A review for ESOL students
There are nine parts of speech. They are articles, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. A word of caution, however, a word can be more than one part of speech. You can find out more information on the parts of speech by checking the sources listed at the bottom of this review.
A noun is a word used to name something: a person/animal,
a place, a thing, or an idea. For example, all of the following are nouns.
- Leah, Ignacio, Lan, Marek
- Japan, Venezuela, Atlanta, Kroger, the Gap
- pencil, store, music, air
- biology, theory of Relativity, Pythagorean theory
&Nouns are classified in several ways…
- Nouns can be singular or plural.
Singular nouns name only one person, place, thing or idea.
One apple, a pencil, the book
Plural nouns name two or more persons, places, things or ideas. Most singular nouns (Not ALL) are made plural by adding –s. For example, (pencil is a singular noun. The word pencils is a plural noun.)
- Nouns can be Proper Nouns or Common Nouns
- A. Proper nouns refer to specific people, places, things and ideas. A person's name (Leah Graham) is a proper noun, for example. Other examples are names of places (Atlanta, Georgia) and names of things (the Navy). They are always capitalized!
- People’s names and titles- King Henry, Mrs. Smith
- Names for deity, religions, religious followers, and sacred books- God, Allah, Buddha, Islam, Catholicism, Christians
- Races, nationalities, tribes, and languages- African American, Polish-American, Black, Chinese, Russian
- Specific Places like countries, cities, bodies of water, streets, buildings, and parks
- Specific organizations- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), ….
- Days of the week, months, and holidays,
- Brand names of products
- Historical periods, well-known events, and documents- Middle ages, Boston Tea Party, Magna Carta
- Titles of publications and written documents
- Nouns can also be collective.
Collective nouns are nouns that are grammatically considered singular, but include more than one person, place, thing, or idea in its meaning. Words like
Generally, collective nouns are treated as singular because they emphasize the group as one unit.
The committee is going to make a decision.
- Nouns can also be either count or non-count.
one cannot go outside to have two fresh airs. One goes outside for fresh air.
5. Nouns can be Abstract or concrete
- Concrete nouns are nouns that you can touch. They are people, places, and some things. Words like person, court, Georgia, pencil, hand, paper, car, and door are all examples of concrete nouns.
- Abstract nouns are nouns that cannot be physically held. For example, things like air, justice, safety, Democracy, faith, religion, etc.
A gerund is the –ing form of the verb and is used as a noun. For example,
Running isgood for you.
Running is the noun/gerund and is is the verb.
My crying upset him.
Crying is the subject and upset is the verb
Note: A noun can fit into more than one of these categories. For example, the noun Angela is a singular, concrete, count, proper noun.
Pronouns
A pronoun is a word that replaces a noun. They eliminate the need for repetition.
For Example:
Instead of Emma talked to Emma's child, you might say Emma talked to her child.
Her is the pronoun. It renames the antecedent, Emma.
& There are several types of pronouns.
Personal Pronouns refer to specific persons or things. Personal pronouns can act as subjects, objects, or possessives.
Singular: I, me, you, she, her, he, him, it
Plural: we, us, you, they, them
I, you, she, he, it, we, and they are used as subjects of sentences.
For example, She knew the grammar rules very well.
The personal pronouns that can be used as objects are:
Me, you, him, her, it, them
For Example:
- The teacher gave all of them good grades.
- Tommy gave his poetry book to her.
- Then, Azra gave it to me.
- Possessive Pronouns indicate ownership or possession.
Plural: yours, ours, theirs,
For Example: She returned my pencil to me because it was mine.
3. Reflexive Pronouns name a receiver of an action who is identical to the doer of the action.
Singular: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
Plural: ourselves, yourselves, themselves
For example: Manuela congratulated herself on her good grades.
Here, Manuela is both the doer and the receiver of the action.
Q: So, who did Manuela congratulate? A: Herself.
4. Intensive Pronouns emphasize a noun or another pronoun.
Singular: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself
Plural: ourselves, yourselves, themselves
Here, himself emphasizes the antecedent, Bradd Pitt.
5. Reciprocal Pronouns express shared actions or feelings. They are:
Each other One another
For Example:
Yan Ko and Tai help each other with their homework.
Leon and his girlfriend dance with one another when they go clubbing.
6. Indefinite Pronouns refer to non-specific persons and things.
All, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, few, many, neither, nobody, none, no one, nothing, one, several, some, somebody, someone, something
Many believe that UFO’s exist, but nobody can prove it.
No one can be sure if aliens really exist, but only few wonder if Elvis is still alive.
The underlined indefinite pronouns do not refer to any one person. They are referring to people in general.
7. Demonstrative Pronouns are also considered noun markers. They "point" towards nouns.
this, that, these those
For Example:
That woman attends Gainesville College.
That points out which woman.
The woman attends Gainesville College.
Q: Which woman? A: That woman.
8. Interrogative Pronouns introduce questions.
Who, Whom, Whose, Which, What
For Example:
Who is going on vacation? To whom will the teacher give an "A"?
What are you doing?
9. Relative Pronouns introduce dependent clauses and refers to a person or thing already mentioned in the sentence (i.e. the antecedent).
Who, whoever, whom, whomever, whose, which, that
For Example:
The English that we learn in class will help us pass English 1101.
that we learn in class is the adjective clause that describes English. And, that is the relative pronoun.
Q: Which English?
A: The English that we learn in class—as opposed to the English we learn around our friends.