Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are
open classes – word classes that readily accept new members, such as the noun
celebutante (a celebrity who frequents the fashion circles). Linguists generally accept nine English word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, determiners, and exclamations. English words are not generally marked for word class. It is not usually possible to tell from the form of a word which class it belongs to, but some inflectional endings and derivational suffixes are distinct to each class. On the other hand, most words belong to more than one word class. For example,
run can serve as either a verb or a noun (these are regarded as two different
lexemes). Lexemes may be
inflected to express different grammatical categories. The lexeme
run has the forms
runs,
ran,
runny,
runner, and
running. Some nouns can function both as countable and as uncountable such as "wine" in
This is a good wine. Countable nouns generally have
singular and
plural forms. In most cases the plural is formed from the singular by adding
-[e]s (as in
dogs,
bushes), although there are also
irregular forms (
woman/women,
foot/feet), including cases where the two forms are identical (
sheep,
series). For more details see
English plural. Certain nouns can be used with plural verbs even though they are singular in form, as in
The government were... (where
the government is considered to refer to the people constituting the government). This is a form of
synesis, and is more common in British than American English. See . English nouns are not marked for
case as they are in some languages, but they have
possessive forms, through the addition of ''-'s
(as in John's
, children's
) or just an apostrophe (with no change in pronunciation) in the case of -[e]s
plurals (the dogs' owners
) and sometimes other words ending with -s
(Jesus' love
). More generally the ending can be applied to noun phrases (as in the man you saw yesterday's sister
); see below. The possessive form can be used either as a determiner (Manyanda's cat
) or as a noun phrase (Manyanda's is the one next to Jane's''). The
classification of the possessive as an affix or a clitic is the subject of debate. It differs from the noun inflection of languages such as German, in that the
genitive ending may attach to the last word of the phrase. To account for this, the possessive can be analysed, for instance as a clitic construction (an "
enclitic postposition") or as an inflection of the last word of a phrase ("edge inflection").
Phrases Noun phrases are phrases that function grammatically as nouns within sentences, for example as the
subject or
object of a verb. Most noun phrases have a noun as their
head. While the vast majority of nouns in English do not carry gender, there remain some gendered nouns (e.g.
ewe,
sow,
rooster) and derivational
affixes (e.g.
widower, waitress) that denote gender. Many nouns that mention people's roles and jobs can refer to either a masculine or a feminine subject, for instance "cousin", "teenager", "teacher", "doctor", "student", "friend", and "colleague". • Jane is my friend. She is a dentist. • Paul is my cousin. He is a dentist. Often the gender distinction for these neutral nouns is established by inserting the word "male" or "female". In many contexts, it is required for a noun phrase to be completed with an article or some other determiner. It is not grammatical to say just
cat sat on table; one must say
my cat sat on the table. The most common situations in which a complete noun phrase can be formed without a determiner are when it refers generally to a whole class or concept (as in
dogs are dangerous and
beauty is subjective) and when it is a name (
Jane,
Spain, etc.). This is discussed in more detail at
English articles and
Zero article in English.
Pronouns Pronouns are a relatively small, closed class of words that function in the place of nouns or noun phrases. They include
personal pronouns,
demonstrative pronouns,
relative pronouns,
interrogative pronouns, and some others, mainly
indefinite pronouns. The full set of English pronouns is presented in the following table. Nonstandard, informal and archaic forms are in
italics. † Interrogative only.
Personal The personal pronouns of modern standard English are presented in the table above. They are
I, you, she, he, it, we, and
they. The personal pronouns are so-called not because they apply to persons (which other pronouns also do), but because they participate in the
system of grammatical person (1st, 2nd, 3rd). The second-person forms such as
you are used with both singular and plural reference. In the Southern United States,
y'all (you all) is used as a plural form, and various other phrases such as
you guys are used in other places. An archaic set of second-person pronouns used for singular reference is
thou, thee, thyself, thy, thine, which are still used in religious services and can be seen in older works, such as Shakespeare's—in such texts, the
you set of pronouns are used for plural reference, or with singular reference as a formal
V-form.
