Parts of Speech, especially nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, are extremely important to know.

Parts of speech (articles ‘a’, ‘an’, and ‘the’ are not included in this set)

Parts of Speech	Definition	Types
Nouns	a person, place, thing	+ Gerunds and infinitives
Verbs	Action/ non-action or stative	Count and non-count
Adjectives	modify a noun	-ing and ed endings; a single word
Adverbs	Modify a verb, adverb, or adjective	Adverbs of time/frequency/degree/ manner/place/affirmation
Pronouns	Substitute for nouns	Subject/object/possessive adjectives/possessive/ self-reflexive
Prepositions	links nouns/pronouns/phrases	place/time/objects/people
Conjunctions	A word used to connect clause or sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause	Coordinating Subordinating
Interjections	Use of emotion	Exclamation marks!

 

Note: adjectives modify nouns; adverbs can modify adjectives, verbs, and other adverbs. Verbs as either action or nonaction (stative) and either transitive or intransitive while nouns represent persons, places, things, or ideas.

 

Parts of speech are important not only for noting which part of speech is being used but also for ‘the form’ or the suffix added to the root word being used.

For example: observe the different suffixes added to the end of these words:

 

 

Noun	Verb	Adjective	Adverb
culture	X	cultural	culturally
distinction	distinguish	distinct	distinctly
generation	generate	generated	generationally
investment	invest	invested	X
link	link	X	X
negation	negate	X	X
pity	pity	X	X
signal	signal	signal	X

 

Note: Suffixes indicate a word’s part of speech, or its meaning, or both.

For example, the word distinction as found in the table above tells you just buy its ending ‘tion’ that it is a noun.

The professor has served his country with great distinction (noun).

Likewise, the rest of the word forms can be used in a similar fashion.

The professor has distinguished himself in his field of study. (past participle in a perfect tense)

The professor has a distinct understanding of his scientific field. (adjective modifying understanding).

The professor distinctly understands his field of study (adverb modifying the verb understands).

In each of the examples above the different suffixes of the word have different grammatical uses and different meanings.

Word form                                                        Meaning

Distinction (noun)	–          a difference or contrast; excellence that separates one from others
Distinguish (verb)	–          recognize or treat someone or something as different
Distinct (adjective)	–          recognizably different in nature from something else
Distinctly (adverb)	–          in a way that is readily or clearly unique

 

Different suffix endings are crucial to understanding when you are confronted with blank and different word options.

Here are some typical adjective suffixes: (google ‘adjectives’ for a more comprehensive list)

Adjective suffixes	Common adjectives
–          ible	delectable, irresistible, permissible, tangible
–          ed	related, rounded, biased, disinterested, occupied
–          ent	salient, incoherent, independent, pertinent
–          al	royal, spiritual, original, emotional, vital, colossal
–          cal	logical, critical, crucial, principal, central
–          ing	shocking, touching, appetizing, striking, leading
–          ant	pliant, relevant, significant, important
–          able	sustainable, remarkable, teachable
–          ful	wonderful, pitiful, youthful, harmful, resentful
–          ious	delicious, precious, luscious, sagacious,

 

• Adverbs can be easily identified by their ‘ly’ ending in most cases.
• However, there a several words that end in ‘ly’ that are adjectives, such as: lively, leisurely, early, chilly, beastly

costly, cowardly, crassly, deadly, early, elderly, enormously, fatherly, friendly, gentlemanly, ghastly, godly, greatly, heavenly, holy, homely, humanly, leisurely, lively, lonely, lovely, manly, masterly, miserly, monthly, motherly, nightly, poorly, portly, priestly, princely, saintly, scholarly, shapely, silly, stately, timely, ugly, ungainly, unruly, unsightly, unseemly, unworldly, vastly, weekly, worldly, yearly.

 

 

Some typical verb suffixes:

Verb suffixes	Examples
–          ify	beautify, clarify, identify
–          ate	complicate, dominate, irritate
–          ise/ize	economise, realize, industrialize (s or z)
–          en	harden, soften, shorten

 

Luckily, are few suffixes for verbs, so they can be quickly identified by their place in a sentence (S+V + O (or DO)) or by their inherent meaning.

Finally, noun suffixes are many. Here, again, is a general list of noun suffixes:

Common Noun Suffixes	Examples
–          age	baggage, mileage, postage
–          al	arrival, deferral, revival
–          ance or ence	prominence, deliverance, insistence
–          dom	freedom, fiefdom, kingdom
–          ee	employee, trainee
–          er/or	worker, director, player
–          hood	neighbourhood, fatherhood, childhood
–          ism	truism, capitalism, socialism
–          ist	perfectionist, capitalist, trombonist
–          ity/ty	piety, equality, cruelty
–          ment	government, firmament, parliament
–          ness	happiness, selfishness, usefulness
–          ry	rivalry, robbery, ministry
–          ship	friendship, membership
–          sion/tion/xion	nation, pollution, complexion