Word+Classes+2

Word Classes by Becky Hewitt, Becky Riley, Paul Pembridge and Katherine Salisbury

Sentences are made up of different types of words and each type has its own job to do in the sentence. As Teachers we must know and understand the grammar of spoken and written English, including word order and cohesion within sentences and the grammatical function of words.

National Curriculum The National Curriculum's Programme of Study for English states the following in relation to Word Classes or 'Parts of Speech'.

In composing their own texts, pupils should be taught to consider:
 * Key Stage 1**
 * 1) how word choice and order are crucial to meaning
 * 2) the nature and use of nouns, verbs and pronouns

Pupils should be taught:
 * Key Stage 2**
 * 1) word classes and the grammatical functions of words, including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles
 * 2) the grammar of complex sentences, including clauses, phrases and connectives

Nouns
There are many different types of NOUNS. A **proper noun** is the **name** of a particular person, place or thing (starts with a capital letter) A **common noun** is a person, place or thing. They can be split into concrete and abstract nouns. An **abstract noun** is a noun that you cannot sense, it is the name we give to an emotion, ideal or idea. They have no physical existence. A **concrete noun** is refers to objects, people and physical items that can be perceived through our sight, hearing, smell, touch or taste.


 * **Noun Types** || **Examples** ||
 * Proper || Zimbabwe, Paul, Saturday ||
 * Common || tree, desk, spoon, man, hospital ||
 * Abstract || dream, love, intelligence ||
 * Concrete || table, bear, person ||

Adjectives
An **Adjective** is a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a noun to modify or describe it. In simpler terms, it is a ‘describing’ word. For example: beautiful, witty, gigantic, tiny. They must be used in a sentence to describe a noun; ‘The dress was pretty.’ (Pretty is the adjective)

Verbs
A **Verb** is an action or doing word telling us what something or someone did. Every sentence has to have a verb in it: I ran to school That glass may fall off the table She made a mess of her dinner Ran, fall and made are all verbs.

Adverb
An **Adverb** is a word that describes a verb, giving information about the manner place or circumstances denoted by the verb. They can come before or after the verb and often, but don't always end in 'ly': He ate his lunch quickly Or He quickly ate his lunch

Adverbial Phrase
An **Adverbial phrase** uses a second adverb to make an adverb even stronger: Really quickly Extremely slowly Very beautifully Adverbs and adverbial phrases are used to make writing more interesting.

Personal Pronouns
**Personal Pronouns** describe someone or a group of people. They often enable a distinction between person, number and gender.


 * || Singular || Plural ||
 * First Person || I || We ||
 * Second Person || You || You ||
 * Third Person || He/She || They ||

Connectives
A **Connective** is a short word that connects phrases together to form longer sentences. It can also be called a Conjunction. For example: and, if, but, because. These two sentences are fine alone: ‘I like Thai food.’ ‘I like Indian food.’ However, they can be added together with a connective to make a full sentence: ‘I like Thai foods and I like Indian food.’ (and is the connective.)

Prepositions
A **Preposition** shows the relationship (in time, space or some other sense) between its object and another word in the sentence. For example: in, through, about, according to, prior to, within, considering, for, of, at "AFTER walking to school she put the bag IN her locker" After tells you when she put the bag somewhere, in tells you where she put the bag.



Articles
An **Article** tells us whether the noun is specific or general. These are either **a**/**an** or **the**.
 * < The ||< Definite Article || refers to a specific person/object ||
 * < A / An ||< Indefinite Article || refers to a non-specific person/object ||

For example: If we say "THE dog" we mean a //specific// dog If we say "A dog" we mean //any// dog

Common Misconceptions
 * Because many adverbs end in** //-ly// ** many children think that all adverbs end in ** //-ly// **. It is worth reiterating many of the common adverbs that do not end in this e.g. yesterday
 * Children often think that adverbs only modify verbs when in fact they can modify adjectives, another adverb, a pronoun, or a noun phrase.
 * Verbs are often introduced to children as 'doing' words which can be confusing as some verbs do not appear to be doing words e.g. 'be' or 'have'

Further Reading
 * Chapter 7: Components of Sentences //in// Medwell //et al//. (2011) Primary English Knowledge and Understanding.
 * http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/ks2bitesize/english/spelling_grammar/nouns_adjectives_prepositions/read1.shtml
 * How English works, Michael Swann and Catherine Walter
 * cybergrammar.co.uk

In the Classroom

[]

[]

media type="youtube" key="v3QDGslpL5U" height="315" width="420"media type="youtube" key="mYzGLzFuwxI" height="315" width="420"media type="youtube" key="W7wnT8iiR8w" height="315" width="420"