You can also be used as an
indefinite pronoun, referring to a person in general (see
generic you), compared to the more formal alternative,
one (reflexive
oneself, possessive ''one's''). The third-person singular forms are differentiated according to the gender of the referent. For example,
she is used to refer to a woman, sometimes a female animal, and sometimes an object to which feminine characteristics are attributed, such as a ship or a country. A man, and sometimes a male animal, is referred to using
he. In other cases,
it can be used. (See
Gender in English.) The word
it can also be used as a
dummy subject, concerning abstract ideas like time, weather, etc., or a
dummy object of a verb or preposition. The third-person form
they is used with both plural and singular
referents. Historically,
singular they was restricted to
quantificational constructions such as
Each employee should clean their desk and referential cases where the referent's gender was unknown. However, it is increasingly used when the referent's gender is irrelevant or when the referent is neither male nor female. The possessive determiners such as
my are used as determiners together with nouns, as in
my old man,
some of his friends. The second possessive forms like
mine are used when they do not qualify a noun: as pronouns, as in
mine is bigger than yours, and as predicates, as in
this one is mine. Note also the construction
a friend of mine (meaning "someone who is my friend"). See
English possessive for more details.
Demonstrative The
demonstrative pronouns of English are
this (plural
these), and
that (plural
those), as in
these are good, I like that. All four words can also be used as determiners (followed by a noun), as in
those cars. They can also form the alternative pronominal expressions
this/that one,
these/those ones.
Interrogative The
interrogative pronouns are
who,
what, and
which (all of them can take the suffix
-ever for emphasis). The pronoun
who refers to a person or people; it has an oblique form
whom (though in informal contexts this is usually replaced by
who), and a possessive form (pronoun or determiner)
whose. The pronoun
what refers to things or abstracts. The word
which is used to ask about alternatives from what is seen as a closed set:
which (of the books) do you like best? (It can also be an interrogative determiner:
which book?; this can form the alternative pronominal expressions
which one and
which ones.)
Which,
who, and
what can be either singular or plural, although
who and
what often take a singular verb regardless of any supposed number. For more information see
who. In Old and Middle English, the roles of the three words were different from their roles today. "The interrogative pronoun
hwā 'who, what' had only singular forms and also only distinguished between non-neuter and neuter, the neuter nominative form being
hwæt". Note that neuter and non-neuter refers to the grammatical gender system of the time, rather than the so-called natural gender system of today. A small holdover of this is the ability of relative (but not interrogative)
whose to refer to non-persons (e.g., ''the car whose door won't open''). All the interrogative pronouns can also be used as relative pronouns, though
what is quite limited in its use; The relative pronoun
which refers to things rather than persons, as in
the shirt, which used to be red, is faded. For persons,
who is used (
the man who saw me was tall). The
oblique case form of
who is
whom, as in
the man whom I saw was tall, although in informal
registers who is commonly used in place of
whom. The possessive form of
who is
whose (for example,
the man whose car is missing); however the use of
whose is not restricted to persons (one can say
an idea whose time has come). The word
that as a relative pronoun is normally found only in
restrictive relative clauses (unlike
which and
who, which can be used in both restrictive and unrestrictive clauses). It can refer to either persons or things, and cannot follow a preposition. For example, one can say
the song that [or
which]
I listened to yesterday, but
the song to which [not
to that]
I listened yesterday. The relative pronoun
that is usually pronounced with a reduced vowel (
schwa), and hence differently from the demonstrative
that (see
Weak and strong forms in English). If
that is not the subject of the relative clause, it can be omitted (
the song I listened to yesterday). The word
what can be used to form a
free relative clause – one that has no antecedent and that serves as a complete noun phrase in itself, as in
I like what he likes. The words
whatever and
whichever can be used similarly, in the role of either pronouns (
whatever he likes) or determiners (
whatever book he likes). When referring to persons,
who(ever) (and
whom(ever)) can be used in a similar way.
