LECTURE 1
PARTS OF SPEECH
BS 1st smester
ENG 101
By:Tabassum Iqbal

Eight Parts of Speech
Nouns
Adjectives
Conjunctions
Interjections

Major Word Classes:
These are
• Nouns,
• Main Verbs,
• Adjectives
• and Adverbs

Minor Word Classes:
These are
• Pronouns,
• Auxiliary Verbs,
• Determiners,
• Articles,
• Prepositions,
• Conjunctions,
• and Interjections

Word that names
• A
Person
• An Idea
• A Thing
• A Place

• A noun is often defined as a word which names
a person, place,thing or idea. Here are some
examples of nouns: boy, river, friend, Mexico,
triangle, day, school, truth, university, idea,
John F. Kennedy, movie, aunt, vacation, eye,
dream, flag, teacher, class, grammar. John F.
Kennedy is a noun because it is the name of a
person; Mexico is a noun because it is the
name of a place; and boy is a noun because it
is the name of a thing.

• Some grammar books divide nouns into 2
groups - proper nouns and common
nouns. Proper nouns are nouns which
begin with a capital letter because it is
the name of a specific or particular
person place or thing. Some examples
of proper nouns are: Mexico, John F.
Kennedy, Atlantic Ocean, February,
Monday, New York City, Susan, Maple
Street, Burger King. If you see a word
beginning with a capital letter in in the
middle of a sentence, it is probably a
proper noun. Most nouns are common
nouns and do not begin with a capital
letter.

Kinds of Nouns
Common Nouns
boy
girl
Proper Nouns
John
Mary
Singular Nouns
boy
girl
Plural Nouns
boys
girls
Singular Possessive
boy’s
girl’s
Plural Possessive
boys’
girls’

COLLECTIVE NOUN
• They are words that refer to groups
of people, animals, or things each
regarded as one whole.
• Examples:
• Team, crowd, class, flock, army,
family, etc

ABSTRACT NOUNS
• These are not concrete nouns like
other categories. They refer to
things, ideas that have no physical
existance ie they cannot be touched.
• Examples:
• Beauty, truth, health, happiness etc

COUNTABLE NOUNS
Countable nouns are the names of
objects, people, etc. that we can
count
Example:
Book, pen, apple, boy, sister etc

UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
• These are the names of the things
which we cannot count.
• Example
• Milk, oil, sugar, gold, honesty

Verbs
A verb is often defined as a word which shows
action or state of being.
He rode the horse to victory.
He has been sick

Every sentence must
have
a

• Recognizing the verb is often the most
important step in understanding the
meaning of a sentence. In the sentence
The dog bit the man, bit is the verb and
the word which shows the action of the
sentence. In the sentence The man is
sitting on a chair, even though the
action doesn't show much activity,
sitting is the verb of the sentence. In
the sentence She is a smart girl, there
is no action but a state of being
expressed by the verb is. The word be
is different from other verbs in many
ways but can still be thought of as a
verb.

Types of verbs
• Verbs can be classified, according to their
function, into ordinary and auxiliary verbs.
• Ordinary verbs: they are the verbs that can be
conjugated and have different forms
• Example
• Play, eat, read, clean etc
• Some have three forms: cut cuts cutting
• Some have four forms: help, helps,helping,helped
• Some have five forms
write, writes, wrote, written,writing
• And only one verb be has eight forms
• Be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being

AUXILARY VERBS
• They are the verbs that help ordinary
verbs. They are of two types
1. Primary Aux.
• The primary aux. can be used as an
ordinary verb( as the only verb in a
sentence), and can be used as a helping
verb ( with an ordinary verb).
• I am here.
• I am studying.
• Be, is, am, are, was, were, being, have, has,
had, do, does, did

2. Modal
The modal aux. are: can, shall, will,
may, might, must, need, dare, used
to, ought to

Relationship between
time and verbs
• One of the most important things about
verbs is their relationship to
time. Verbs tell if something has
already happened, if it will happen later,
or if it is happening now. For things
happening now, we use the present tense
of a verb; for something that has
already happened, we use the past
tense; and for something that will
happen later, we use the future tense

present Past future
Look Looked Will look
Move Moved Will move
talk talked Will talk

Regular Verbs:
• The great majority of English verbs
are regular; that is, they have four
forms:
• The base (the uninflected or
unchanged form) play
• The—s form
plays
• The—ing form
playing
• The—ed form
played

Irregular Verbs:
• Verbs in which all three parts (the
base, the past, the past participle)
are identical: let—let—let.
• Verbs in which two of the three
parts are identical: build—built—
built.
• Verbs in which all three parts are
different: speak—spoke—spoken.

Transitive and Intransitive
Verbs:
• A verb that requires an object for
meaning is called a transitive verb
because the action transfers to the
object.
• A verb that does not require an
object for meaning is called an
intransitive verb because the action
is complete in itself.

For example: (TV)
• He poisoned the cat.
• Everybody sang the national anthem.
• She cleaned her house.

For example: ( ITV)
• John wept.
• Zubair smokes.
• I sleep late at night.

• Such verbs as give, ask, offer,
promise, tell etc take two objects
i.e. direct object and indirect object.
• A verb can be used transitively or
intransitively e.g.
• He spoke the truth. He spoke
haughtily.

ANY
QUESTIONS???????