PARTS OF SPEECH, COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

 

PARK COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH

 

HS8151      COMMUNICATIVE ENGLISH

LEARNING MATERIAL

 

1. PARTS OF SPEECH

2. COUNTABLE AND UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS

 

 

Parts of speech (introduction)
              All words in English language are classified into eight different groups called the parts of speech.

Parts of speech are the building blocks of English language.

Each part of speech plays a different role in a sentence.

Words are classified according to their parts of speech- that is the part they play in a sentence.

 

What are the parts of speech?

•       There are eight parts of speech.

•       They are:

•       1. Noun

•       2. pronoun

•       3. verb

•       4. adjective

•       5. adverb

•       6. preposition

•       7. conjunction

•       8. Interjection

 

1. Noun

•       A noun is a naming word

•       A noun is a word that names a person, a place, a thing, or an idea.

•       Examples:

•       Person: student, girl, teacher, principal…

•       Place: house, ground, land, swimming pool …

•       Thing: pen, paper, book. Knife, computer,…

•       Idea: cooperation, honesty, love, friendship,…

 

Common and proper nouns

•       Common noun refers to one or all the members of a class of people, place, things etc.

•       A proper noun is the name given to an individual person, place, building, road, etc.

 

•       Common noun                  proper noun

•       Boy                                        Suria Mahalakshmi

•       Teacher                                   C.Govindaswamy

•       City                                        Coimbatore

•       Building                                Taj  Mahal

•       Book                                      Oxford English Dictionary

 

•       Proper nouns always begin with a capital letter. If such nouns have more than one word, all the words begin with a capital letter

•       Examples:

New Delhi, Sri Lanka

 

Countable nouns

•       What are countable nouns?

•       Some nouns can be counted. They are countable nouns.

•       an apple, a cat, an orange, a mouse

•       A dozen apples. five cats, seven oranges, two mice

•       Countable  nouns have two forms:

•       1. singular( one)

•       2. plural( more than one)

•       Singular countable nouns            plural countable nouns

•       Boy                                                        boys

•       Speaker                                                 speakers

•       Book                                                      books

•       Aero plane                                          aero planes

 

•       We use a/an or one before singular nouns: a chain, one hand

•       We use numbers such as two, three etc. or some, many, a few etc. before plural nouns

•       Two chains, three hands, many birds, a few apples.

 

Common error

•       In English, it is a must to use a or an with singular countable nouns .However, some people do not use them . It is wrong

•       Don’t use singular countable nouns alone, without an articles

•       Examples:

•       I saw rabbit in the park( wrong)

•       I saw a rabbit in the park( right)

•       She gave me idea( wrong)

•       She gave me an idea( right)

•       Give it to cat ( wrong)

•       Give it to the cat ( right)

•       Anitha is doctor ( wrong)

•       Anitha is a doctor ( right)

 

Uncountable nouns

•       What are uncountable nouns?

•       Some nouns cannot be counted.

•       They are uncountable nouns.

•       Nouns that describe liquids, gases. Materials, and abstract qualities are uncountable:

•       Examples:

•       Air, beauty, darkness,  iron, nature, sand, water An uncountable noun has only one form, not a separate singular and plural.

•       Uncountable nouns do not take a or an before them.

•      We cannot use numbers with uncountable nouns.(We cannot add one, two, three a few etc. to them)

•       Example: water ( not a water, two waters)

•       The light went out and the house plunged into a darkness ( wrong)

•       The light went out and the house plunged into darkness ( right)

 

What are the common uncountable nouns?

•       Some nouns cannot be counted.

•       They are uncountable nouns

•       They usually belong to the following categories:

•       1. activities: advice, aid, help, sleep, travel, work( Note: travel is uncountable, journey is countable)

•       I like travel. Did you have a good journey

•       2. abstract terms: beauty, freedom, knowledge, life, news, success, death, fear,

•       3. concepts: communism, cooperation

•       4. human qualities: courage, cruelty, dedication, devotion, honesty, patience

•       5. feelings: anger, hope, love, pride, respect

•       6. substances: luggage, equipment, bread, coal, hair, perfume furniture, baggage

 

 

 

 

 

How can we use uncountable nouns in a countable sense?

