The Eight Parts of Speech and the Article by Eguriase S. M. Okaka

 

The Eight Parts Of Speech and the Article

By Eguriase S. M. Okaka

 

The eight parts of speech are regarded as the foundation stone of your English language. A student who is good at them will find sentence building very easy. It is like building a house, you need a strong foundation. So are these parts of speech helping you to build a strong and firm foundation of the English language?

 

Having a good knowledge of the eight parts of speech and the Articles will boost your spoken and written language in the sense that you will know the different parts of speech and their various placements in a sentence. At the end of this article you will be able to know the various parts of speech and the functions they play in sentences to build and develop its structures. So let us now look at the parts of speech in details:

 

·        Noun

·        Pronoun

·        Adjective

·        Verb

·        Adverb

·        Preposition

·        Conjunction

·        Interjection

·        And The Article

 

 

NOUN

 

A Noun is the name of any person, animal, place, or things. That means that the name we call anything we see, hear or think is a noun. The definition also states that there are four components of a noun which are:

 

Components of a Noun

 

·        The name of a person,    e.g. John, James, Peter, Paul, Kate, Janet etc.

·        The name of an animal, e.g. Dog, Cat, Rat, Lion, Ant, snail etc.

·        The name of a place, e.g. Lagos, Abuja, Benin City, Asaba, Aba, Kano etc.   

·        And the name of a thing, e.g. Chair, Table, Pen, Book, Kettle, Knife, Spoon etc.

 

Examples:

·        Kate is a teacher.

·        The dog is barking at us.

·        Benin City is the capital of Edo State.

·        The book is on the table.

 

Classifications of Nouns

 

Nouns are classified into the following groups: Proper Noun, Common, Collective Noun, Countable and Uncountable Noun, and Abstract Noun.

 

·        Proper Noun: These are words that define the name of persons or animals or things. All proper nouns begin with capital letters in sentences; but the names of the seasons of the year are written in small letters, except where they come at the beginning of a sentence.

·        Common Noun: These are words that define a class of things or a set of individuals, groups of places or things etc. Examples of common nouns are man, woman, boy, girl, tree etc.

·        Collective Noun:  These are words that define the name of groups of persons or animals, groups of places or things, etc. Examples of collective nouns are a choir of angels, a bench of bishops, a swarm of bees, a flight of birds, a team of players etc.  

·        Countable and Uncountable Noun: Countable nouns are those nouns which can be counted or numbered and, which, by way of classification can either be singular or plural. Among other nouns include: the following chair, pen, student, teacher, orange, bottle, etc.

Uncountable nouns are those nouns which cannot be counted or numbered and which do not have plural form or articles of description like ‘a’ or ‘an’. The examples of uncountable nouns are: wine, water, petrol, gas, kerosene, fire, air, etc.

·        Abstract Noun: These nouns refer to names of things we cannot see or touch but we can think about them. That is they exist in our feelings and are often the qualities in some persons. Examples are: love, joy, beauty, sleep, dreams, etc.

 

 

PRONOUN

A Pronoun is a word used instead of a Noun. This also means that a Pronoun can be used to replace a Noun. That is why it is referred to as a Noun Equivalent. Let us now consider the following two sentences:

 

Examples:

·        Janet is a beautiful girl.

·        She is a beautiful girl.

 

That is, the Noun Janet, can be replaced with the Pronoun she. Other Pronouns are: he, him, she, her, we, they, them, and us etc.

 

Classifications of Pronouns

 

The various forms of pronouns nouns include: Personal Pronoun, Possessive Pronoun, Demonstrative Pronoun, Relative Pronoun, Reflexive Pronoun, and Interrogative Pronoun.

 

Personal Pronoun: These are those nouns that refer to persons, which, by way of classification, can either be first person, or second person or third person. Personal nouns can either be singular or plural. ‘You’, and ‘He’, or ‘she’, are personal pronouns that respectively refer to the first and second and third person singular. While ‘We’, ‘You’, and ‘They’ are personal pronouns that respectively refer to the first and second and third person plural.

 

Possessive Pronouns: These are pronouns that show possession, e.g.… This blue book is mine but the red one is hers. Here, mine, and hers are possessive pronouns. Other examples are: ours, theirs, yours, his, are all possessive pronoun.

 

Demonstration Pronoun: These are the pronouns which point out or demonstrate the nouns that they stand for; for example: That is the house that my father wants to buy. The word ‘that’ in the above sentence is used as a demonstrative pronoun; or when a pronoun is used to indicate or refer to something that is near at hand or that is distance at foot that pronoun is called a demonstrative noun. ‘This’ and ‘these’ indicate a near reference while ‘that’ and ‘those’ indicate a distance reference. 

