Parts of speech
In Lesson 1 we explained that all English words can be assigned to one of eight parts of speech based on their grammatical function. We have already covered two parts of speech: nouns (in Lesson 1) and verbs (in Lesson 3). We’re now going to introduce three more parts of speech: adjectives, adverbs and prepositions.
Adjectives
Adjectives are words that modify or describe nouns. They usually appear immediately before the noun that they modify. All the adjectives in the following sentences appear in bold.
| Adjectives |
|---|
| Jack buys a red car. |
| The little old lady walks to the shops. |
| It was a cold, rainy night. |
Adjectives can also be linked to nouns (or noun phrases) using certain verbs.
| sentence (linked adjective in bold) | notes |
|---|
| Jack is hungry. | The adjective “hungry” is linked to the noun “Jack” by the verb “is”. |
| Jill feels tired. | The adjective “tired” is linked to the noun “Jill” by the verb “feels”. |
| The sky seems dark. | The adjective “dark” is linked to the noun phrase “The sky” by the verb “seems”. |
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that modify or describe verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. When an adverb modifies a verb it can appear almost anywhere in a sentence. When it modifies an adjective or another adverb it usually appears just before the word that it modifies.
| Adverbs | Notes |
|---|
| John often walks his dog. | The adverb “often” modifies the verb “walks” |
| John walked his dog yesterday. | The adverb “yesterday” modifies the verb “walks” |
| John walks his very big dog. | The adverb “very” modifies the adjective “big” |
| John walks his dog very quickly. | The adverb “very” modifies the adverb “quickly”, which in turn modifies the verb “walks”. |
Prepositions
Prepositions are primarily used to create prepositional phrases. A prepositional phrase (PP) acts very much like an adjective or adverb, in that it modifies or adds extra information to a noun, verb or adjective. A prepositional phrase generally consists of a preposition followed by a noun phrase, as in the following examples.
| sentence (prepositional phrase in bold) | preposition | noun phrase | element modified by the PP |
|---|
| John walks to the shops. | to | the shops | the verb “walks”. |
| The boy gives an apple to his teacher. | to | his teacher | the verb “gives”. |
| I put the pencils in a box | in | a box | the verb “put”. |
| John works on Tuesdays. | on | Tuesdays | the verb “works”. |
| Jack ran away from Jill. | away from | Jill | the verb “runs”. |
| John is happy with his new car. | with | his new car | the adjective “happy”. |
| Here is the list of ingredients. | of | ingredients | the noun “list”. |
Note that the previous table includes the compound preposition “away from”. Like compound verbs, a compound preposition is a group of two or more words that acts as a preposition. For the sake of brevity we will often use the term preposition to refer to both single-word prepositions and compound prepositions.
The difference between adverbs and prepositions
Adverbs and prepositions serve very similar functions in a sentence. The crucial difference is that prepositions are always part of a prepositional phrase - the preposition has to have an associated noun phrase in order to make sense. Adverbs, in contrast, stand on their own without the noun phrase. Some words can be used as either an adverb or a preposition:
| sentence (adverb or PP in bold) | notes |
|---|
| We ran around. | The adverb “around” stands on its own to modify the verb “ran”. |
| We ran around the block. | The preposition “around” is part of the prepositional phrase “around the block”, which modifies the verb “ran”. |
Many adverbs can combine with a preposition to form a compound preposition.
| sentence (adverb or PP in bold) | notes |
|---|
| Jack ran away. | “away” is an adverb. |
| Jack ran away from Jill. | “away from” is a compound preposition formed from the adverb “away” and the preposition “from”. |
| The scout walked ahead. | “ahead” is an adverb. |
| The scout walked ahead of the group. | “ahead of” is a compound preposition formed from the adverb “ahead” and the preposition “of”. |
