Word Classes - Grammar

Question 1

Verbs and Adverbs

Answer 1

> MAIN VERB - verb in a sentence that expresses the main meaning
AUXILIARY VERB - verbs that are placed in front of the main verb (helping verbs)
For example in this sentence:
“ I must have been thinking about something else”
“thinking” is the main verb as it is the main action
“must have been” are all auxiliary verbs as they are in front of the main verb - Am, is, are, was and were, being, been, and be, Have, has, had, do, does, did
MODAL AUXILIARY VERB - only ever used in conjunction with main verb - All modal auxiliaries are: can, will, shall, may, must, could, would, should, might
PRIMARY VERB - only three primary verbs: be, have and do.

Question 2

Nouns and Adjectives

Answer 2

NOUNS:
PROPER NOUNS - usually begin with capital letter - refer to specific people or places e.g. Paris, Andrew etc.
COMMON NOUNS - refer to types of people, places and feeling, they are less specific e.g. city, man, excitement - can be subdivided into:
CONCRETE NOUNS - refer to things that exist physically e.g. computer, hand, tiger
ABSTRACT NOUNS - things that do not exist physically and we cannot touch physically e.g. feelings, ideas, friendships
COLLECTIVE NOUNS - refer to groups of people, animals or objects e.g. team, family, flock
ADJECTIVES:
ADJECTIVES - describing words used to describe nouns e.g. a “beautiful” day, a “strange” feeling
COMPARATIVES - adjectives used to make comparisons e.g. a “hotter” day, a “bigger” town - normally ends in “er”
SUPERLATIVES - adjectives used to make comparisons to largest ting e.g. the “hottest” day, the “biggest” town in the area - ends in “est”

Question 3

Pronouns

Answer 3

PRONOUNS:
PERSONAL PRONOUNS - replace object or subject of the sentence e.g. I and he replacing subject, me and him replace to the object
POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS - show possession e.g. this is “hers”, this is “mine”
REFLEXIVE PRONOUNS - indicate the object of a verb is the same as the subject e.g. “he congratulated himself” - usually end “self” or “selves”
INDEFINITE PRONOUNS - do not refer to specific persons or things e.g. someone, anything, no one
RELATIVE PRONOUNS - act as a linking word in a sentence - they refer to nouns and are placed right after the noun they refer to e.g. a city that has many tourist attractions

Question 4

Conjunctions

Answer 4

CONJUNCTIONS - “joining words” - join different parts of a sentence together e.g.
CO-ORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS - include words “and” “but” “or” - used when parts of the sentence are to be joined e.g. I went to the party and met Tony there
SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS - connect a subordinate clause to a main clause e.g. because, although, unless, until

Question 5

Prepositions

Answer 5

PREPOSITIONS - usually indicate how one thing is related to something else
e.g. relating to position (at, on, opposite), relating to direction (into, past, to), and relating to time (before, during, after)
preposition shows the relationship between the nouns that comes after it and something else e.g. I spoke to the man “at” the reception desk

Question 6

Determiners

Answer 6

DETERMINERS - precede nouns (come before) and refer directly to noun
DEFINITE ARTICLE - “the”
INDEFINITE ARTICLE - “a” “an”
POSSESSIVE DETERMINERS - (my, our, your, his, her, its, their)
DEMONSTRATIVE DETERMINERS - (this, that, those, these)