The Acknowledgment of your Sin brings you Salvation by Eguriase S. M. Okaka

Grammar: Noun, Pronoun, and Verb

By Eguriase S. M. Okaka I believe that having a good knowledge of the parts of speech gives you a good knowledge of the English language as well. The parts of speech are the foundation stone of your building, if you consider building a house. If your foundation is solid that house will be solid but if the foundation is weak your house will be weak as well. If you know your parts of speech very well you will know your grammar very well. Grammar in general takes it root from parts of speech. Let us remind ourselves once again. The parts of speech include: • Noun • Pronoun • Adjective • Verb • Adverb • Preposition • Conjunction • Interjection and considerably the Articles which also are inclusive amongst them. Do you still remember the parts of speech (that is, the different classes into which we group words). Here is your chance to go over them again. • A verb is a doing word. • An adjective is a description word. • A preposition is a word that expresses a relationship between a noun or a pronoun and another word in the sentence. • A pronoun is a word that can be used to replace a noun. • A noun is a naming word. • A conjunction is a joining word. Noun A noun is a name given to a person, animal, place or things. This definition mentioned four components of a noun which are worthy of note. They Include: • The names of persons – Joseph, Josephine, Paul, Peter, Kate, etc., • The names of animals - dog, goat, hen, rabbit, etc., • The names of places – Benin City, Lagos, Abuja, Kano, etc., • The names of things – biro, spoon, cup, cap, pencil, book, table, chair etc., Nouns: Forms and sub-classes • The singular and plural forms: A noun can have a singular form which means ‘one’ or a plural form which means ‘more than one’. Examples: girl / girls, ox / oxen, judge / judges etc. • The singular and plural possessive form: A noun can show possession, ownership or the relationship between two nouns. Examples: a girl’s bag (singular possessive). The girls’ bag plural possessive). • A concrete noun names an object that occupies space or that can be recognized by any of the senses. Examples: car, ocean, light, ice-cream, flower, etc. • An abstract noun names an idea, quality, or a characteristic. Examples: strength, faith, wisdom, joy, peace. • A common noun is the general, not the particular name of a person, place, thing or idea. Examples: boy, city, book, love. • A proper noun is the particular name of person or place. Examples: Jane, Kano, Labor Union, Stone Age. Remember that the initial letters of the proper nouns are usually capitalized. • A collective noun names a group. Examples: staff, chorus, jury, panel, army. • A noun can be preceded by a little class of words known as determiners. Determiners like the and some can occur with all nouns; these, those, many, few, several occur only with plural countable nouns; much and little occur with uncountable nouns. Can you fill in the gap below with suitable determiners? a) ----------------- water b) ----------------- pen c) ----------------- houses d) ----------------- crowd e) ----------------- food f) ----------------- principal Pronounce: Forms and sub-classes A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. That is to say that a pronoun can be used to replace a noun at any time. A pronoun must agree with the noun it refers to (that is, its antecedent) in number, gender, person and case. • Number refers to singular. (Examples: I, you, she, it, and he) and plural (Examples: we, you, and they). • Gender refers to whether the pronoun is masculine (male he), feminine (female she) or neuter (neutral: they, it). • Person refers to the speaker (first person: I, we), the listener (second person: you) or the person being referred to (third person: he, she, they). • Case refers to whether the pronoun is used as the subject of the sentence (Example I, we, he, she, they, you, who, it), the object of the sentence, (me, us, him, her, them, you, whom, it) or to indicate possession (my / mine, our / ours, his, her / hers, their / theirs, your / yours, whose, its). • Personal pronouns are used in place of persons’ name. Examples: I, me, we, us, you, he, him, she, her, they, them it. Examples: He gave it to her. • Interrogative pronouns, such as who, whose, whom, and which and what, are, used to ask questions. Examples: a) Who are you? b) Whose books are these? • When words like this, that, these, and those are used to point out what is being referred to, they are called demonstrative pronouns. Examples: a) These are mine. b) That is good. • Reflexive pronoun are formed by adding self or selves to some personal and possessive pronouns to show that a noun or pronoun mentioned earlier in the sentence is being referred to. Examples: a) She cut herself with a razor blade. b) They taught themselves to swim. When pronouns such as who, whom, whose, which, that, whoever are used to introduce subordinate clauses, they are called relative pronouns. Examples: a) The girl who comes first in class is my friend. b) The boy whose bag was found is over there. • Indefinite pronouns refer to persons, places, or things in a more general way. They may be singular or plural. Examples are anybody, anyone, everyone, each, either, another, little, less, much. Examples of plural indefinite pronoun are both, several, few, many, two, three. • Reciprocal pronouns, such as each other and one another, are used to show a two-way relationship between two or more people. Examples: a) The two girls quarreled with each other. b) The guests chatted to one another. Verbs: Forms and sub-classes There is no sentence without an action or a doing word in it. So we can say that a verb is a word that expresses an action or a state of being and is required to make a statement. Examples a) The boy kicked the ball. (action) b) The dress looks beautiful. (state of being). • Unlike other parts of speech, a verb changes form to express different times such as present, past, progressive and future times. (that is, tenses). Examples a) I sleep at 9p.m every day. (present) b) I slept at 9p.m yesterday. (past) c) I am sleeping. (progressive) d) I will sleep at 9p.m. (future) • Main verb can be preceded by a class of verbs known as auxiliary verbs, such as may, has, is, could, would. Examples a) The train is leaving the station. b) She may attend the ceremony. • Verbs may be used with an object or without an object. Verbs that always require a direct object are known as transitive verbs: (that is, the action moves from the subject to the object). Examples are best, kit, enjoy, contain, take, and give. In contrast, verbs that can occur without a direct object are known as intransitive verbs. Examples are go, arrive come, do, sleep, rain, die, fly. Examples a) She folded the clothes. Subject (transitive verb) (object) b) The birds flew (Subject) (Intransitive verb) Note that verbs such as look, read, see, begin, drop, hurt, ring, open can be used transitively or intransitively. Exercise 1 Fill the gaps with the most suitable words from the option lettered A – E. • Yours is to command, ------------- is to obey. A theirs B there’s C their D their’s E theres • The government has a special program for -------------. A the poor B a poor C the poors D poor E poors • I need ----------- butter for my bread. A the B some C a D one E many • If it rains, the pitch ------------ too slippery for the players. A was becoming B will becoming C became D will become E become • I’m such the book is ---------------. A her’s B hers C hers’ D her E she • By the time we ------------- again tomorrow, we will have finished the assignment. A meet B meeting C meets D met E will meet • Do you think you can enjoy --------------- without smoking? A youself B yourselves C yourself D ourself E themselves • The teacher has given us -------------- to do at home. A a work B some work C work D many work E some works • -------------- food is this? A which B How C Whose D Who E Whom • The man was attacked by a ---------------- of bees. A pack B group C school D swam E gang Exercise 2 Add an object to the following where necessary. One has been done for you. 1. The man likes the meal. • The woman is cooking -----------------------. • The baby is sleeping --------------------------. • She gave him -----------------------------------. • He ran -------------------------------------------. • He signed ---------------------------------------. • At 8a.m prompt, the store open ----------- -----------------------------------------------------. • They ate -----------------------------------------. • Her friend wrote -------------------------------. • We danced --------------------------------------. By Eguriase S. M. Okaka