"There" The word
there is used as a pronoun in some sentences, playing the role of a
dummy subject, normally of an
intransitive verb. The "logical subject" of the verb then appears as a
complement after the verb. This use of
there occurs most commonly with forms of the verb
be in
existential clauses, to refer to the presence or existence of something. For example:
There is a heaven;
There are two cups on the table;
There have been a lot of problems lately. It can also be used with other verbs:
There exist two major variants;
There occurred a very strange incident. The dummy subject takes the
number (singular or plural) of the logical subject (complement), hence it takes a plural verb if the complement is plural. In informal English, however, the
contraction ''there's'' is often used for both singular and plural. The dummy subject can undergo
inversion,
Is there a test today? and
Never has there been a man such as this. It can also appear without a corresponding logical subject, in short sentences and
question tags: ''There wasn't a discussion, was there? There was''. The word
there in such sentences has sometimes been analyzed as an
adverb, or as a dummy
predicate, rather than as a pronoun. However, its identification as a pronoun is most consistent with its behavior in inverted sentences and question tags as described above. Because the word
there can also be a
deictic adverb (meaning "at/to that place"), a sentence like
There is a river could have either of two meanings: "a river exists" (with
there as a pronoun), and "a river is in that place" (with
there as an adverb). In speech, the adverbial
there would be given
stress, while the pronoun would not – in fact, the pronoun is often pronounced as a
weak form, .
Reciprocal The English
reciprocal pronouns are
each other and
one another. No consistent distinction in meaning or use can be found between them. Like the reflexive pronouns, their use is limited to contexts where an
antecedent precedes it. In the case of the reciprocals, they need to appear in the same clause as the antecedent.
Verbs The basic form of an English verb is not generally marked by any ending, although there are certain suffixes that are frequently used to form verbs, such as
-ate (
formulate),
-fy (
electrify), and
-ise/ize (
realise/realize). Many verbs also contain
prefixes, such as
un- (
unmask),
out- (
outlast),
over- (
overtake), and
under- (
undervalue). These do not inflect for person or number, The
copula be, along with the modal verbs and the other
auxiliaries, form a distinct class, sometimes called "
special verbs" or simply "auxiliaries". These have different syntax from ordinary
lexical verbs, especially in that they make their
interrogative forms by plain
inversion with the subject, and their
negative forms by adding
not after the verb (
could I...? I could not...). Apart from those already mentioned, this class may also include
used to (although the forms
did he use to? and ''he didn't use to
are also found), and sometimes have
even when not an auxiliary (forms like have you a sister?
and he hadn't a clue
are possible, though becoming less common). It also includes the auxiliary do
(does
, did
); this is used with the basic infinitive of other verbs (those not belonging to the "special verbs" class) to make their question and negation forms, as well as emphatic forms (do I like you?
; he doesn't speak English
; we did close the fridge
). For more details of this, see do''-support. Some forms of the copula and auxiliaries often appear as
contractions, as in ''I'm
for I am
, you'd
for you would
or you had
, and John's
for John is
. Their negated forms with following not'' are also often contracted (see below). For detail see
English auxiliaries and contractions.
Phrases A verb together with its dependents, excluding its
subject, may be identified as a
verb phrase (although this concept is not acknowledged in all theories of grammar). A verb phrase headed by a
finite verb may also be called a
predicate. The dependents may be
objects, complements, and modifiers (adverbs or
adverbial phrases). In English, objects and complements nearly always come after the verb; a
direct object precedes other complements such as prepositional phrases, but if there is an
indirect object as well, expressed without a preposition, then that precedes the direct object:
give me the book, but
give the book to me. Adverbial modifiers generally follow objects, although other positions are possible (see under below). Certain verb–modifier combinations, particularly when they have independent meaning (such as
take on and
get up), are known as "
phrasal verbs". For details of possible patterns, see
English clause syntax. See the
Non-finite clauses section of that article for verb phrases headed by non-finite verb forms, such as infinitives and participles.
Adjectives English
adjectives, as with other word classes, cannot in general be identified as such by their form, although many of them are formed from nouns or other words by the addition of a suffix, such as
-al (
habitual),
-ful (
blissful),
-ic (
atomic),
-ish (
impish,
youngish),
-ous (
hazardous), etc.; or from other adjectives using a prefix:
disloyal,
irredeemable,
unforeseen,
overtired. Adjectives may be used
attributively, as part of a noun phrase (nearly always preceding the noun they modify; for exceptions see
postpositive adjective), as in
the big house, or
predicatively, as in
the house is big. Certain adjectives are restricted to one or other use; for example,
drunken is attributive (
a drunken sailor), while
drunk is usually predicative (
the sailor was drunk).