  

 

Relative Pronoun:  When a word defines a reference to a noun or a word used instead of a noun, that word is called a relative pronoun. Relative pronouns can be personal or non-personal. Examples of personal relative pronouns are who, whom, whose. Examples of non-personal relative pronoun are which, whose.

 

Reflexive Pronoun: When a word defines an emphatic reference to a subject-noun that word is called a reflexive pronoun. We can also say that these are pronouns that end in self or selves e.g.. The little girl hurt herself when she fell down. The word ‘herself’ in the above sentence is a reflexive pronoun. Examples of reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, himself or herself, themselves. All pronouns that end in self are reflexive pronouns.

 

Emphasizing Pronoun:  These are the pronouns used for emphasis, to make what is said stronger or more emphatic. Note that emphasizing Pronouns also end in ‘self’ like reflexive pronoun but while it is possible a sentence could still make sense if an emphasizing pronoun is omitted, it is not so with reflexive pronouns, e.g.,

·        I saw myself in the mirror.

·        I saw the thief myself.

 

In the first sentence myself is used as a reflexive pronoun while in the second sentence it is used as an emphasizing pronoun. But the second sentence can still make sense without the use of myself but the first sentence cannot.

 

Interrogative Pronoun: These are pronouns used to ask questions, e.g., who are you?

What do you want here?

Which of these books is yours?

The word who, what, and which in the above sentences are interrogative pronoun.

 

Distributive Pronoun: These are the pronouns used to distribute the meaning of what we are saying over two or more things without mentioning a definite number, e.g.,

 

Many were called few are chosen.

 

The words ‘many’ and ‘few’ in the above sentence are distributive pronouns. Other examples are each, all, either, everybody, everyone etc. Distributive pronouns are also called Universal Pronoun.

 

ADJECTIVE

 

An Adjective is a word that qualifies a noun or a noun equivalents i.e. Pronoun. Adjective talks more of a noun or a pronoun as the case always is. So the Adjective tells us more about a noun or its equivalents. Let us consider the following examples:

 

Examples:

·        Kate is a beautiful girl.

·        She is an ugly woman.

·        John has a new book.

·        He is a fat man.

 

In sentence 1 the adjective beautiful tells us who Kate is, that is, to say, the word beautiful qualifies the noun Kate.

 

In sentence 2 the adjective ugly tells us something about the woman, therefore ugly is an adjective qualifying the Pronoun she.

 

In sentence 3 the word new is an adjective which qualifies John’s book. Sentence 4 tells us about the pronoun – He. That means that any word that qualifies a noun or its equivalent is an adjective.

 

Classifications of Adjectives

 

Adjectives are classified as follows:

Qualitative Adjective: These adjectives are those that tell us what sort of person or what kind of thing they describe or qualify, e.g., a good student, a fat man, an ugly woman, a beautiful girl, a red hat, a new book, a young boy, etc.

 

Quantitative Adjective: These adjectives are those that tell us ‘how many’ or how much’ about the nouns they qualify, e.g., two boys, ten books many children, few students, much rain, several plays, etc.

 

Demonstrative Adjectives: These are the adjectives that point out the nouns they qualify, e.g.…This man, that girl, these books, those men over there.

Note that a word can be more than one part of speech, depending on how the word is used in a sentence. Consider, for example, the following two sentences.

 

·        This is our house.

·        This house is our own.

 

In sentence (1) the word ‘this’ is used as a Demonstrative Pronoun while in sentence (2) it is used as a Demonstrative Adjective.

 

Interrogative Adjective: These are the adjectives that are used with nouns to ask questions, e.g.,

Which student came first?

What name does he bear?

Whose book is this?

 

The word ‘Which’, ‘What’, and ’Whose’, in the above sentences are used as Interrogative Adjectives.

 

You should however, not confuse Interrogative pronoun with Interrogative Adjective. Consider the following sentences:

 

·        Which book is yours?

·        Which of these books is yours?

 

In the first sentence the word ‘Which’ is used as an Interrogative Adjective while in the second sentence ‘Which’ is used as an Interrogative pronoun.

 

 

Possessive Adjectives: These are adjectives that show possession or tell us the owner of a thing, e.g.,

 

This is my house.

Our school is very big.

The careless boy has lost his book.

Her name is not on the list.

Many school girls often spend their holidays in Lagos.

 

The words my, our, his, her, and their; in the above sentences are used as Possessive Adjectives.

 

Note also the difference between a Possessive pronoun and a Possessive Adjective, in the following sentences:

 

·        The blue book is his.

·        His book is blue.

 

In the first sentence ‘his’ is used as a Possessive Pronoun while in the second it is used as Possessive Adjective.

