Word classes

Modern grammars normally recognize four major word classes (verb, noun,
adjective, and adverb) and five other word classes (determiners, preposition,
pronoun, conjunction, interjection), making nine word classes (or parts of
speech) in total. But note that some grammarians use different systems and
may recognize eight or ten different word classes.

Verbs
Verbs are action or state words like: run, work, study, be, seem

Nouns
Nouns are words for people, places or things like: mother, town, Rome, car,
dog

Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe nouns, like: kind, clever, expensive

Adverbs
Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs,
like: quickly, back, ever, badly, away generally, completely

Prepositions
Prepositions are words usually in front of a noun or pronoun and expressing a
relation to another word or element, like: after, down, near, of, plus, round, to

Pronouns
Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns, like: me, you, his, it, this,
that, mine, yours, who, what

Interjections

Interjections are words or phrase used to express a feeling or to request or

demand something

Eg: ah, hey, oh, ouch, um, well

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are parts of speech that connect words, phrases, clauses, or

sentences. There are three kinds of conjunctions: coordinating, correlative,
and subordinating

Determiners are words such as the, my, this, some, twenty, each, any, which are used
before nouns. Determiners include the following common types:
Articles: a, an, the
Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
Possessives: my, your, his, her, etc.
Quantifiers: (a) few, some, many, etc.
Numbers: one, two, three, etc.
Nouns and pronouns
Nouns are by far the largest category of words in English. They signify all kinds of
physical things both living and inanimate. They also signify imagined things like ‘a
ghost’; and ideas or concepts, such as ‘love’, ‘guilt’ or ‘fate’.

They are divided into three main groups:

 concrete nouns
 abstract nouns
 proper nouns

Concrete nouns are physical things that can be seen, touched, heard, etc

eg:

 table
 football
 candle
 car
 building
 phone
Examples in full sentences:

The football lay discarded on the pitch.

The candle glowed in the darkness.

The crowd cheered in excitement.

Abstract nouns are nonphysical ideas that cannot be perceived through the
senses,

eg:

 love
 hope
 intelligence
 hate
 courage
Examples in full sentences:

There was hope in his eyes as he looked up.

Intelligence can be measured in several ways.

He was full of courage as he walked towards the battlefield.

Love is all around but hate hides in the shadows.

Proper nouns are types of nouns that refers to a specific person, place, or
thing by its name. Proper noun examples include

Example in a sentence:

Ryan had never been to London before that Saturday.

Common noun Proper noun

girl Jessica

river the River Taff

country Egypt

boy Alex

waterfall Niagara Falls

ocean Atlantic Ocean

Pronouns
Pronouns take the place of proper nouns in a sentence.

 I
 he
 she
 it
Examples:

Sarah was tired. = She was tired.

Dev bought a new bike. = He bought a new bike.

The coffee was expensive. = It was expensive.

Adjectives

An adjective is a describing word that adds qualities to a noun or pronoun. An

adjective normally comes before a noun, eg:

 The greedy man counted each shiny coin in his money pile; he rubbed
his grubby hands excitedly.
An adjective can also come after a noun or pronoun:

 He was extremely greedy.

 My mother seemed to be uncertain.
Adjective phrases are describing phrases. For example:

 The exceedingly tasty pie sat on the table.

 The incredibly high price of tickets put her off the festival.
 She was intelligent but extremely arrogant.
Verbs

A verb lies at the heart of a sentence. It describes the action or state of the subject.
It is the ‘doing’ or ‘being’ part of the sentence.

 Abigail ran through the field.

 Jane tore off the wrapping paper.
Some verbs can also link extra information about their subject to an adjective:

 The cake was delicious.

 Noah appeared unwell.

Connectives
You can join sentences, clauses and phrases together using connectives, or joining
words. Some common connectives include ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘so’ and ‘then’. Using
these can make your writing flow.

Examples:

 He was seventeen years old. He lived in Edinburgh. = He was seventeen years

old and he lived in Edinburgh.
 She was cold. She didn’t put her jacket on. = She was cold but she didn’t put her
jacket on.
Be adventurous with connectives and aim to use some of the following:

 whilst
 beforehand
 afterwards
 firstly
 finally
 although
 moreover
 since
 despite
 consequently
 because
 instead
 when
 nevertheless
 furthermore

Sentences
A sentence:

 is basically built from a subject and a verb

 contains at least one main idea
 sounds complete
 starts with a capital letter
 ends with a full stop or equivalent

Subjects and verbs

In a sentence, the verb describes the main action or state of the subject. Different
types of verbs have different functions:

 to show action, eg run, play, skip, discuss

 to show state, eg think, consider, wish
 to help out the main verb (auxiliary verbs), eg do, have, is
 to show likelihood or possibility (modal verbs), eg might, could, would, should
Verbs also show the time frame of the action (past, present, future):

 past, eg the game finished at 4 o’clock

 present, eg he runs to work or he is eating his breakfast
 future, eg the Johnsons will celebrate Christmas in style
In most sentences, the verb comes after its subject. The subject is usually a noun (a
person, place or thing), for example:

 he ran
 their pet Siamese cat mewed
 the day was long

SIMPLE COMPLEX COMPUND SENTENCES

Words and phrases

A sentence is built up from words. Sometimes words are grouped together in
phrases.

