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Short ‘Mini’ Version:
Grammar Series: No.1
Word Classes (Basic)
You need to see the full version of this leaflet, which covers what are more traditionally called
Parts of Speech. It is not possible to shorten the information given there in a helpful way.
The full leaflet discusses:
Semantic words:
Nouns - the names of things, ideas, people or places - divided into common nouns, proper
nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns
Verbs - words expressing an action or state
Adjectives - words used to qualify nouns
Adverbs - words used to modify verbs or sentences
Function words:
Articles - definite and indefinite (a, an the)
Pronouns - personal (he, she, you etc.); possessive (my, your, mine etc.); reflexive (myself,
yourself, etc.); relative (who, whose, etc.); demonstrative (this, that, these, etc.); interrogative
(who?, whom?, etc.)
Prepositions - in, of, to, as, about, at, by, for, from, in, inside, into, of, on, outside, onto, to,
with, because of, out of, etc.
Conjunctions - joining words - and, but, either, or, neither, nor, that, although, as, because, if,
since, that, though, until, where, when, while, as soon as, so that, etc.
Interjections - Gosh!, Wow!, My goodness!, Ow!, Ouch!, etc.
One confusing thing about word classes is that the same word can be used in different ways.
For example: you can back your car (where back is used as a verb); you can hurt your back
(noun); you can go back (adverb); or you can look out of the back window (adjective).
Select ‘Study Guides in PDF to print and study’ for the complete version of this resource.
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