This document discusses the parts of speech in English grammar. It notes that there are traditionally considered to be 8 parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. Nouns are defined as naming words that can be proper, common, collective, material or abstract. Nouns also have number (singular and plural) and gender (masculine, feminine, common, neuter). The case of nouns indicates their relationship to other words, and there are five cases in English: nominative, objective, vocative, appositive and possessive.
2. The Part of Speech is one of most important elements in English
Grammar. It is called as the ‘Foundation’ of English Grammar.
The Parts of speech are nothing but the classification or division
of the words according to their Syntactic Function. Parts of
Speech is a tern frequently used in the traditional Grammar and
it accommodates eight different categories of words.
Some grammar sources or conventional books contain 8 parts of
speech in English whereas some books state there are 9 and some
point out there are 10 or 11 parts of speech.
Instead of dealing with the other sources, we are going to study 8
Parts of Speech as follow:
2
These parts of speech indicate the function of the words and
meaning and their grammatical place/stand in the sentences.
3. 3
Noun is a naming word. It is the name of a person, place, animal
activity, idea or a thing. Most of the nouns have both Singular and
plural form.
Examples: Raj, Pooja, Latur, Dog, Cricket, Gold, etc.
Types of Nouns:
1. Proper Nouns:
2. Common Noun:
3. Collective Noun:
4. Material Noun:
5. Abstract Noun:
4. 4
Types of Nouns:
1. Proper Nouns: Proper noun is the name of a particular person
or place.
Example:- John, Raj, Rachel, Pooja, Milton……London, New
York, etc.
2. Common Nouns: The Common Noun is Common to Class of
persons or places. The names of all animals, birds, and things
are common nouns.
Example:- He is a doctor, He is a poet, The girl is clever, The book is
on the table, Man is a social animal.
3. Collective Nouns: The collective noun is the name of persons,
places, animals or things. Examples:- An army of soldiers, A
class of students, A group of people, A fleet of sheep, An
assembly of members, A union of workers, A team of players.
5. 5
4. Material Nouns: The Material Noun is the name of some
material out of which we make some articles.
Example:- Gold, Silver, Copper, Iron, Clay, etc.
5. Abstract Nouns: It is the name of a quality or state or an action.
Example:- Goodness, Kindness, Wisdom, Youth, Laughter,
Movement, Haltered, etc.
In English the noun has two numbers:
•The Singular Number
•The Plural Number
6. 6
•The Singular Number: A noun that denotes one person or place
or animal or thing is in the Singular Number as:
Example:- Man, Woman, Tiger, Cow, Table, Bird, Pen, Pencil, etc.
•The Plural Number: A noun that denotes more than one person
or place or animal or thing is in the Plural Number as:
Example:- Men, Women, Tigers, Cows, Tables, Birds, Pens,
Pencils, etc.
There are four Genders in English:
The Masculine Gender:
The Feminine Gender:
The Common Gender:
The Neuter Gender:
7. 7
•The Masculine Gender: It denotes males, Ex:- Man, Boy, Father,
Brother, etc.
•The Feminine Gender: It denotes females, Ex:- Woman, Girl,
Mother, Sister, nature, etc.
•The Common Gender: It is common to male and female, Ex:-
Doctor, Teacher, Lawyer, Advocate, Child, Baby, Person, Writer,
Trustee, etc.
•The Neuter Gender: The nouns denoting all inanimate things are in
the neuter gender Ex:- Pen, House, Chair, Table, Room, Sun, Moon,
Earth, etc.
8. 8
The case of noun tells us that what the relation of noun is there
with other word or words in a sentence. There are five cases of
noun in English and those are:
•The Nominative Case / Subjective Case
•The Objective Case
•The Vocative Case
•The Case in Apposition
•The Possessive Case
• The Nominative Case / Subjective Case : The noun or pronoun is
in nominative case when it is used as the subject of a verb OR
/ When noun or pronoun is doer of an action it is in the nominative
case.
Example: Jack brings fruits. (Subject Jack – Verb-Brings)
Rachel watches a movie. (Subject Rachel – Verb- Watches)
9. 9
•The Objective / Accusative Case: The noun or pronoun is in
objective case when it is used as the object of a verb OR
/ When an action is being done on a Noun or Pronoun then that noun
or pronoun is in the Objective Case.
Example: Jack brings fruits. (Fruits is an objective on which the
action of bring or bringing is done so the noun fruits is in the
Objective Case) Question of What?
Rachel watches a movie.
(Movie is the object and the action of watching is done on it so the
noun movie is in objective case) Question of What?
10. 10
Sometimes there are two Objective Cases in a Sentence
Example: The Sun gives us energy
(In this example the pronoun Us and Noun Energy are in Objective
Case. We have to keep it in mind that in such cases, the name of the
inanimate or non living thing is called as the Direct Object and on
the other hand the name of the animate or living thing is called as
an Indirect Object. In this case Energy is the direct Object whereas
Us is the Indirect Object)
•The Vocative Case: When a person or a thing is addressed it is sad
to be in the Vocative Case.
Example: Jack, close the window. (In this example, the Jack which
is noun has been addressed and hence it becomes the Vocative Case.)
11. 11
•The Case in Apposition: When noun or pronoun is used to describe
another Noun or Pronoun it is called as the Case in Apposition to that
Noun or Pronoun.
Example: Jack, a teacher, teaches Philosophy. (in this example the
word teacher which is noun describes another noun and that is Jack.
So the teacher is in case of apposition to Jack)
•The Possessive/Genitive Case: When noun or pronoun shows
possession or ownership; it is considered as the Possessive Case.
Example: It is Rocky’s bike. (in this example Rockey is the noun and
it shows the possession or ownership of Bike. So, the noun Rocky is
in possessive case)