01 Parts of speech

01 Parts of speech

Grammar

The Eight Parts of Speech

All European languages are constructed from words which fall into 8 groups, the so-called Parts of Speech.

NOUN

A noun is the name of a person, place or thing.

PRONOUN

A pronoun stands in place of a noun: I, you , he, she, it etc.

ADJECTIVE

An adjective describes or 'qualifies' a noun.

E.g. big, small, yellow, three

Adjectives include the numbers, the colours, tastes, words describing size, shape, ‘quality’ (easy, difficult, good, clean etc). The ‘articles’ ‘the’, ‘a/an’, plus ‘this’, ‘that’, etc., are counted as adjectives.

VERB

A verb is a 'doing' word or a 'being' word. E.g. run, think, stand, ignore, is, becomes.

ADVERB

An adverb describes or 'modifies' a verb. E.g. words ending in '-ly' : slowly, etc

PREPOSITION

A preposition shows the position, either literally or in thought: e.g. in, on, under, about.

CONJUNCTION

A conjunction joins two sentences or parts of sentences: and, but, although, which, that

INTERJECTION

Is a one-off expression, usually of emotion: Hey! Ouch!

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Sometimes the same word can play the role of different parts of speech in different sentences. This is very much the case in English: In the sentence ‘The sparrows love to peck at a coconut’ the word ‘love’ is a verb; but in ‘Love makes the world go round’ it is a noun.

In many languages, many of the parts of speech can be recognised by the form of the word itself: in Esperanto, all nouns end in -o, all adjectives in -a, all adverbs in -e etc. In English, most words ending in -ly are adverbs; In Irish, certain groups of words can be recognised by their endings, but to identify the part of speech confidently, one needs to recognise what part is being played by the word in the sentence.

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In Irish, prepositions and pronouns are often blended to make a single word:

e.g. 'on me' ar + mé –> orm etc.

In Irish & many other languages, sometimes the verb & the pronoun are blended into one word:

cuir + sinn –> cuirimid etc.

Sometimes there are alternatives:

‘I am’ can be Tá mé or táim: ‘They left’ can be D’fhág siad or D’fhágadar.

Sentences, Phrases and Clauses

◇ A sentence is a group of words that makes complete sense.

E.g. Glanmire is about eight kilometers from Cork City Hall.

Pádraig runs frantically to school every morning but he is often late.

In Ireland, people drive their vehicles on the left hand side of the road.

Every sentence must have a Main Verb: in the sentences above they are ‘is’, ‘runs’, ‘drive’.

◇ A phrase is a group of words that does not make complete sense: on the left hand side of the road. A phrase will not have a Main Verb.

◇ A clause is a group of words containing a main verb which is part of a larger sentence but which could have stood alone: Pádraig comes here every week because he likes the company. ‘… He likes the company’ is a dependent clause.

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Whole phrases as Parts of Speech

Sometimes a whole phrase can play the part of a single word:

◇ many noun phrases act as a preposition:

behind is a single-word preposition; in front of is a noun phrase ('front' is a noun) playing an identical role in the sentence: behind the wall; in front of the house.

◇ There are many adverbial phrases in both Irish and English:

Tháinig sé go luath He came early (Simple ‘adverb of time’)

Tháinig sé ar a seacht a chlog He came at seven o’clock (Adverbial phrase of time)

Words acting as more than one Part of Speech

◇ Verbal Nouns

In the sentence ‘Smoking indoors is forbidden’ the word ‘smoking’ is a noun (‘ the name of a person, place or thing’); but the ‘thing’ that is names is the action ‘to smoke’. In this sentence, ‘smoking’ is what is called a Verbal Noun.

◇ Verbal Adjectives

In the sentence ‘the windows are closed’, ‘closed’ describes the noun ‘windows’, and so it is an adjective; but it is describing the action of closing. It is known as a verbal adjective.

Both verbal nouns and verbal adjectives are common in the Irish and the English languages.

Types of Noun

◇ Proper Nouns are personal names, titles, names of cities, countries, rivers etc; and are spelt with a Capital letter: Seán, Doctor, Cork, Liffey. A Proper Noun refers to just one thing or person.

◇ Common Nouns are the names of the things around us, or sets of things: rabbit, swarm, city, child, night. Common nouns do not take a capital letter.

There is a second way to classify nouns:

◇ Concrete Nouns can be seen, heard, smelt, tasted or touched: man, house, storm, smoke, sugar, mile, tax.

◇ Abstract Nouns are recognised in the mind: Truth, beauty, ugliness, happiness, despair, anger, satisfaction, courage.

Abstract nouns include English words ending in -ness and many Irish words ending in -e, -acht or -as: gile whiteness, fuacht coldness, maitheas goodness.

Words for emotions are abstract nouns.

Exercises

In the following sentences, identify as many words as you can with their Part of Speech.

(N.B. the word ‘the’ – ‘the article’ – counts as an adjective).

Glanmire is eight kilometers from Cork City Hall.

Pádraig runs frantically to school every morning but he is often late.

In Ireland, people drive their vehicles on the left hand side of the road.

MT 01 Grammar: Parts of Speech p1 of 2