something exists.
This is a very important part of speech as this ‘gives life to the language’.
* The 3 Kinds of Verb:
a. Action Verb is a verb that tells what action someone or something is performing. There are 2 types of
action verb: Visible Action and Mental Action

Visible Action Mental Action

Write Think
Cry Know
Smile Learn
Run Worry
Follow Hope
Sleep Dream

Ex. (1) My friend wrote me a letter. (2) I remember that day.

b. Linking Verb is a verb that helps a word in a sentence name or describe the condition of another word
in the sentence. The linking verb that is used most often is the verb be.

Ex. (1) My mother is happy. (2) I am Sam.

LV LV

The Forms of ‘Be’

Am Am being Can be Have been
Are Are being Could be Has been
Is Is being May be Had been
Was Was being Might be Could have been
Were Were being Shall be May have been
Should be Might have been
Will be Must have been
Would be Shall have been
Should have been
Will have been
 Would have been

Ex. (1) This steamer should be in the kitchen. (2) Here is your weekly allowance.

Other Linking Verbs

Appear Feel Look Seem Sound
Taste
Become Grow Remain smell stay Turn

Note: These examples of Linking Verb can also be Action Verbs depending on how they are used in the sentence.

Ex. Linking Verb: An angel appears before the virgin Mary.

Action Verb: She appears excited about the possibility of meeting a real angel.
Linking Verb: Lara turned 18 yesterday.
Action Verb: The man turned towards us as soon as we called his name.
Linking Verb: He looks handsome.
Action Verb: He looks at me.

c. Helping Verb also called an auxiliary verb because they add meaning to another verb.

W/o Helping Verb: They sing today.

Action Verb

W/ Helping Verb: They will sing today. (connotes an action to be done at a future time today)

They might sing today. (connotes the possibility of the performance of the act of
singing; it is also possible that it will not be performed.

The choir can sing on Saturday. (connotes capability or availability to perform)

The people were dancing on the streets. (connotes that the main verb which is
the action verb ‘dance’ happens continuously until it became simultaneous with
another act or event in the past)

Note: A word can be any part of speech depending on how it is used in a sentence.

Ex. After hurting my left hand, I left the party. I turned left at the intersection when, suddenly, a truck appeared on my
Adj V Adv
left.
Prp

EXERCISE: Identify which part of speech each underlined word in the paragraph belong to. Label below the word.

Our climate is (1) gradually growing warmer. The (2) warmer temperatures are caused by increased levels (3) of

carbon dioxide in our atmosphere. Heat (4) enters our atmosphere from the sun. The carbon dioxide traps the (5) heat

(6) and prevents (7) it from leaving. Scientists call this (8) warming of the atmosphere the “greenhouse effect.”

Temperatures are expected to increase up to 5 degrees over the next century. This might cause melting ice (9) at the

poles. Flooding would occur in coastal regions (10) because the sea level would have risen.
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