In grammar there are eight parts of speech which break down into four major parts and four minor parts. A part of speech is a category assigned to a word or a phrase. The four main parts of speech are noun, adjective, adverb and verb. In English, a word can be more than one part of speech depending on how it is used.

A noun is a word that is used to name a person (Nicolas), place (Guatemala), thing (television), quality (beauty), action (flight,) or idea (mercy). There are several different kinds of nouns including proper nouns, common nouns and abstract nouns. Proper nouns are used to name specific people, places or things and are capitalized. Dawn Williams, Dawson City and Golden Gate Bridge are all examples of proper nouns. Common nouns refer to all nouns that are not proper and they are not capitalized. Abstract nouns name ideas, qualities and other intangibles. Some of these include words such as fear, happiness and honesty.

Adjectives are words that describe, modify or qualify a noun or a pronoun. An adjective tells us how many, what kind, or which one. In the following sentences, the italicized words are examples of adjectives.

“Jordan gave his mother the silver bracelet for her birthday.” (What kind?)

“There were thirty coats for sale in her shop.” (How many?)

“Out of the sisters, Sarah was the older one.” (Which one?)

Adjectives can also change form by adding -er or -est to the end of if they are preceded by “more” or “most”. The easiest way to find an adjective is to find the word that describes the noun. Articles are considered to be adjectives as well. There are two different kinds of articles and they are: definite (the) and indefinite (a, an).

Verbs are words that describe an action (walk, jump, think) or a state of being (become, is, seem). A complete verb is made up of the main verb as well as any helping verbs that may or may not be used with it. The most commonly used helping verbs are called the nine models which are could, should, would, might, may, shall, will, must and can. These models express how the writer feels about the verb. They give the verb a sense of urgency or obligation. Every verb has five forms which include; base form (walk), past tense (walked), past participle (I have walked), present tense (he/she/it walks) and present participle (I am walking).

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or another adverb. To find out which words in a sentence are adverbs, ask yourself when, where, how, why, under what circumstances and to what extent, as the answers to all of these questions are in fact adverbs. The italicized words in the following sentences are all adverbs.

“She walked near her house.” (Where?)

“She walked yesterday morning.” (When?)

“She walked carefully.” (How?)

“She walked because she needed to get to work.” (Why?)

“She walked while feeling sad.” (Under what circumstances?)

“She walked quite carefully through the snow.” (To what extent?)

Another way to recognize an adverb is to look for words that end with the suffix -LY. Most of these adverbs are created by ending -LY to the end of an adjective. Some examples of this are slowly (slow), aggressively (aggressive) and hopelessly (hopeless).

The four major parts of speech are found in any good writing. Learning to use them correctly is the best way to ensure that you´ll understand them when you come across each part as you read or write.

1. A common noun is a person, place, idea, or thing. It is capitalized only at the start of a sentence. It can be a single word, a group of words, or a hyphenated word.

Examples:

The girl was learning to drive

person (girl)

next to the ocean;

place (ocean)

it takes self-control

idea (self-control)

to earn a driver’s license.

thing (license)

2. A proper noun is the name of a person, place, or thing. It is always capitalized. It may be a single word, a group of words (with or without abbreviations), or a hyphenated word.

Examples:

Josh was honored

person (Josh)

at U.S. Memorial Auditorium

place (U.S. Memorial Auditorium)

with the Smith-Lee Award.

thing (Smith-Lee Award)

3. A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun(s). It can be in the subject case, acting as a “do-er” of the action in the subject case, or acting as a “receiver” of the action in the object case. Pronouns can also serve as singular or plural possessives to show ownership.

Examples:

She walked to town.

subject case (She)

I gave her a basket.

object case (her)

It was his wallet.

possessive (his)

4. An adjective describes a proper noun, a common noun, or a pronoun by describing how many, what kind, or which one.

Examples:

The five teammates

How Many? (five)

took the tiring trip

What Kind? (tiring)

to that arena across town.

Which One? (that)

5. A verb shows a physical or mental action or it describes a state of being.

Examples:

She works long hours,

physical action (works)

but knows that

mental action (knows)

there is more to life than work.

state of being (is)

6. An adverb describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb by describing how, when, where, or what degree.

Examples:

Trey walked slowly

How? (slowly)

because he had arrived early

When? (early)

to the place where

Where? (where)

he knew very well.

What Degree? (very well)

7. A preposition is a word that has a relationship with a common noun, a proper noun, or a pronoun. The preposition is always part of a phrase comes and comes before its object. The preposition asks “What?” and the object provides the answer.

Examples:

The politician voted against the law

(against) what?…the law

through the secret ballot.

(through) what?…the secret ballot

8. A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses together. There are three kinds:

-Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses used in the same way.

Example:

The student tries, but does not always succeed.