A phrase acts as a single unit of meaning – for example ‘their pet Siamese cat’,
‘the fast-paced Hollywood film’.

A phrase can be replaced by a single word, eg the phrase ‘pet Siamese cat’ would
be replaced by the single word ‘cat’ and still have the same basic meaning. We use
phrases to add more detail to our writing.

Rules to follow

For a sentence to be complete, there are certain rules that you can use as a guide.

Capital letters and full stops

Ensure that every sentence starts with a capital letter and ends with a full stop. If a
sentence expresses surprise or shock, you can end it with an exclamation mark.
Interrogative sentences that ask questions, should finish with a question mark.
Tense
Verbs are the active part of the sentence. They can also show time scale, letting the
reader know whether something is meant to take place in the past, present or
future. This is known as the ‘tense’ of a verb. For example:

Present tense – something that is happening now:

 The fire burns brightly.

 The car runs well.
 The mobile phone is ringing.
 The girl is dancing.
Past tense – something that has already happened:

 The fire burned and billowed clouds of smoke.

 She wrote in the book before she left the house.
 After his exams had finished, Stan rushed out of school, shouting ‘Freedom!’
Future tense – something that hasn’t happened yet:

 The fire will burn well, once lit.

 The car will run well when it has been fixed.
 The exam starts next Wednesday.
 The exam season is starting next month.
Using tenses in your writing

If you are writing a story, the past tense can be easier to manage. It allows you to
refer to events and add detailed descriptions, whereas present tense requires much
more skill.

Example:

The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room, and the speaker’s
square forefinger emphasised his observations by underscoring every sentence
with a line on the schoolmaster’s sleeve. The emphasis was helped by the
speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his eyebrows for its base, while his
eyes found commodious cellarage in two dark caves, overshadowed by the wall.
The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard
set. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s voice, which was inflexible, dry,
and dictatorial.

Hard Times, Charles Dickens

Novelists such as Suzanne Collins use present tense to create fast-paced and lively
narratives. For example, her novel The Hunger Games is written entirely in the
present tense:

When I wake up, the other side of the bed is cold. My fingers stretch out, seeking
Prim's warmth but finding only the rough canvas cover of the mattress. She must
have had bad dreams and climbed in with our mother. Of course, she did. This is
the day of the reaping.

The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins

For short pieces of descriptive writing, present tense can be a good choice. You
can draw the reader into an experience. For example:

The morning is still cold and dark when we walk out to the vehicle. It’s Central
Australia’s way of telling us we shouldn’t be outside yet. But Nigel’s pick-up
splutters to life and the headlight beams reveal that the outback bushland is still
there, spinifex grass being tousled by the pre-dawn wind. He begins driving, and
within ten minutes we’ve parked up at the foot of Kings Canyon.

An Alternative to Uluru, Ben Lerwill

Common mistakes

Aim to be clear and precise in your writing and avoid writing in the way
you would speak to friends. If possible, read your work aloud to check
for sense, tense and appropriate tone.

Common mistake Put it right

They was good friends They were good friends

Common mistake Put it right

Should of/could of/would of/ Should have/could have/would have/

might of might have

Gonna/woulda/coulda Going to/would’ve/could’ve

And I said to him no way José! I said to him, “No way, José!”

Question
How does the text need to change in this example to make the
grammar and spelling appropriate for a written piece?
I knew it were gonna be sunny that day. The clouds might of been
on holiday themselves as it was so hot. And the beach is so
crowded. So I buy alot of ice cream and sit down on the pebbles.

ANSWER
I knew it was going to be sunny that day. The clouds might have
been on holiday themselves as it was so hot and the beach was so
crowded. I bought a lot of ice cream and sat down on the pebbles.

What are Connotation and Denotation?

Connotation and denotation are two ways of looking at the same word.
The denotation of a word refers to the dictionary definition of its
meaning. The connotation of a word refers to the emotion or feeling
that is evoked by a word and accompanies its literal meaning.
Denotation Definition
What is the denotation of a word? The term denotation comes from the
Latin denotationem, meaning to note or make a note. Its contemporary
definition is the literal meaning of a word as one would find in
a dictionary.

Denotation Examples
While many words have multiple meanings, the following use the
primary dictionary definition for each word:

 Example 1: Quirk (n.) a peculiar trait

 Example 2: Oddity (n.) an odd person, thing, event, or trait
 Example 3: Dwelling (n.) a shelter (such as a house) in which
people live
 Example 4: Home (n.) one's place of residence
Connotation Definition
The term connotation comes from the Latin connotationem, meaning to
"signify in addition to the main meaning." Simply, the connotation of a
word is an underlying emotion or a feeling associated with that word
that is not noted in the literal definition of the term. The usage of the
word shapes its connotation.