Noun

A noun is a naming word. It names a person, place, thing, idea, living creature, quality, or action.
Examples: cowboy, theater, box, thought, tree, kindness, arrival

Countable Nouns

Countable nouns are easy to recognize. They are things that we can count. For example: “pen”. We can count pens. We can have one, two, three or more pens. Here are some more countable nouns:

dog, cat, animal, man, person
bottle, box, litre
coin, note, dollar
cup, plate, fork
table, chair, suitcase, bag.

Countable nouns can be singular or plural:

My dog is playing.
My dogs are hungry.

Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns are substances, concepts etc that we cannot divide into separate elements. We cannot “count” them. For example, we cannot count “milk”. We can count “bottles of milk” or “litres of milk”, but we cannot count “milk” itself. Here are some more uncountable nouns:

music, art, love, happiness
advice, information, news
furniture, luggage
rice, sugar, butter, water
electricity, gas, power
money, currency

We usually treat uncountable nouns as singular. We use a singular verb. For example:

This news is very important.
Your luggage looks heavy.

Pronouns

Pronouns are small words that take the place of a noun. We can use a pronoun instead of a noun. Pronouns are words like: he, you, ours, themselves, some, each… If we didn’t have pronouns, we would have to repeat a lot of nouns. We would have to say things like.

Examples:
I, he, it, we, them, us, mine, itself.

Example sentences:
He doesn’t want go with them.
Would they help us?
His house is bigger than ours.
Who is she?

Subject pronouns are used when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence. You can remember subject pronouns easily by filling in the blank subject space for a simple sentence.
	Example:	______ did the job. I, you, he, she, it, we, and they all fit into the blank and are, therefore, subject pronouns.

 Verbs

Verbs carry the idea of being or action in the sentence. The verb is perhaps the most important part of the sentence. A verb or compound verb asserts something about the subject of the sentence and express actions, events, or states of being. The verb or compound verb is the critical element of the predicate of a sentence.

Examples:
Go, jump, sleep, eat, think, be, change, become, drive, complete.

Example sentences:

We had a nice lunch.
I think that he is right.
He drove for hours.

The word “verb” comes for the Latin word verbum, which means “word.”

The adverbs

Adverbs tell us in what way someone does something. Adverbs can modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs.
Adjectives tell us something about a person or a thing. Adjectives can modify nouns or pronouns.

Adjective Adverb

Mandy is a careful girl. Mandy drives carefully.
Mandy is very careful.
Mandy is a careful driver. This sentence is about Mandy, the driver, so use the adjective.

Mandy drives carefully. This sentence is about her way of driving, so use the adverb.

There is no adverb for an andjective ending in -ly.

Types of adverbs

1) Adverbs of manner
quickly
kindly

2) Adverbs of degree
very
rather

3) Adverbs of frequency
often
sometimes

4) Adverbs of time
now
today

5) Adverbs of place
here
nowhere

Adjectives

An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. (By “noun” we include pronouns and noun phrases.)

An adjective “qualifies” or “modifies” a noun (a big dog).

Adjectives can be used before a noun (I like Chinese food) or after certain verbs (It is hard).

We can often use two or more adjectives together (a beautiful young French lady).

Example sentences:

• the tall professor
• the lugubrious lieutenant
• a solid commitment
• a month’s pay
• a six-year-old child
• the unhappiest, richest man

 Preposition

A preposition is a word which is used before a noun to show its connection to another word in the sentence.

Example

The words above, after, against, as, at, beneath, between, behind, by, during, except, for from, in, into, like, near, on, over, past, since, under, upon, and with are prepositions.

Example sentences:

I sat on the floor.
Let’s go into the house.
We will meet at four o’clock.
Have a look under the couch.
He went to school.
This letter is for you.

The word “preposition” comes from the Latin word praeponere (put before). So prepositions usually come before the noun/pronoun.

English Preposition Rule

There is one very simple rule about prepositions. And, unlike most rules, this rule has no exceptions.

Rule
A preposition is followed by a “noun”. It is never followed by a verb.

By “noun” we include:

• noun (dog, money, love)
• proper noun (name) (Bangkok, Mary)
• pronoun (you, him, us)
• noun group (my first job)
• gerund (swimming)

A preposition cannot be followed by a verb. If we want to follow a preposition by a verb, we must use the “-ing” form which is really a gerund or verb in noun form.

Quick Quiz: In the following sentences, why is “to” followed by a verb? That should be impossible, according to the above rule:

• I would like to go now.
• She used to smoke.

Here are some examples:

Subject + verb	preposition	“noun”
The food is	on	the table.
She lives	in	Japan.
Tara is looking	for	you.
The letter is	under	your blue book.
Pascal is used	to	English people.
She isn’t used	to	working.
I ate	before	coming.

Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that joins other words, phrases, clauses or sentences.

Example

For
And
Not
But
Or
Yet

Example sentences:
I want to come, but I can’t.
She is smart and beautiful.
Would you like a cat or a dog?
He didn’t pass the test because he didn’t understand the subject.
We were hungry, so we ordered pizza.

Articles

The three articles — a, an, the — are a kind of adjective. The is called the definite article because it usually precedes a specific or previously mentioned noun; a and an are called indefinite articles because they are used to refer to something in a less specific manner (an unspecified count noun). These words are also listed among the noun markers or determiners because they are almost invariably followed by a noun (or something else acting as a noun).

 Interjection

 An interjection is a word that expresses emotion as an interruption or an aside. An interjection often starts a sentence but it can be contained within the sentence or can stand alone.

Examples
Oh! Look out! Ow! Hey! Wow! Ah! Um…

Example sentences:

Wow, that’s amazing!
Ah, that was a good meal.
Um… I’m not sure what to say.
Oh dear! What happened?
Hello! How are you doing?
Well, that’s an option too.