(but)

-Correlative conjunctions are paired conjunctions that connect words, phrases, or clauses used in the same way.

Example:

Either you must tell the police, or I will.

(either, or)

-Subordinating conjunctions come at the beginning of adverb clauses. These clauses restrict the meaning of the rest of the sentence.

Example:

Although he is often late, Ryan shows up to work every day.

(Although)

9. An article determines number or identification of a noun and always precedes a noun. The “a” article signals a singular noun beginning with a consonant. The “an” article signals a plural noun beginning with a vowel.

Examples:

A lion and an elephant are considered the “kings of the jungle.”

(a, an, the)

10. An interjection is a word or phrase that shows surprise or emotion. It is usually followed by an exclamation point.

Example:

Hey! Stop that.

(Hey!)

For writing in English, one has to follow certain rules. Rules regarding position of words –

1. If several nouns in the in the possessive case are used together to express possession of the same thing by each of them, the possessive sign ‘s is affixed to the last, of the nouns only, e.g., Jadu and Madhu’s plans were uncertain.
2. But if several nouns in the possessive case come together to denote possession of different things, the ‘s must be affixed to the end of each noun, e.g., Jadu’s and Madhu’s books were on different tables.
3. When a noun in the possessive case has another noun in apposition, the ‘s is placed after the latter, e.g., This is Rabindranath, the poet’s house.

Writing in English: Rules of syntax:- 

1. Personal pronouns agree with the nouns or pronouns, for which they stand, in Gender, Number, Case and Person, e.g., we do not know how long it will take our government to realize their responsibility in this matter.
2. Relative pronouns agree with their antecedents in Gender, Number and Person, but not Case; e.g., those who doubt the utility of science ask question like this.
3. When the pronouns each, either, neither, are subjects, they take a verb in the singular number, e.g., either of us is responsible for this.

Writing in English: Rules of using the adverb:- 

“A” is used before beginning with a consonant; “an” before vowels, e.g., a book; an eagle. 

1. “a” or “an” is used with a noun when we do not specify a thing.
2. “The” is used with a noun when it is something specified and particular.
3. All common nouns in the singular number must take an article.
4. Abstract or Material nouns do not take an article when it expresses a general idea or quality, e.g., Perseverance is a virtue.

However, when a quality is specially indicated, it takes an article. 

Writing in English: Rules of Punctuation:-

Commas should, as a rule, be used between three or more words of the same parts of speech coming together, except that the last two words of the series are joined by “and”, without any comma, e.g., the honorable learned and distinguished members. 

But when a final adjective is closed to the noun than the preceding one, the comma is omitted.

Commas are not necessary if the words are connected with “and”, e.g., he was a good and helpful and obedient son.

1. Commas should be used after, or before and after such words as ‘however’, ‘moreover’ etc. while writing in English.
2. Commas should be used to mark off the subordinate clauses, e.g., the professor, who was very eloquent, spoke for the best part of an hour.
3. The semi colon is used chiefly to separate sentences closely connected in the sense that are or ought to be joined by co-coordinating conjunctions while writing in English, e.g., the sun was rising; waves of light rippled across the sky; it was a beautiful scene.

On rare occasions, I get a letter where an attempt to pluralize my surname ends up being a grotesque error: The Yate’s. It’s difficult to know for sure what’s going on inside the mind of the writer here, but almost certainly a degree of panic has taken over as a result of no confidence in a rule.

In general, people tend to get into a swivet when apostrophes are added to nouns that end in ‘s.’ So let’s take the time to review the rule.

To get clear, apostrophes are used to form contractions (such as it’s, can’t, or wouldn’t) as well as to show possession (as in “That is my father’s car”). We are dealing with the second use here.

Let’s start first with nouns that don’t end in ‘s.’ If the noun is singular, you add ‘s to the end in order to denote possession. If the noun is plural, you need the apostrophe only. For example:

The man’s wallet is on the desk.

The ladies’ bridge game is cancelled. (the singular, of course, is ‘lady’)

Typically, style guides tell you to use an apostrophe after famous names that end in ‘s,’ such as Jesus or Achilles. But for less exalted names-to show that the car belongs to Chris, for example-the teaching has been, until quite recently, to treat them the same as other nouns, namely to show possession by adding ‘s. A sentence would then read, “Chris’s car broke down on the bridge the other night.”

This is the point where most people look upon the construction and say, “that’s weird” or “that just doesn’t look right.” This reaction is almost certainly based on tricks played by the double ‘s’ and the havoc these tricks wreak on the writer’s confidence in the rules of punctuation. English is a flexible language, though, and it is now acceptable to write either Chris’ car or Chris’s car. The challenge to the writer is to be consistent. That is, you need to pick one approach and stay with it throughout your writing.

