PARTS OF SPEECH AND WORD CLASSES

OLD-FASHIONED
LATIN GRAMMAR
• Never split an infinitive.
• Never end a sentence with a
preposition.

If these rules were followed, we

wouldn’t have phrases like ‘to
boldly go’ and sentences like ‘I have
nobody to go with’.
TRADITIONAL PARTS OF SPEECH
1. Noun: naming word (a chance)
2. Pronoun: noun substitute (their last chance)
3. Verb: doing or being word (they lost the chance)
4. Adjective: describes nouns or pronouns (fat chance)
5. Adverb: describes adjectives, verbs, or other adverbs (a very slim chance; she
danced divinely)
6. Article: specifies definiteness or indefiniteness of a noun (the dance; a good
chance)
7. Conjunction: joining word (a slim chance and a very slim chance)
8. Preposition: word that positions (at the dance)
9. Interjection: conveys emotion or sentiment (Wow! What a dance!)

TRADITIONAL PARTS OF SPEECH

However, the good goblin apparently

conjunction article adjective noun adverb

noticed
verb
me
pronoun
in
preposition
the
article
crowd.
noun
Gosh!
interjection
 WORDS AS
MULTIPLE PARTS
OF SPEECH
That’s such a happy face.
In this sentence, ‘face’ is a noun.

I can’t face that mountain of work.

But in this sentence, ‘face’ is
the verb.

TWO CLASSES OF WORDS

Form-class words
• Also called open or lexical words
• Comprise the central subject matter in dictionaries

Structure-class words
• Also called closed, grammatical, or function words
• Contribute grammatical-structural meaning to the text
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