WORD CLASSES
NOUNS: a word to name a person, place, thing or idea
Nouns can be desribed as being likely to exhibit:
🖊 a plural form
🖊 they can be a subject of a sentence
🖊 they can be at the head of a noun phrase
suffixes which indicate that a word is a noun:
💥 -ity (electricity; community)
💥 -ant (celebrant; participant)
💥 -ism (racism; feminism)
💥 -tion (destination; communication)
💥 -ling (duckling; foundling)
💥 -ship (friendship; fellowship)
💥 (neighbourhood; brotherhood)
Often, the suffix can indicate whether a noun is
concrete
abstract
-age, -ism, -ship, -ity and -ment (suffrage; racism; companionship; astonishment)
-ess, -er, -let and -ant (hostess; commoner; froglet; participant)
Proper nouns don't usually have a plural form; they are not usually used with a determiner and they begin with a capital letter
count nouns have a specific countable reference, whereas noncount nouns name notions or masses (goodness; music). Noncount nouns cannot have a plural and can stand alone in a sentence without a determiner (eg 'Goodness is a virtue to be admired' vs 'Tree is very tall)
concrete nouns are measurable or observable, whereas abstract nouns refer to ideas, emotions and concepts.
Compound nouns
nouns which are built up by combining two or more words into a single unit
common way of coining new words
often tak the form of a single word composed of two nouns put together (football; sunlight; bookcase)
Often, in the case of Proper nouns, compound nouns can remain as two words (Albert Hall; Alton Towers)
phrases made up of nouns linked with the word "and" are also compound nouns (health and safety; art and craft)
DETERMINERS: a cluster of words which precede the noun (phrase) and determine the definiteness, quantity, number or possession
definiteness
the
a
quantity
some
many
every
all
several
most
none
both
possession
my
its
your
few
each
there
number
one
two
first
third
demonstrative
this
that
PREPOSITIONS: a word class that expresses the relationship between two words or two units within a sentence, often between a noun and other elements of the sentence
relationship often relates to space or position (eg on, in, under, beneath, over, behind)
Sometimes the relationship relates to time (at, after) or possession (of)
Some prepositions include more than one word (instead of, due to, because of)
common prepositions
🎉 about
🎉 against
🎉 among
🎉 at
🎉 before
🎉 behind
🎉 between
🎉 down
🎉 except
🎉 from
🎉 in
🎉 near
🎉 of
🎉 outside
🎉 over
🎉 past
🎉 under
🎉 up
🎉 with
🎉 without
most common functions of prepositions...
adverbials
post-modification nouns
by moonlight, we sat on the terrace and dreamed of peace
the man approached with aggressive intent
The man with the bowler hat was first on the train
he could name every rose in the garden
as a complement to an adjective/verb
They were all late for school
She was on the bus
PRONOUN: stands in, or acts as a substitute, for a noun or a noun phrase
the substitution of the noun for a pronoun can make the meaning of a phrase less specific
The man walked slowly into town ==> He walked slowly into town
The wind uprooted the rare blue Californian pine ==> The wind uprooted it
in this example, the phrase could end up as It uprooted it
Types of pronoun
Because of this, pronouns are usually used where the context makes it clear what the pronoun is referring to.
personal
possessive
demonstrative
relative
this
that
these
those
you
he
she
it
we
they
me
us
mine
yours
his
hers
its
ours
my
your
who
whom
whose
which
what
that
VERB: a doing word
ADVERB: modifies a verb (walked quickly) or an adjective (deliciously soft) or a pronoun (almost everyone)
ADJECTIVE: A word which provides additional information about a noun or pronoun; a modifier. It can either precede of follow the noun/pronoun
CONJUNCTIONS: words which join clauses or smaller units of a sentence together.
an adjective can be compared (tall / taller / tallest)
🎉 than
peripheral adjectives
these are adjectives that do not function in the same way; for example 'utter'. You can say utter rubbish, but the rubbish is utter'
nouns can be used in the place of adjectives, for example "wild mushroom risotto" is adjective-noun-noun.
when nouns are used in the place of adjectives, it is important to remember that they cannot be compared and it cannot follow the noun. With the example of 'wild mushroom risotto', you can't have risotto mushroom, or the mushroomest risotto.
Adjectival suffixes
-al - comical; brutal
-ic - phobic; anarchic
- able - comfortable; likeable
-ive - compulsive; attractive
-y - bloody; muddy
Comparison of adjectives
The degrees of comparison is one of the few remaining inflections in English...
you can also compare adjectives without an inflection by preceding the adjective with more or most --> this is called periphrastic comparison
Comparative: being formed by the addition of -er
Superlative: the highest degree of a word formed through the addition of est
Absolute - the base form of an adjective
monosyllabic words almost always use inflection while polysyllabic ten to use periphrastic
big
rich
safe
delicious
bigger
richer
safer
more delicious
biggest
safest
richest
most delicios
because / that / when / if / although
Coordinating conjunctions
FANBOYS
N - NOR
B - BUT
O - OR
Y - YET
S - SO
A - AND
F- FOR
Joins parts of a sentence that a grammatically equal or similar
It shouws that the elements it joins are similar in importance and structure
they always come betweem the words or clauses that they koin
If independent clauses are joined with coordinating conjunctions, it is always correct to place a comma before the conjunction
[Ram likes tea], but [Anthony] likes coffee I like [tea] and [coffee]
If independent clauses are short and well-balanced, a comma is not esential
She is kind she helps people
CONJUNCTS: the conjunct can link clauses within sentences and make links between sentences and are more mobile than conjunctions
firstly
likewise
furthermore
finally
moreover
to conclude
altogether
therefore
consequently
otherwise
in that case
rather
on the other hand
however
incidentally
meanwhile
finite verbs inflect (changes ending) to show person (I walk / she walks), number (he walks / they walk) and tense (you walk, you walked). All finite verb forms can be expressed by looking t the present and past tenses of a verb
non-finite verbs exist in three forms
when there is a string of verbs in a sentence, the first is usually the finite verb (You should have been listening)
Verbs that are always finite:
✅ can/could
✅ shall/should
✅ will/would
✅ might
Imperative verbs are finite verbs: Go awayl Put that down
Imperative verbs are commanding words
the infinitive
the present participle
the past participle
to walk
to dance
to love
walking
dancing
loving
walked
danced
loved
Often adverbs are formed by adding the ending -ly (usually to an adjective)
happily
hungrily
angrily
furiously
romantically
ardently
some more commonly used adverbs...
soon
laater
often
never
once
twice
yesterday
today
tomorrow
nearly
almost
just
only
quite
new suffixes used to create adverbs include
-like
-wise
-style
-ways