Showing possession of a plural should be a two-step process, and you need to keep from being tripped up by nouns that end in ‘s.’ So if I am describing my car, I now have two options:

Yates’s car

Yates’ car

Notice here that whichever option I choose, the apostrophe comes after the final ‘s’ of ‘Yates.’ The central problem with the example at the beginning of this article is that the writer did not leave the surname intact as an autonomous unit. “Yate” has no value as a name.

If I want to describe the home in which all of my family members live, the first thing I need to do is write the plural of my surname: Yateses. Then, to show possession, I follow the rule for plurals (add an apostrophe only). Finally, I compose a sentence:

The Yateses’ home is yellow.

Is your message incoherent if you write, “The Yates’ home is yellow”? No. Seldom does a mistake in punctuation lead to this outcome. The issue here has more to do with enhancing precision in your writing. It begs the question, which Yates?

Precision may start small at first, but you are ultimately working to tighten up all of your writing. Furthermore, you will find that the small things combine to play a big role in helping your writing become more precise. Your time in learning the rules will be not be in vain.

Gender Across Particular International Borders

Some Sexy Stuff

Gender is another word from Latin (genus) which means sort, kind, or class. Nouns in English are classified as masculine, feminine, or neuter. The term has nothing to do with the sexual characteristics, maleness and femaleness. It is an arbitrary classification into which words are conveniently thrust for the purpose of determining which pronoun to use in place of the noun when it is deemed necessary. Gender could just as well be categorized as Group I (for masculine), Group II (for feminine), and Group III (for neuter). They could have also been lettered groups as in A, B, and C. Or each one could have been represented by fruits, vegetables, meats, planets, minerals or atomic elements. Whatever the reason may have been, we have to live with what we have. Nouns are grouped by gender.

Examples:

man (masculine)

niece (feminine)

woman (feminine)

nephew (masculine)

brick (neuter)

bite (neuter)

indigestion (neuter)

omphaloskepsism (neuter)

god (masculine)

goddess (feminine)

king (masculine)

queen (feminine)

baroness (feminine)

barrenness (neuter)

What determines gender? Some words by their essence suggest gender. Mother, daughter, sister, and all other female relatives are of the feminine gender; father, son, brother, and all other male relatives are inherently of the masculine gender. In the animal kingdom [which includes mankind somewhere near the top], there are males and females so designated by their male or female characteristics. Some nouns seem to fit all three genders in some way.

Some words are just defined as masculine:

dog (seen up close to verify)

lion

stallion

Some words are naturally feminine:

bitch (seen up close to verify)

lioness (indicated by suffix)

mare (whole new word)

Some words indicate neuter gender by definition:

dog (too far to determine characteristics of the gender)

cat (general family, genus, and species)

gelding (modified male)

Then, there are those words that have the same spelling for all three genders thus leaving the determination to the description or modifiers.

bird

snake

parrot

majesty

creature

fish

Some words just leave no clue as to what pronoun would be the appropriate replacement if natural gender [grammatical sex?] were the determining factor.

Ocean: The sprawling ocean churns her (its) waves and splatters her (its) spray along the shore.

Baby: Oh, what a cute baby. What’s its (her? his?) name?

Boat: The sloop I sail has beautiful lines; her (its) sails billow like clouds across the sky.

Sky: The stars in the sky make her (its) beauty far more impressive. [Can sky be plural? According to the song America, we have… for spacious skies… ]

To Be Or Not To Be — What Is the Gender?

English allows great leeway in determining what gender is assigned to a noun and its always corresponding pronoun. Foreign languages are less forgiving, as you will soon see. To determine gender, take a close look at the noun. Does it have characteristics that can be naturally associated with a specific gender? If so, assign it that gender, masculine for male and feminine for female. Everything else is neuter. The need to know is only important when it becomes necessary to use a pronoun in place of the noun.

Example:

horse: That horse has won more races than any other. (He… , She… , It… ) is definitely my choice for being included in tonight’s trifecta.

Which pronoun should be used to replace horse as the subject of the second sentence?

He implies that you know the horse is a male.

She makes the assumption that the horse is female.

It disregards either choice and reveals that you know nothing about the gender of the horse.

Any of the three choices would be acceptable and understandable in English. See how easy this language is? Foreign languages require that you know the gender of the horse before substituting a pronoun. In English you could say the horse and substitute any of the three pronouns; in Spanish, the word for horse, caballo, is masculine and requires a masculine pronoun; in German, the same horse is Pferd, a neuter noun, and it requires a neuter pronoun. The indicators in Spanish and German (the leading definite or indefinite articles) indicate the gender that applies.

Foreign application (German):

Foreign romance languages use gender and number to determine which article goes with it. Conversely, the article describes the kind of noun that follows, whether it is singular or plural, masculine, feminine, or neuter. Which comes first, the article or the noun? They should arrive at the same time as inseparable entities.