Comparison Many adjectives have
comparative and
superlative forms in
-er and
-est, such as
faster and
fastest (from the positive form
fast). Spelling rules which maintain pronunciation apply to suffixing adjectives just as they do for similar treatment of
regular past tense formation; these cover consonant doubling (as in
bigger and
biggest, from
big) and the change of
y to
i after consonants (as in
happier and
happiest, from
happy). The adjectives
good and
bad have the irregular forms
better, best and
worse, worst; also
far becomes
farther, farthest or
further, furthest. The adjective
old (for which the regular
older and
oldest are usual) also has the irregular forms
elder and
eldest, these generally being restricted to use in comparing
siblings and in certain independent uses. For the comparison of adverbs, see
Adverbs below. Many adjectives, however, particularly those that are longer and less common, do not have inflected comparative and superlative forms. Instead, they can be qualified with
more and
most, as in
beautiful, more beautiful, most beautiful (this construction is also sometimes used even for adjectives for which inflected forms do exist). Certain adjectives are classed as
ungradable. Adjectives can be modified by a preceding adverb or adverb phrase, as in
very warm,
truly imposing,
more than a little excited. Some can also be preceded by a noun or quantitative phrase, as in
fat-free,
two-meter-long. Complements following the adjective may include: •
prepositional phrases:
proud of him,
angry at the screen,
keen on breeding toads; •
infinitive phrases:
anxious to solve the problem,
easy to pick up; •
content clauses, i.e.
that clauses and certain others:
certain that he was right,
unsure where they are; • after comparatives, phrases or clauses with
than:
better than you,
smaller than I had imagined. An adjective phrase may include both modifiers before the adjective and a complement after it, as in
very difficult to put away. Adjective phrases containing complements after the adjective cannot normally be used as attributive adjectives
before a noun. Sometimes they are used
attributively after the noun, as in
a woman proud of being a midwife (where they may be converted into relative clauses:
a woman who is proud of being a midwife), but it is wrong to say *
a proud of being a midwife woman. Exceptions include very brief and often established phrases such as
easy-to-use. (Certain complements can be moved to after the noun, leaving the adjective before the noun, as in
a better man than you,
a hard nut to crack.) Certain attributive adjective phrases are formed from other parts of speech, without any adjective as their head, as in
a two-bedroom house,
a no-jeans policy.
Adverbs Adverbs perform a wide range of functions. They typically modify verbs (or verb phrases), adjectives (or adjectival phrases), or other adverbs (or adverbial phrases). However, adverbs also sometimes qualify noun phrases (
only the boss;
quite a lovely place), pronouns and determiners (
almost all), prepositional phrases (
halfway through the movie), or whole sentences, to provide contextual comment or indicate an attitude (''
Frankly, I don't believe you
). They can also indicate a relationship between clauses or sentences (He died, and
consequently I inherited the estate
). If the verb has an object, the adverb comes after the object (He finished the test
quickly). When there is more than one type of adverb, they usually appear in the order: manner, place, time (His arm was hurt
severely at home yesterday''). A special type of adverb is the adverbial particle used to form
phrasal verbs (such as
up in
pick up,
on in
get on, etc.) If such a verb also has an object, then the particle may precede or follow the object, although it will normally follow the object if the object is a pronoun (
pick the pen up or
pick up the pen, but
pick it up).
Phrases An
adverb phrase is a phrase that acts as an adverb within a sentence. An adverb phrase may have an adverb as its
head, together with any modifiers (other adverbs or adverb phrases) and complements, analogously to the
adjective phrases described above. For example:
very sleepily;
all too suddenly;
oddly enough;
perhaps shockingly for us. Another very common type of adverb phrase is the
prepositional phrase, which consists of a preposition and its object:
in the pool;
after two years;
for the sake of harmony.
Prepositions Prepositions form a closed word class, Examples are
in England,
under the table,
after six pleasant weeks,
between the land and the sea. A prepositional phrase can be used as a complement or post-modifier of a noun in a noun phrase, as in
the man in the car,
the start of the fight; as a complement of a verb or adjective, as in
deal with the problem,
proud of oneself; or generally as an adverb phrase (see above). English allows the use of
"stranded" prepositions. This can occur in interrogative and
relative clauses, where the interrogative or relative pronoun that is the preposition's complement is moved to the start (
fronted), leaving the preposition in place. This kind of structure is avoided in some kinds of formal English. For example: •
What are you talking about? (Possible alternative version:
About what are you talking?) •
The song that you were listening to... (more formal:
The song to which you were listening...) Notice that in the second example the relative pronoun
that could be omitted. Stranded prepositions can also arise in
passive voice constructions and other uses of passive
past participial phrases, where the complement in a prepositional phrase can become
zero in the same way that a verb's direct object would:
it was looked at;
I will be operated on;
get your teeth seen to. The same can happen in certain uses of
infinitive phrases:
he is nice to talk to;
this is the page to make copies of.
