Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech

Noun

A 'noun' is a word used to name a person, place, thing, feeling or idea.

For example:

girl, home, ball, fear, plan

There are different types of nouns.

Common noun

A common noun is used to name ordinary things.

For example:

people: child, doctor, gardener

places: shop, school, park

things: table, magazine,

computer; summer

Proper noun

A proper noun is used to name a particular person, place or thing. It always begins with a capital letter. For example:

people: Anna, Brodie, Robin Hood, Mrs. Singh

places: Scotland, Dublin, Egypt

things: January, Tuesday, RMS Titanic

Collective noun

A collective noun is one word used to name a group of things or animals.

For example:

anthology of stories

bunch of bananas, flowers

choir of singers

the flock of birds, sheep

litter of pups, pigs

the troop of monkeys, scouts

vineyard of grapes

Abstract noun

An abstract noun is a word used to name a quality, feeling or condition. It is something that cannot be seen, heard or touched.

For example:

love, happiness, fear, anger, fun, empathy, apathy, safety, excitement

Pronoun

 A 'pronoun' is a word used in place of a noun. A pronoun does the same job as a noun. There are different types of pronouns.

Personal pronoun

A personal pronoun is used to refer to you, me, other people and things. For example:

me you

he him she

her it we

us they them

Possessive pronoun

A possessive pronoun is used to show possession. A possessive pronoun never uses an apostrophe.

For example:

mine yours his

hers its ours

yours theirs whose

Indefinite pronoun

An indefinite pronoun is an `unlimited' pronoun.

For example:

somebody anybody nobody

everybody someone no-one

everyone anything nothing

something everything anyone

A 'verb' is a word used to show action or a state of being. Every sentence should have a verb. There are different types of verbs.

Action verb

An action verb can be used alone in

a sentence. For example:

I love eating chocolate.

My sister always laughs at my

jokes.

Some action verbs are things we cannot see.

For example:

I thought about buying a puppy.

enjoyed the film.

Action verbs also show the 'tense', which indicates the time of the

action or state of being. 

 Present tense

The action is happening right now. For example:

The baby is crying.

The puppy is barking.

Past tense

The action has already happened. For example:

The baby cried all night.

The puppy barked all day.

Future tense

The action will happen in the future. For example:

The baby will cry.

The puppy will bark all day.

Helping verb

A helping verb is often used with other verbs. It is also called an `auxiliary verb'.

There are 23 helping verbs.

They are:

may      might      Must

be      being     been

am        are          is

was       were     do

does      did          should

could     would     have

had   has       will

can    shall

For example:

My brother has been talking on the phone for hours.

My mum was smiling at my dad.

Not all sentences have or need a helping verb.

One of the most important things to remember is the 'noun-verb agreement'.This is when we consider the singular or plural nature of the noun in the sentence. If we use a singular noun, then we use a singular verb.

For example:

The child is happy.

The farmer was planting seeds.

If we use a plural noun, then we use a plural verb.

For example:

The children are happy.

The farmers were planting seeds.