When a Germans says, “Der… “, it can be inferred that a masculine singular noun will follow.

When a Spaniard begins with, “Las… “, one will expect a feminine plural noun to follow.

When an Englishman says, “The… “, nobody knows what to expect next. It could be masculine, feminine, or neuter, and either singular or plural. The initial word gives no hint of what to anticipate. It’s a toss-up that requires only consistency to make the application understandable.

Observe the conditions in the following section that make German gender so difficult. Compare those conditions to English gender and breathe a deep sigh of relief that English gender is so simple.]

Foreign application, German Gender:

There are specific conditions that govern the gender of German nouns.

1. The natural and grammatical gender are identical:

a) Family relationships: male members are masculine; female members are feminine.

b) Professions: those done by males are masculine; those done by females are feminine. [Those performed by both have their own nouns and genders.]

2. Grammatical gender sometimes contradicts natural gender:

a) Girl, and miss (expected to be feminine) are neuter

b) Victim and child (which should be m or f only) are neuter.

c) Diminutives, no matter what the natural gender, are neuter.

d) Animals follow their natural gender unless the reference is to the species. Then, the reference is neuter.

3. Compound nouns have gender determined by the ultimate (last) part of the word.

4. Gender that is determined by rules that govern groups [again, the powers that be]:

a) Months, days of the week, and compass points are masculine.

But, Spring is neuter.

b) Nouns derived from strong verbs and mountains are masculine.

But, The Matterhorn is neuter.

c) Nouns ending in: -ig, -ling, -ant, -er, -ismus, -or are masculine.

But, restaurant is neuter.

d) nouns of derived Latinate endings: -ion, -anz, -enz, -ie, -ik, -ur, -age, -ette are feminine.

e) Nouns ending in: –keit, -heit, -ei, -schaft, -ung, -t,_t, -nis are feminine.

f) Nouns that name airplanes and ships are feminine.

g) Place names from continents to cafés, chemicals that end in -in or -ol, letters of the alphabet, and diminutives are neuter.

I) Nouns taken from infinitives or ending in: -um, -ment, -ett, -icht are neuter.

5. Some nouns are spelled the same way and have the same meaning but different genders.

a) Liter, meter (m / n) can be either.. But, kilometer is only masculine.

b) Crystal (m / n) can be either when it refers to the mineral.

Some nouns change meaning when the gender changes:

a) der Alp – ghost; die Alp – pastureland on a mountain [How afraid could one be on Halloween upon seeing die Alp.]

b) der Band – volume; das Band – ribbon, ligament, conveyor belt, bond

c) der Laster – truck; das Laster – vice [Imagine watching das Miami Laster.]

d) der Otter – otter; die Otter – viper

e) der See – lake; die See – sea

Foreign Application, Spanish

All nouns in Spanish are either masculine or feminine as indicated by the definite or indefinite article that precedes them. But, if you don’t know which article precedes the noun, there must be some other system for determining gender. There is. Note the following:

1. Masculine nouns end in -o, with some exceptions.

book – el libro, los libros

overcoat – el abrigo, los abrigos

agreement – el acuerdo, los acuerdos

2. Feminine nouns end in -a, -ción, -sión, -dad, -tad, -tud, -umbre, -ez.

perch – la percha, las perchas

family – la familia, las familias

generation – la gereración, las generaciónes

3. Nouns ending in -ente, -ista, -cida, -ante, etc. are masculine or feminine dependent upon the reference, but the ending does not change gender; only the article does.

the dentist – la dentista, las dentistas; el dentista, los dentistas

the artist – la artista, las artistas; el artista, los artistas

the student – la estudiante, las estudiantes; el estudiante, los estudiantes

4. Some masculine nouns and some feminine nouns end in -e.

el aire

el coche

la gente

la leche

5. Some nouns that end in -o are feminine.

la mano

6. Some nouns that end in -a are masculine.

el dia

el mapa

7. Some nouns usually considered masculine but have feminine form.

la guardia

la centinela

8. Nouns of Greek origin ending in -a are masculine though they appear feminine.

el drama

el tema

9. Abstract nouns formed from adjectives are neuter and take the article lo.

lo bonito

lo largo

10. Abstract nouns ending in –ón are feminine, unless there is a suffix augmentation; then, they are feminine.

11. Letters of the alphabet, phonetic sounds, and symbols are feminine.

12. Some nouns are masculine or feminine with no change in meaning.

el or la azúcar

el or la mer

13. Some nouns change their meanings dependent upon their apparent gender.

el guía – the guide

la guía – the directory

el capital – money

la capital – the capital (government)

Spanish grammar involves the same correlation of articles, gender, number, and case as English and German, but it is less restrictive than German and more constrained than English. The alphabets in all three languages are similar for the most part, with German and Spanish throwing in a few extra letter combinations for some special sound effects. It is still a wedding of horror.