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Word classes - Coggle Diagram
Word classes
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Nouns
Nouns are by far the largest category of words in English. They signify all kinds of physical things both living and inanimate; they also signify imagined things like ‘a ghost’; and ideas or concepts, such as ‘love’, ‘guilt’ or ‘fate’.
Concrete and abstract nouns
Concrete nouns signify things, either in the real or imagined world. It’s usually possible to detect a concrete noun with one of the five senses. Abstract nouns refer to concepts and so cannot be perceived, except as an idea.
Proper nouns
Some common nouns are made individual and special by being given a name. These are called proper or naming nouns. They are shown by being given an initial capital letter. People’s names, street addresses, cities, and book titles are all proper nouns, for example:
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Adjectives
An adjective is a describing word or phrase that adds qualities to a noun. It normally comes before a noun, or after verbs like ‘am’, ‘is’, ‘was’, ‘appears’ or ‘seems’. For example:
The greedy man counted each shiny coin in his money pile; he rubbed his grubby hands excitedly. He was extremely greedy.
Adverb
Adverbs give extra detail about many other words apart from nouns. They can add detail to a verb, to an adjective or even to a whole sentence; and, like adjectives, they can be single words or phrases. This makes them a very useful but quite a difficult category to spot. Commonly, an adverb labels how, when or where something happens (and they often end in ‘–ly’):
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Verb
A verb lies at the heart of a sentence. It describes the action or state of the subject; that is, it is the ‘doing’ or ‘being’ part of the sentence. Verbs are used to signify a physical or mental action:
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