Words Types
English V
Objectives in this lesson
• How to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns.
• How to use nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns.
WORD TYPES
She buys a
red rose.
Word types
Words belong to different groups or word types. The main word types are:
nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and connectives.
Each type of word has a different role in a sentence. Look at the following sentence:
The young child quickly followed his parents into the room and then he sat down.
The nouns are child, parents, room.
• Nouns are names for things. Child is the subject of the sentence and tells us who carried out
the action. Parents are the object and tell us who the child followed.
The verbs are followed and sat.
• Verbs are doing words. Followed and sat tell us what the child did. They can also be used for
actions of the mind – e.g. think, believe, remember.
The adjective is young.
• Adjectives describe nouns. Young tell us something about the child.
The adverbs are quickly and then.
• Adverbs describe the way the verb is carried out. Quickly tells us how the child followed.
Then tells us when he sat down. Adverbs can tell us how, when, how much something is done.
The pronouns are his and he.
• Pronouns are used to avoid repeating a noun. His and he are an alternative to repeating ‘the
child’s’ and ‘the child’. Other pronouns include: it, she, her, they, them, we, us, that, this.
The connective is and.
• Connectives are used to join two ideas. Here and tells us that the boy did another thing.
Other connectives include: but, or, so, although, therefore.
Verbs are ‘doing’ words
Nouns and verbs
Nouns are naming words.
They tell you who is doing it.
man woman
cooking
The man is learning to cook.
The woman is teaching him.
What are verbs?
Verbs tell us what people (or things) are doing or being. They can change according to the time
being spoken about: past, present or future:
For example:
Sam finished his homework in the library.
In this sentence ‘finished’ is the verb (it says what Sam did with his homework in the past).
What are verbs?
Two verbs are sometimes put together, especially with verbs like can, must, should.
I can see the sea from my house.
You really must see the new Bond film.
We can also use more than one word to form a tense:
We have been driving for hours.
What is a noun?
A noun is a person, a place, a thing, an idea or a concept. For example:
• Person: the postman, a teacher, Tom, a neighbour.
• Place: a village, England, Edinburgh, a street, a park.
• Thing: a box, a banana, a computer.
• Idea or concept: beauty, information, importance.
What is a noun?
The subject of a sentence is always a noun:
The park is near my house. (‘Park’ goes with the verb ‘is’.)
The object of the sentence is also a noun:
I like chocolate. (‘Chocolate’ is not doing the liking, it is liked.)
What is a noun?
Nouns can be singular (there is one thing):
My desk is near the window.
Or they can be plural (there is more than one thing):
There are not enough desks in the office.
Plurals usually end in ‘s’ but are sometimes irregular:
man - men
person - people
child - children.
Adjectives
Adjectives are describing words - they tell you more about nouns.
Nouns are ‘naming’ words - they are used to name a person, place or thing.
Adjectives tell you more about the noun. Using adjectives makes your sentences more
interesting.
For example: The pretty girls laughed.
In this sentence:
‘girls’ is the noun (it says who’s laughing).
‘pretty’ is the adjective (it says more about the noun).
Adjectives
Remember that adjectives usually come before the noun.
You can use more than one adjective if you need to.
e.g. Joe loved driving his parents’ expensive, new car home along the beautiful, long, winding
coast road.
Increase the range of adjectives you use to make your writing more interesting. For example:
‘nice’ can be replaced by friendly, tasty, sunny, interesting, pretty, comfortable etc., depending
on what you are describing.
What are adverbs?
Adverbs are words that tell us more about verbs - they add information to the verb.
Using adverbs makes your sentences more interesting. Any verb you use can have an adverb
added:
The girl smiled nervously.
The pony grinned sheepishly.
The light shone feebly.
What are adverbs?
We use adverbs:
• To say how something happens:
The family walk (how?) quickly.
• To say where or when something happens:
I met him (when?) yesterday.
• To say how often something happens:
She gets the bus (how often?) daily.
What are adverbs?
Adverbs are often created from adjectives (describing words that tell you more about nouns) by
adding -ly to the end of the adjective: For example:
slow becomes slowly: Joe is a slow person. He walks slowly.
Certain words change when they become adverbs. If an adjective ends in a ‘y’ you need to
change the ‘y’ to an ‘i’ before adding ‘-ly’. For example:
happy becomes happily
heavy becomes heavily
Placing adverbs
There are three places in a sentence where adverbs can go:
At the beginning of a sentence or clause:
Suddenly I had earache.
Recently I had earache.
In the middle of a sentence:
I suddenly had earache.
I recently had earache.
At the end of a sentence or clause:
I had earache suddenly.
I had earache recently. But it’s fine now.
What are pronouns?
A pronoun is a word that can be used in place of a noun.
A personal pronoun is used in place of a noun that is a person or a thing.
Personal pronouns for
people = I, you, he, she, we, they me, you, him, her, us, them
Personal pronouns for
things = it, they, them
Put the words that are underlined into the correct column:
Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Pronoun
Put the words that are underlined into the correct column:
Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Pronoun
Family Comes Bright Clearly He
Builders Left Tempting Well That
School Expected Better A little Him
University Surprised Small Shyly
Pressure Got Growing
Work Thought Lucky
Money Challenge
members Leave
Admits
Earn
