UPM-FBMK/ SEM 1, 2011-2012/PPG/ BBI 2409/ MODULE

GRAMMAR SKILLS

1. PARTS OF SPEECH

Parts of speech are the grammatical groups to which words belong. Knowing a word’s part of speech helps you use that word correctly in sentences. The chart below explains how eight common parts of speech are used to describe English words in the following sentences.

PART / FUNCTION / EXAMPLE
1. Noun / A noun is a word that refers to a person, thing, animal, place, quality, action, or idea.
eg: Sally, Africa, thought, boy / There are many sweets and chocolates at the candy store.
My roommate, Henry, comes from Australia.
2. Adjective / An adjective modifies a noun or phrase.
eg: a, the, her, happy / The talented singer mesmerises the audience.
3. Verb / A verb is a word that expresses an occurrence, act, an action or a state of being .
eg: waits, became / The students study hard for their exams.
4. Adverb / Modifies (tells you more about) verb.
eg: merrily, very, too / They danced gracefully (how) at the ballroom yesterday (when).
5. Conjunction / A conjunction connects words, clauses, or phrases
eg: and, either, or, because, if / He dropped a ball, and it rolled into a hole.
They were tired, but they won the competition.
6. Preposition / Prepositions shows the relationship between noun or verb and another word or phrase
eg: above, to, at / The little girl is standing next to her father.
The box is on the shelf.
7. Article / The words ‘a’, ‘an’ or ‘the’ which precede nouns or adjectives. / John won a prize in an international history competition.
He won the first prize.

The different parts of speech used in sentences

Here are some sentences made with different parts of speech.

Example 1:

noun / verb
Naiman / is working

Example 2:

noun / verb / adjective / noun
Children / love / funny / people

Example 3:

noun / verb / noun / adverb
Sheena / speaks / English / well

Example 4:

noun / verb / adverb / adjective / noun
Silva / speaks / very / good / English

Example 5:

noun / verb / adjectives / noun / conjunction / pronoun / verb / pronoun
Rizal / likes / big / snakes / but / I / hate / them

Parts of Speech from a Dictionary Page

Exercise 1

Look up for the following words in a dictionary. For each word, write the part(s) of speech and the abbreviation(s). Sometimes one word can be used as more than one part of speech.

Word / Parts of Speech / Abbreviation
Schedule / noun or verb / n. or v.
Free
Busy
Concentrate
Slowly
Carefully
Boring
Relax
Routine

Exercise 2

Choose the correct word to complete each sentence below. Use a dictionary if necessary to choose the correct parts of speech.

1.  I do my homework ______ ___. (slow/slowly)

2.  I do not have enough ______time. (free/freedom)

3.  My ______schedule sometimes gives me stress. (busily/busy)

4.  I ______when I read in English. (concentrate/concentration)

5.  I do my homework very ______. (careful/carefully)

6.  Riding on the bus ______me. (bores/boring)

7.  I usually ______on the weekends. (relax/relaxing)

8.  My daily ______rarely changes. (routine/routinely)

9.  She is a ______person (smartness/smart). She organizes her time ______. (wisely/wise)

10.  The government ______food and clothing to people of the neighbourhood after the hurricane destroyed their homes. (distributing/distributed)

Exercise 3

Complete the table below with the correct word form.

Verb / Noun / Adjective
inform / information / informative
depend
political
nation
organize
suggestion
communicative
carelessness

Exercise 4

Choose the best word form from the table above to complete each sentence. When you use a verb, use the correct tense and make the verb agree with its subject.

1.  I have learnt a lot from the ______skills class. I can now ______better with the people around me.

2.  She is a very ______person. Therefore, she has been hired to work with the ______.

3.  Malaysia is a ______of diverse cultures and races. The ______anthem is a symbol of unity in Malaysia.

4.  There is a lot of good ______about learning English on the Web. Our college, for example, has a very ______Web site.

5.  She ______that they start their trip after the rain. Her ______was well accepted by everyone.

Exercise 5

For each underlined word in the following sentences, identify and then write the part of speech on the line next to the number. Each part of speech is used at least once.

1. ______They attended the concert last weekend.

2. ______Several cats ran into Rob’s garage.

3. ______The truck driver delivered the packages quickly.

4. ______Fast runners won all the awards at the competition.

5. ______My friends and I walked home after school.

6. ______I wanted a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch yesterday.

7. ______She was counting the ballots during social studies class.

8. ______Hey! That is my seat.

9. ______Will they finish the test on time?

10. ______The diagram was pretty complicated for us.