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The simplest form of English language structure is the basic sentence which must consist of a subject and a verb. Many sentences contain a subject, verb and an object. The "subject" is who or what is doing the action. The "action" is the verb. The "subject" is who or what the action is applied to.
A noun names people, places, things, qualities and states. Proper nouns are specific and start with capital letters, such as: Steven, Italy, Saturn. Common nouns are not specific and do not start with capital letters, such as: person, teacher, home.
Pronouns are words used instead of more precise nouns. There are two types of pronouns: personal (I, you, he, we, it, etc.) and possessive (mine, yours, hers, ours, etc.). Some of these words can be either possessive pronouns or possessive adjectives, depending on how they are being used in a sentence.
Adjectives are words used to describe nouns (big/small, clean/dirty). E.g.: The teacher is tall, dark, and stunning. Some adjectives are used to compare. Comparative is adjective + er than. E.g.: Pete is taller than Gary. Superlative is adjective + est. E.g.: Pete is tallest in the class. There are a few irregular adjectives such as: good/better/best and bad/worse/worst.
Articles consist of three words: a, an, and the. "A" and "an" are indefinite (not specific) and are used to indicate membership of a category or group. E.g.: a teacher, an Irishman, a Buddhist. "A" is used in front of a consonant sound and "an" is used in front of a vowel sound. "The" is definite (specific) and is used to indicate something unique. E.g.: The White House, the computer age, the earth.
Verbs are "doing" (action) or "being" (state) words. All sentences must contain a verb. Some action verbs are: go, run, watch, play, eat, etc. Some state verbs are: be, seem, appear, smell, feel, etc. There are two main types of verbs. Transitive verbs can be followed directly by an object, but don't have to be. E.g.: I eat. I eat food. Intransitive verbs cannot be followed directly by an object, they do the action alone. E.g. He sleeps.
Adverbs add meaning or information to the action, quality, or state denoted by a verb. There are five main categories of adverbs: manner (well, hard), place (above, here), time (now, soon), degree (very, quite), and frequency (once, always). Other categories of adverbs are: comment (actually, perhaps), linking (firstly, lastly), viewpoint (mentally, officially), and adding (also, only).
Gerunds are "ing" forms of verbs used as nouns (subjects/objects). E.g.: Playing tennis is fun. Playing is used as a gerund as the subject in that sentence.
Prepositions show the relationship between nouns and pronouns and some other words in a sentence. Three main categories of prepositions are: time/date (at, on, by, since, etc.), movement (from, to, by, out, over, etc.), and place (in, on, over, near, etc.). Some prepositions don't fit into these categories such as of and with.
Conjunctions join words of the same class in a sentence (pairs of nouns/adjectives/adverbs/verbs/phrases). Some examples are: and, but, or, nor, and yet. E.g.: She does not drink or smoke. Conjunctions also join clauses of sentences. Some examples are: as, before, since, when and unless. E.g.: I married her because she is gorgeous.
This unit was a great review for me on parts of speech in the English language.