 

•       Uncountable                     countable

•       Advice                                  a piece of advice

•       Baggage                               a piece/ item  of luggage

•       Cheese                                 a piece of cheese

•       Furniture                              a piece of furniture

•       Information                         a piece of information

•       News                                    a piece of news

•       Courage                               a bit of courage

•       Grass                                     a blade of grass

•       Hair                                        a strand of hair

•       Coal                                       a lump of coal

•       Paper                                    a piece/ sheet of paper

•       Hope                                     a ray of hope

•       Bread                                    a loaf of bread

•       Sugar                                     a spoonful of sugar

•       Rice                                        a grain/bowl/sack of rice

•       Water                                   a glass/ bottle/ drop of water

•       Tea/ coffee                            a cup of tea/ coffee

•       Work                                     a piece of work

 

2. Pro noun (instead of a noun)

•       A pronoun is a word used in the place of a noun or another pronoun

•       A pronoun is used to avoid the repetition of a noun.

•       Examples:

•       Ramu is a boy. He is tall

•       Sita is a girl. She is short.

•       Look at the monkey. It has a long tail

•       Look at those boys. They are playing

•       He, she it, they, we, I, you, are a few personal pronouns

 

3. Verb (action word) or doing word

•       A verb is a word that expresses an action or a state of being.

•       The forms of the verb usually change to show the time of the action.

•       Examples:

•       Go, come, bring, look, sit,

•        is, was, were do, does, did( state of being)

 

 

4. Adjective (describing word)

•       An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun

•       Examples:

•       Good boy

•       Tall girl

•       Intelligent boy

•       Wise girl

•       Golden apples

•       Unbelievable story

•       Old cloths

 

•       Adjective tells which one, how many, what kind, or how much

•       Often it comes before the noun it modifies

•      The most widely used of all adjectives are the words A, an, and the

•      These adjectives are called articles

 

5. Adverb

•       An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or an another adverb

•       It tells where, when, how, or to what extent

•       Modifying verbs: works slowly,( how) runs there,( where) gently hugged(how)

•       Modifying adjectives: very little,( to what extent) extremely hot, totally innocent

•       Modifying adverbs: so clearly, too easily

•       Many adverbs are formed by adding –ly to an adjective.

•       Happy- happily  strong- strongly

•       Please note:

•       Some words ending in –ly are adjectives, and not normally adverbs.

•       Common  examples: costly, cowardly, deadly, friendly, likely, lonely, lovely, ugly, unlikely

 

6. Preposition

•       Prepositions are mostly little words.

•       A preposition is a word that shows the relationship of its object to some other word in the sentence .Many prepositions show direction, position or relation in time

•       Examples: At, during, between, from, after, to into

 

7. Conjunction (connecting word)

•       Conjunctions are joining words

•       A conjunction is a word that connects words or groups of words.

•       Examples:

•       And, or, but, yet, because, although

 

8. Interjection

•       An interjection is a word or groups of words that shows string  or sudden emotion such as anger, fear, joy or surprise.

•       If an interjection expresses strong emotion, it is puncuated with an exclamation mark (!)

•       An interjection that expresses only mild emotion is punctuated by a comma(,)

•       Examples:

•       Help! I’m falling ( a strong emotion)

•       Oh, you have come back.( mild emotion)

•       Common interjections:

Oh, ah, alas, gee, gosh, oops, well, wow, help, hooray, hey, yeah, Look out!

 

Part of speech at a glance

•       Oh! Arun and I often saw strange lights over the play field.

•       Oh!                        Interjection

•       Arun                      Proper noun

•       and                        conjunction

•       I                              pronoun

•       often                     adverb

•       saw                        verb ( past)

•       strange                 adjective

•       lights                     noun

•       over                       preposition

•       the                         adjective( article

•       playfield               noun