2017-10-09 Grammar: parts of speech

Greg Malivuk
[email protected]
http://www.pastebin.com/u/gmalivuk - notes from all classes
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Parts of Speech: different types of words (not the same as parts of a sentence)
verb: actions and states (this includes modals)
noun (Boston, student, book): people, places, things, and ideas
adjective (tall, noisy, expensive): modify nouns
adverb (soon, quickly, very): modify verbs (and whole sentences), adjectives, and other adverbs
	(These four are sometimes called content words, because they usually give the main information of a sentence. The parts of speech below are function words.)
determiner/article: a/an, the, and other words that say which or how many for nouns
preposition (in, at, on): before a noun (or noun phrase), these give adjective or adverb information about another part of the sentence
conjunction (and, but, when, if): connect clauses or other parts of sentences
pronoun (he, they, that, mine): refer to a known noun (which is often defined or described in another sentence)
interjection: words like “wow” that we often say, but which don’t affect the grammar of the sentence (they’re usually emotion words)
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http://learnersdictionary.com/ - Don’t use a translator. If a regular dictionary is difficult to understand, use a learners’ dictionary.
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Many words can be different parts of speech in different situations.
What part of speech is the bold word in each of these sentences?
1 We need to learn about our past. - noun
2 Your friend just went past. - adverb
3 The past event will be remembered forever. - adjective
4 The fall colors are outstanding this year. - noun (as part of the compound “fall colors”)
5 The leaves fall all over the ground. - verb
6 The branches broke his fall from the tree. - noun
7 The spring is full of mud. - noun
8 Spring into action before it’s too late. - verb
9 Don’t come near me! - preposition
10 Do you think he is near? - adjective
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Within each part of speech, there are often important grammatical differences.
nouns - count / noncount, common / proper
verbs - modal / main, action / stative, transitive (with an object) / intransitive (with no object)
adjectives - gradable / ungradable, weak / strong
adverbs - frequency / time / manner / intensity / etc.
determiners - article / possessives / demonstratives / quantifiers
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The rest of this week will be about verb tenses.