 

Distributive Adjective: These are the adjectives that denote an indefinite number attached to a noun, e.g.,

 

Each player was rewarded.

Either dress is good enough for the occasion.

Not every woman like cooking.

 

The word ‘each’, ‘either’, and ‘every’ in the above sentences are used as Distributive Adjective. However, you should not confuse Distributive Adjective with Distributive Pronoun. Consider the following sentences:

 

·        Each student won a prize.

·        Each of the students won a prize.

In the first sentence the word ‘each’ is used as a Distributive Adjective whiles in the second sentence it is used as a Distributive Pronoun. This means, in most cases, the part of speech of a word depends on how it is used in a sentence.

 

 

VERB

 

A Verb is an action word in a sentence. Any doing word in a sentence is always a verb. That is if there is no action word in a sentence that sentence is incomplete that tells you that this is one important part of speech.  A Verb is also a word that shows the state of being of a person or an object, that is, any word that shows happiness or sadness is a verb. So verbs do two things in a sentence i. e.:

 

·        A Verb shows the action word in a sentence.

·        A Verb shows the state of being of a person or an object.

 

Examples:

·        The lady tore the letter.

·        The boy is angry.

 

The word ‘tore’ and ‘is’ in the above sentences are both verbs. Sentence 1 expresses an action – it tells us what the lady did.  While that in sentence 2 indicates a state of being – it tells us how the boy is or how he feels. A state of being is indicated by the verb “to be” – am, is, are, was, and were.

Any word that tells us the action in a sentence is always a Verb.

 

 Classifications of Verbs

There are two main types of verbs which are: Finite Verb and Non-Finite Verb.

Finite Verb

 

Finite Verb

A sentence makes a meaning because of the telling word sense in it. It is the action or doing word that defines the telling word-sense, i. e. the Finite Verb. Without the Finite verb a sentence will make no meaning at all.  A Finite verb can be Transitive or Intransitive verb.

 

Transitive Verb

When the action that is the verb in a sentence needs both a subject and an object, so much so that the action is carried across from the subject, the verb involved is called a transitive verb.

 

 Examples are:

·        I drank the Pepsi.

·        Ada sang the song.

·        Obi killed the Christmas Cock.

 

Note: Transitive verbs are cast: in two voices, namely Active and Passive voice.

 

Intransitive Verb

But, when the action that is called the verb does not need an object that is when there is no need or chance of carrying the action across from the subject to the object, the verb involved is called an intransitive verb.

 

Examples:

·        The motherless babies are crying.

·        The students are dancing in the hall.

 

Non-Finite Verb

When the telling word-sense in an action or the doing word does not need and has not a subject. The verb that is that word is called a non-finite verb. The Gerund, the infinitive, and the Participle are examples of three types of non-finite verb.  

 

The Gerund

The Gerund does the work of a noun in a sentence. The gerund can be subject or object of a sentence. For examples:

Eating is his name.

He enjoys eating.

 

The Infinitive

The infinitive does the work of a verb in a sentence. The infinitive can be used as a subject, object or compliment.

 

Example:

The teacher wants to see you.

The teacher’s job is to teach the students during classes.

 

The Participle

The participle is a form of verb used as either an adjective or a part of certain tenses. Participles have two parts different types, the present participle and the past participles. And participle used as adjectives can form a longer participle phrase, e.g. Hidden in the bushes the treasure was hard to see.

 

Examples:

The hidden treasure is in the rocks.

We are hiding the treasure. 

 

Auxiliary Verb

Auxiliary verbs are mainly helping verbs. They are of two major types, namely the primary auxiliary verbs and the modal auxiliary verbs. Examples of the primary auxiliary verbs are ‘be’, ‘have’, ‘do’. Examples of the modal auxiliary verbs are ‘can’, ‘could’, ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘shall’, ‘should’, ‘nay’, etc.   

 

 

 

ADVERB

 

Adverbs are words which modifies or add to the meaning of a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Now let us consider the following examples:

 

·        Obi ran.

·        Obi ran quickly.

·        Obi ran very quickly.

·        But the distant was too short for Obi to display his full speed.

 

In sentence 1 we are only told that Obi simply ran. But in sentence two we are told how Obi ran – he ran quickly. The adverb quickly has thus modified or added to the meaning of the verb ran.

 

In sentence 3 we are told the degree of Obi’s race: he ran very quickly. The adverb ‘Very’ thus modifies another adverb quickly. Sentence 4 shows us how the adverb ‘too’ modifies the adjective ‘short’.

 

Classifications of Adverb

The various classes of Adverbs include:

Adverb of Time

Adverbs of Place

Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of Degree

Adverbs of Result or Reason

Adverbs of Number

 

Adverbs of Time: These are the adverbs whose modification or qualification is done by sense of time. Examples are now, then, first week, last month, yesterday, etc.

