Parts of speech

Parts of speech (identification of appropriate parts of speech)

What is the definition of part of speech?

Part of speech: a class of words (as adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, interjections, nouns, prepositions, pronouns, or verbs) identified according to the kinds of ideas they express and the way they work in a sentence.

Parts of speech are words that perform different roles in a sentence. Some parts of speech can perform the functions of other parts of speech too.

There are eight parts of speech in the English language: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. The part of speech indicates how the word functions in meaning as well as grammatically within the sentence.

How to Identify the Parts of Speech

Nouns: Words that name a person, place, thing, or idea (sofa, democracy)

Common nouns refer to general things, people, and places, such as “dog,” “professor,” “mountain “, and “city.” They are not capitalized and are typically used in combination with articles and other determiners.

Proper nouns are words for specific things, people, and places, such as “Max,” “Dr. Prakash,” "Chicago", and “London.”

 Pronouns: Words that take the place of a noun or another pronoun (I, you, me, he, she, it, we, who, they)

Possessive pronouns show ownership: my/mine, your/yours, their/theirs, our/ours.

Adjectives: Words that describe nouns and pronouns (red, more, second, several)

Verbs: Words that name an action or describe a state of being (run, seem)

Adverbs: Words that describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs (yesterday, below, happily, partly)

Conjunctions: Words that connect words or groups of words and show how they are related (and, or, for, but, after, although, because)

Prepositions: Words that link a noun or pronoun to another word in the sentence (by, about, behind, above, across, at, with)

Interjections: Words that show strong emotion (Oh! Wow!)

Common noun and proper noun examples in sentences

 Common noun: I want to be a writer.

           Proper noun: Agatha Christie wrote many books.

Common noun: I’d like to adopt a cat.

           Proper noun: Cleopatra is the cutest kitten ever.

  Common noun: Would you like a cookie?

           Proper noun: I’m craving Oreos.

 Common noun: Let’s go to the city.

           Proper noun: Let’s go to San Francisco.

Common noun: My teacher starts work before sunup.

           Proper noun: Mr. Bell seems to understand what students need.

Common noun: I think that’s a planet, not a star.

           Proper noun: I can see Jupiter tonight.

 Common noun: He’s always hanging out with his girlfriend.

           Proper noun: He never goes anywhere without Sarah.

 Common noun: There are a lot of important documents in the archives.

           Proper noun: There are many important documents at The Library of Congress.

 

Identify the type of noun

Read the following sentences and identify the common or proper nouns in them.

1.              I gave my book to Riya to read.

2.              The Taj Mahal in India is very beautiful.

3.              Red Riding Hood met the fox in the forest.

4.              Mr Tony Stark walks his dog everyday.

5.              The boy ran to his mother.

6.              The flat was in the middle of Lenin Street.

7.              The reporter went to Noida to collect news.

8.              This milk tastes sour.

9.              Rose is a beautiful girl.

10.   I have read the novel by Emily Bronte.

11.   King Arthur was a noble king.

12.   The author wrote a crime novel.

13.   The captain steered the ship from hitting the iceberg.

14.   The old judge passed a unique judgement.

15.   The Milky Way is a big galaxy.

16.   The Indian Express is the newspaper I read regularly.

17.   Sheldon Cooper is an intelligent physicist.

18.   The Ganga is an important river of India.

19.   J.K Rowling wrote the famous novels on Harry Potter.

20.   My uncle works in the Reserve Bank of India.