English Grammar & Writing

Welcome to English Grammar & Writing. We will study The Parts of Speech: Identifying Word Classes by Their Function, work through an example, and practise using the course's learning material. Structured learning support for English Grammar & Writing, with reading notes, guided practice, revision and tutor-led explanations. Sign in and use the study header to open your authorised course. Select this published lesson. Start Course Tutor with Auto audio on: it teaches continuously, answers a typed question, then resumes. Traditional school grammar lists eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. Modern grammars add determiners (articles, demonstratives, possessives, quantifiers) as a separate class and split verbs into main verbs and auxiliaries. Sentence. Wow, the young coach patiently explained the new rules to them before the match, but they still looked confused. Classify each word by its function: Wow — interjection (independent exclamation). the — determiner (article) before coach. young — adjective, attributive, modifying coach. coach — noun (common, countable), head of the subject. patiently — adverb of manner modifying explained. explained — main verb, past tense, transitive. the — determiner. new — adjective modifying rules. rules — noun, plural, direct object. to — preposition; its object is them. them — personal pronoun, objective case. before — preposition here, because it is followed by a noun phrase (the match), not a clause. the match — determiner + noun. but — coordinating conjunction joining two independent clauses. they — personal pronoun, subjective case. still — adverb (time or continuation). looked — linking verb (it could be replaced by seemed). confused — adjective, predicative complement after the linking verb. Contrast check on before. In before the match it is a preposition. In before the match began it is a subordinating conjunction, because a clause with a finite verb follows. In I have seen this before it is an adverb, with no object at all. Second example. Fast in three sentences: a fast train (adjective), she runs fast (adverb), a three-day fast (noun), they fast on Mondays (verb). Which mistake would change the reasoning in this example? Using good as an adverb (She sings good). Correction: good is an adjective; the adverb is well — She sings well. Assuming all -ly words are adverbs. Correction: friendly, lovely, lonely, costly are adjectives. Pluralising uncountable nouns (informations, furnitures, advices). Ask Course Tutor: please explain this step from the example. Contrast check on before. In before the match it is a preposition. Why does it follow? Add what you tried, so the explanation addresses your difficulty. Now try the source practice. Identify the class of since in I have lived here since 2010 and in Since you are tired, rest. Pause before the answer. The source answer is: Preposition in the first (followed by a noun phrase); subordinating conjunction in the second (introducing a clause). Compare your reasoning as well as the result. If your response differs, return to the worked example and identify the step that needs correction. Explain the key idea in your own words, revisit any mistaken step, then continue to the next lesson. Use Stop to end Course Tutor when you finish.