 

Adverbs of Place: These are the adverbs whose modification or qualification is given by sense of place. Examples include: here, there, here and there, inside, outside, etc.

 

Adverbs of Manner: These are the adverbs whose modification or qualification is achieved by sense of manner. Examples of adverbs of manner are: quickly, slowly, and sorrowfully, lonely, hatefully, etc.

 

Adverbs of Degree: The adverbs whose modification or qualification is given of degree are called the adverbs of degree. Examples are the following: very, very much, so, so much, rather, almost, etc.

 

Adverbs of Result or Reason: The adverbs whose modification or qualification is done by sense of result or reason are known as adverbs of result or reason. Examples of adverbs of result or reason include: so that, therefore, hence.

Adverbs of Number: These are the adverbs whose modification or qualification is given by sense of number. The following adverbs are the examples of adverbs of number: once, twice, thrice, etc.

Other kinds of adverbs include: the following ones: Adverbs of Affirmation (Yes, Certainly) Adverbs of Negation (No, Not). Adverbs of Interrogation (How, Where, when?)

 

 

PREPOSITION

 A Preposition is a word used with a Noun or Pronoun to mark its relationship with another word. We can also say that it shows the direction of an object or relationship between two objects.

 

Consider these examples:

·        The books are on the table.

·        Why is he hiding under the bed?

 

In sentence 1 the preposition ‘on’ shows the relationship between the two nouns books and table while the preposition ‘under’ shows the relationship between the pronouns ‘he and the noun bed’.

 

Other Prepositions are: at, to, Up, above, across, over, by, for, of, after, before, with, about, among, since, along, and until etc.

 

Classifications of Prepositions

The main classes of prepositions are as follows:

 

Simple Preposition: Examples are: on, in, under, at, to, up, above, across, over, by, for, of, after, with, etc.

 

Compound Preposition: Examples are: into, within, behind, without, upon, beyond, throughout, between, etc.

 

Double Prepositions: Examples are: in front, from behind, from within, in between, down below, etc.

 

E.g.: The enemies emerged from behind them and opened fire.

 

Note: that there is also what we call Prepositional Phrases. These are phrases used as prepositions. Examples are by means of, on account of, full of, according to, angry with, ashamed of, in praise of, good for, etc.

Examples:

He spoke in praise of his wife.

She was angry with her daughter for being rude to visitors.

 

CONJUNCTION

 A Conjunction is a word that joins two or more words together. That is Phrases and sentences are also joined together by a conjunction. We can simply say that conjunctions are joining words. Any word that links words, sentences and phrases together is a conjunction.

 

Consider these examples:

·        A book and a pen.

·        Either yes or no.

·        I was there but I did not see you.

 

The words ‘and’, ‘or’, and ‘but’ in the above expressions are examples of conjunctions.

 

Classification of Conjunctions

There are two major classes of conjunctions which include: Coordinating conjunctions and Subordinating conjunction.

 

Coordinating Conjunction: Coordinating conjunction joins words, phrases or clauses of equal grammatical importance. Examples are: and, but, yet, still, or, etc.

A boy and a girl

He came and sat down.

The spectators were there but the players did not turn up.

 

Subordinating Conjunction: Subordinating conjunction joins words, phrases or clauses to main clauses. Examples are: when, while, that, as, after, until, unless, than, because, since, although, so that, in order that, if, etc.

 

Examples:

·        Study hard so that you may pass your exams.

·        Titi failed her exam because she did not work hard enough.

·        I was in the house when the thief entered.

 

INTERJECTION

 Have you ever been happy or sad before or now? What word did you use to express such feelings? Well interjection is the appropriate word. So Interjection are words or phrases used to express strong feelings of emotions, excitements, or sudden feelings of surprise, fear, pain, or pleasure.

 Examples are: 

Oh! Ah! Hi! What!

Hello! Hurrah! Good heavens!

Goodness me! Gracious God!

Wow! Wonderful! Great!

Horrible! Incredible! Impossible!

 

Note: Every interjection is always accompanied by an exclamation mark (!) if not accompany by an exclamation mark such word is regarded as a mere statement.

 

 

ARTICLES

 Apart from the eight parts of speech you should also take note of what grammarians called articles.

 

As a matter of fact, the articles a, an, the, are adjectives but they are commonly known as articles.

 

‘a’ and ‘an’ are known as the Indefinite Articles, e.g., a boy, a girl, an egg, an iroko tree, etc. while ‘the’ is known as the Definite Article, e.g.,  the faithful wife; the man who helped me yesterday, etc.

 

 

 

THE END