Word classes

In English grammar, a word class is a set of words that display the same formal properties,
especially their inflections and distribution. The term "word class" is similar to the more
traditional term, part of speech. It is also variously called grammatical category, lexical
category, and syntactic category (although these terms are not wholly or universally
synonymous).

The two major families of word classes are lexical (or open or form) classes (nouns, verbs,
adjectives, adverbs) and function (or closed or structure) classes (determiners, particles,
prepositions, and others).

Form Classes and Structure Classes

"[The] distinction between lexical and grammatical meaning determines the first division in our
classification: form-class words and structure-class words. In general, the form classes provide
the primary lexical content; the structure classes explain the grammatical or structural
relationship.

The form classes also known as content words or open classes include:

​ 1. Nouns
​ 2. Verbs
​ 3. Adjectives
​ 4. Adverbs

The structure classes, also known as function words or closed classes, include:

​ 1. Determiners
​ 2. Pronouns
​ 3. Auxiliaries
​ 4. Conjunctions
​ 5. Qualifiers
​ 6. Interrogatives
​ 7. Prepositions
​ 8. Expletives
​ 9. Particles

A single word can belong to Multiple Classes:

"Items may belong to more than one class. In most instances, we can only assign a word to a
word class when we encounter it in context. Looks is a verb in 'It looks good,' but a noun in 'She
has good looks'; that is a conjunction in 'I know that they are abroad,' but a pronoun in 'I know
that' and a determiner in 'I know that man'; one is a generic pronoun in 'One must be careful not
to offend them,' but a numeral in 'Give me one good reason.'"

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 Nouns
Nouns name people, places or things

Some nouns are concrete and others are abstract. Nouns that name people, places or things are
referred to as concrete nouns. The term concrete is used because you can actually experience
concrete nouns directly via one or more of your five senses.

● people - A person’s name is a noun, as are other words that can be used to name a
person, such as mother, father, sister, brother, student, or teacher.
● places - Words used to name places are nouns, such as names of countries, states,
cities, or streets, and locations like home, school, building or office.
● things - Words that name things are nouns, including terms for pets (dog or cat), items
you play with (game or ball), and objects in your house (stove or bed).

This list of noun examples includes several illustrations of concrete nouns, along with other
types.

Nouns Name Concepts, Ideas or Emotions

Nouns that name vague or intangible concepts, ideas and emotions are called abstract nouns.
These are nouns because they are, in fact, things. They just aren’t ones that can be observed
with senses.

● concepts - Words that describe intangible concepts represent abstract nouns. Examples
include intellect, faith, comfort, or satisfaction.
● ideas - Terms that name intangible ideas are abstract nouns. Examples include things
like integrity, loyalty, freedom, or patriotism.
● emotions - Words that express feelings are abstract nouns. For example, a person can
feel love for another person. A person can feel happiness, sympathy or grief.

Review these examples of abstract nouns for more words that represent these types of nouns.

10 Examples of Nouns in Sentences

Looking at nouns in terms of whether they are concrete or abstract is the best way to begin
understanding what a noun is. Review these example sentences to reinforce what you have
learned about nouns so far. The nouns in each sentence are in bold text.

1. I need to feed my new goldfish. (concrete noun - thing)

2. My aunt is staying with us for a while. (concrete noun - person)
3. I am looking forward to visiting Disneyland. (concrete noun - place)
4. We are eating pizza tonight. (concrete noun - thing)
5. He needs a new computer. (concrete noun - thing)
6. My bedroom is chilly this morning. (concrete noun - place)
7. I feel regret for telling a fib. (abstract noun - emotion)
8. There is no honor in cheating. (abstract noun - idea)
9. The server asked if I’d like to order. (concrete noun - person)
10. She is too dishonest for me. (abstract noun - idea)

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 Adjective

An adjective is a word that customizes and intensifies a noun or a pronoun. It gives additional
information about what the noun or the pronoun refers to. It usually comes right before the
noun or the pronoun that it modifies. We can use more than one adjective to describe a noun or
a pronoun and when a noun comes before another noun, it becomes its adjective.

Example Sentences List

The colorful balloon floated over the treetop.

The big dog chased the car.

A yellow butterfly is sitting on the red rose.

The tall giraffe is eating green leaves.

A small rat is beside the brown cabinet.

The beautiful princess is wearing a purple gown.

Type of Adjectives

Descriptive Adjectives
Proper Adjectives
Adjective of Quantity
Numeral Adjectives
Interrogative Adjectives
Demonstrative Adjectives
Possessive Adjectives

Adverb

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb.

Examples

The nightingale sang (verb) sweetly (adverb).

The soldier marched (verb) smartly (adverb).
He owns a very (adverb) expensive (adjective) car.
The traffic moved quite (adverb) slowly (adverb) down the road.
Types of Adverbs

There are seven main kinds of adverbs, their list as follows:

Adverbs of Degree
Adverbs of Time
Adverbs of Place
Adverbs of Manner
Adverbs of Frequency
Interrogative Adverbs
Relative Adverbs
Use of Adverbs

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Adverbs make sentences more informative. They are used for the following purposes.

To say “how” for example:

The dog barked loudly.

To say “when” for example:

Nina’s grandfather arrived yesterday.

To say “where” for example:

The children are playing outside.

To say “how often” for example:

Marina attends school regularly.

To make the meaning of an adjective, an adverb or a verb stronger or weaker for example:
The day was extremely cold.
Her teacher scolded him mildly.

Adverbs which modify verbs

Many adverbs end with the suffix – “ly“. Most of these are created by adding “ly” at the end of
an adjective, like;

Adjective Adverb
slow slowly
beautiful beautifully
careless carelessly

However, this is NOT a reliable way to find out whether a word is an adverb or not, for reasons:
Many adverbs do NOT end in “ly” – (some are the same as their adjective forms), and many
words which are NOT adverb Do end in “ly” (such as kindly, friendly, elderly and lonely, which are
pure adjectives).

Here are some examples of adverbs which are the same as adjectives:

Adjective Adverb
fast fast
late late
early early

Understanding Adverbs

The best way to tell if a word is an adverb is to try framing a question, for which the answer is
the word. If the question uses how, where or when – then the word is probably an adverb.

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