Let's learn WORD CATEGORIES! (part 1)

In English grammar, there are 8 major constituent of word categories. There are nouns, determiners, adjectives, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions & conjunctions. These word categories are important in constructing sentences especially in essay writing. In this post, I will describe on the first four categories which are:

1. NOUNS

2. DETERMINERS

3. ADJECTIVES

4. PRONOUNS

1. NOUNS

Definition:

Names of things, people, places, creatures, qualities, phenomenon

Categories of Nouns:

1. Proper nouns

2. Common nouns=countable & uncountable

Countable= concrete & abstract

Proper: specific names beginning with a capital letter

e.g.( Haziq, Prada, Italy)

Common: general names

e.g. (horse, boy, country, brand)

Countable: can be counted

e.g. (pen, pencil, eraser)

Uncountable: non-count/mass

e.g. (wind, air, sand)

Collective: refers to a group of individual members

e.g. (flock, troop, school)

Compound noun: combination of 2 independent words

e.g. (classroom, handphone)

2. DETERMINERS

Definition:

Words which limit or determine what the noun refers to.

Categories of Determiners:

Articles: the, a, an

Demonstratives: this, that, these, those

Possessives: my, your, his, her, our, their, its

Distributives: each, every, either, neither

Exclamatives: what, such

Wh- determiner: what, which, whose, whatever, whichever.

Quantifiers: all, some, any, most

Numbers: cardinal- 1,2,3…

ordinal- 1st, 2nd …

general- next, another, last

3. ADJECTIVES

Describe nouns

clear sky (Adj + N)

Describe pronouns

chosen one (adj + pron)

3 forms- positive: tall

comparative: taller

superlative: tallest

nParticiples as adjectives: -ing, ed, en ending

ne.g. (boring, excited, broken)

nPosition:

1. Attributive (in NP)

ne.g. The correct answer.

2. Predicative (after ‘be’ verb)

ne.g. The answer is correct.

4. PRONOUNS

Definition:

Take the place of nouns/noun phrases

E.g. Dinosaurs are extinct.

à They are extinct.

The hungry boys stole some fruits.

à They stole some fruits.

Categories of Pronouns:

nPersonal:

n1. Subject-I, you, he, she, it, we, you, they

n2. Object-me, you, him,her, it,us, you,them

nReflexive: myself, yourself, himself,…

nPossessive: mine, yours, his, hers,…

nDemonstrative: this, that, these, those

nRelative: who, whom, whose,which, of which,that

nInterrogative: whose, who, whom, what, which

nReciprocal: each other, one another

nIndefinite:

n1. Quantifiers: some, none, any,…

n2. Personal: every

some + one

any + thing