Conjunctions Conjunctions express a variety of logical relations between items, phrases, clauses and sentences. They help link ideas, show relationships, and form more complex sentences. The principal
coordinating conjunctions in English are:
and,
or,
but,
nor,
so,
yet, and
for. These can be used in many grammatical contexts to link two or more items of equal grammatical status, numerals as in
two or three buildings, etc. • Clauses or sentences linked, as in ''We came,
but they wouldn't let us in. They wouldn't let us in,
nor would they explain what we had done wrong''. Another example of clauses or sentences linked is:
I like reading books, and I also enjoy watching movies. There are also
correlative conjunctions, where as well as the basic conjunction, an additional element appears before the first of the items being linked. Some common subordinators in English are: • conjunctions of time, including
after,
before,
since,
until,
when,
while; • conjunctions of cause and effect, including
because,
since,
now that,
as,
in order that,
so; • conjunctions of opposition or concession, such as
although,
though,
even though,
whereas,
while; • conjunctions of condition: such as
if,
unless,
only if,
whether or not,
even if,
in case (that); • the conjunction
that, which produces
content clauses, as well as words that produce interrogative content clauses:
whether,
where,
when,
how, etc. Subordinating conjunction generally comes at the very start of its clause, although many of them can be preceded by qualifying adverbs, as in
probably because...,
especially if.... The conjunction
that can be omitted after certain verbs, as in
she told us (that) she was ready. (For the use of
that in relative clauses, see above.) An example of a subordinating conjunction being used is:
I went to the store because I needed milk.
Case Although English has largely lost its case system,
personal pronouns still have three morphological cases that are simplified forms of the
nominative,
objective and
genitive cases: • The
nominative case (
subjective pronouns such as
I,
he,
she,
we,
they,
who,
whoever), used for the subject of a
finite verb and sometimes for the
complement of a
copula. • The
oblique case (
object pronouns such as
me,
him,
her,
it,
us,
them,
whom,
whomever), used for the direct or indirect
object of a verb, for the object of a preposition, for an absolute disjunct, and sometimes for the complement of a copula. • The
genitive case (
possessive pronouns such as
my/mine,
his,
her(s),
its,
our(s),
their(s),
whose), used for a grammatical possessor. This is not always considered to be a case; see . Most English personal pronouns have five forms: the nominative and oblique case forms, the
possessive case, which has both a
determiner form (such as
my,
our) and a distinct
independent form (such as
mine,
ours) (with two exceptions: the
third person singular masculine and the third person singular neuter
it, which use the same form for both determiner and independent [
his car,
it is his]), and a distinct
reflexive or
intensive form (such as
myself,
ourselves). The
interrogative personal pronoun
who exhibits the greatest diversity of forms within the modern English pronoun system, having definite nominative, oblique, and genitive forms (
who,
whom,
whose) and equivalently coordinating indefinite forms (
whoever,
whomever, and
whosever). Forms such as
I,
he, and
we are used for the
subject ("
I kicked the ball"), whereas forms such as
me,
him and
us are used for the
object ("John kicked
me").
Declension Nouns have distinct singular and plural forms; that is, they
decline to reflect their
grammatical number; consider the difference between
book and
books. In addition, a few English pronouns have distinct
nominative (also called
subjective) and
oblique (or objective) forms; that is, they decline to reflect their relationship to a
verb or
preposition, or
case. Consider the difference between
he (subjective) and
him (objective), as in "He saw it" and "It saw him"; similarly, consider
who, which is subjective, and the objective
whom. Further, these pronouns and a few others have distinct
possessive forms, such as
his and
whose. By contrast, nouns have no distinct nominative and objective forms, the two being merged into a single
plain case. For example,
chair does not change form between "the chair is here" (subject) and "I saw the chair" (direct object). Possession is shown by the
clitic ''-'s'' attached to a possessive
noun phrase, rather than by declension of the noun itself. ==Negation==