LIST OF ADJECTIVE

What is an Adjectives?

Adjectives are, quite

simply, descriptive

words. An adjective is a

word which qualifies a

noun, that is, shows or

points out some

distinguishing mark or

feature of the noun.

Glancing at the following

list of common English

adjectives clarifies the

meaning and function of

adjectives.

List of Descriptive

Adjectives

Descriptive adjectives can

be divided into different

categories such as colors,

sizes, sound, taste, touch,

shapes, qualities, time,

personality and ages. The

following lists provide a

few examples of

descriptive adjectives in

each of their categories:

Colors are adjectives - list:

black, blue, white, green,

red

Sizes - list: big, small,

large, thin, thick

Shapes- list: triangular,

round, square, circular

Qualities- list: good, bad,

mediocre

Personality - list: happy,

sad, angry, depressed

Time - list: Yearly ,

monthly, annually

Ages - list: new, young,

old, brand-new, second-

hand

Sound related Adjectives -

list: loud, noisy, quiet,

silent

Touch related Adjectives -

list: slippery, sticky

Taste related Adjectives -

list: juicy, sweet

The following list of

common English

adjectives can be further

sorted into such

categories for ease of use

List of Adjectives

The following List of

Adjectives are in common

usein the English

language:

List of

Adjectives

A - D

List of Adjectives

afraid

agreeable

amused

ancient

angry

annoyed

anxious

arrogant

ashamed

average

awful

bad

beautiful

better

big

bitter

black

blue

boiling

brave

breezy

brief

bright

broad

broken

bumpy

calm

charming

cheerful

chilly

clumsy

cold

colossal

combative

comfortable

confused

cooing

cool

cooperative

courageous

crazy

creepy

cruel

cuddly

curly

curved

damp

dangerous

deafening

deep

A - D

List of Adjectives

D - G

List of Adjectives

defeated

defiant

delicious

delightful

depressed

determined

dirty

disgusted

disturbed

dizzy

dry

dull

dusty

eager

early

elated

embarrassed

empty

encouraging

energetic

enthusiastic

envious

evil

excited

exuberant

faint

fair

faithful

fantastic

fast

fat

few

fierce

filthy

fine

flaky

flat

fluffy

foolish

frail

frantic

fresh

friendly

frightened

funny

fuzzy

gentle

giant

gigantic

good

D - G

List of Adjectives

G - M

List of Adjectives

gorgeous

greasy

great

green

grieving

grubby

grumpy

handsome

happy

hard

harsh

healthy

heavy

helpful

helpless

high

hilarious

hissing

hollow

homeless

horrible

hot

huge

hungry

hurt

hushed

husky

icy

ill

immense

itchy

jealous

jittery

jolly

juicy

kind

large

late

lazy

light

little

lively

lonely

long

loose

loud

lovely

low

lucky

magnificent

G - M

List of Adjectives

M - R

List of Adjectives

mammoth

many

massive

melodic

melted

mighty

miniature

moaning

modern

mute

mysterious

narrow

nasty

naughty

nervous

new

nice

nosy

numerous

nutty

obedient

obnoxious

odd

old

orange

ordinary

outrageous

panicky

perfect

petite

plastic

pleasant

precious

pretty

prickly

proud

puny

purple

purring

quaint

quick

quickest

quiet

rainy

rapid

rare

raspy

ratty

red

relieved

M - R

List of Adjectives

R - S

List of Adjectives

repulsive

resonant

ripe

roasted

robust

rotten

rough

round

sad

salty

scary

scattered

scrawny

screeching

selfish

shaggy

shaky

shallow

sharp

shivering

short

shrill

silent

silky

silly

skinny

slimy

slippery

slow

small

smiling

smooth

soft

solid

sore

sour

spicy

splendid

spotty

square

squealing

stale

steady

steep

sticky

stingy

straight

strange

striped

strong

R - S

List of Adjectives

S - Z

List of Adjectives

successful

sweet

swift

tall

tame

tan

tart

tasteless

tasty

tender

tender

tense

terrible

testy

thirsty

thoughtful

thoughtless

thundering

tight

tiny

tired

tough

tricky

troubled

ugliest

ugly

uneven

upset

uptight

vast

victorious

vivacious

voiceless

wasteful

watery

weak

weary

wet

whispering

wicked

wide

wide-eyed

witty

wonderful

wooden

worried

yellow

young

yummy

zany

S - Z

List of Adjective

INTERJACTION

In grammar, an

interjection or

exclamation is a lexical

category used to express

an isolated emotion or

sentiment on the part of

the speaker (although

most interjections have

cleardefinitions). Filled

pauses such as uh, er,

um are also considered

interjections. Interjections

are typically placed at the

beginning of a sentence.

An interjection is

sometimes expressed as a

singleword or non-

sentence phrase, followed

by a punctuation mark.

The isolated usage of an

interjection does not

represent acomplete

sentence in conventional

English writing. Thus, in

formal writing, the

interjection will be

incorporated into a larger

sentence clause.

Examples in English

Convention like Hi, Bye

and Goodbye are

interjections, as are

exclamations like Cheers!

and Hooray!. In fact, like a

noun or a pronoun, they

are very often

characterized by

exclamation marks

depending on the stress

of the attitude or the force

of the emotion they are

expressing. Well (a short

form of "that is well") can

also be used as an

interjection: "Well! That's

great!" or "Well, don't

worry." Muchprofanity

takes the form of

interjections. Some

linguists consider the pro-

sentences yes, no, amen

and okay as interjections,

since they have no

syntactical connection

with other words and

rather work as sentences

themselves. Expressions

"Excuse me!", "Sorry!",

and similar ones often

serve as interjections.

Interjections can be

phrases or even

sentences, as well as

words, such as "Oh!" or

"Wow!".

Phonology

Several English

interjections contain

sounds that do not, or

very rarely, exist in

regular English

phonological inventory.

For example:

Ahem [əʔəm],

[ʔəʔəm], [əɦəm], or

[ʔəhəm], ("attention!")

may contain aglottal

stop [ʔ] or a [ɦ] in any

dialect of English; the

glottal stop is

common inAmerican

English, some British

dialects, and in other

languages, such as

German.

Shh [ʃːː] ("quiet!") is

an entirely

consonantal syllable.

Ps [psː] ("here!"), also

spelled psst, is another

entirely consonantal

syllable-word, and its

consonant cluster

does not occur initially

in regular English

words.

Tut-tut [ǀ ǀ]

("shame..."), also

spelled tsk-tsk, is

made up entirely of

clicks, which are an

active part of regular

speech in several

African languages.

This particular click is

dental. (This also has

the spelling

pronunciation [tʌt tʌt]

.)

Ugh [ʌx]

("disgusting!") ends

with avelar fricative

consonant, which

otherwise does not

exist in English,

though is common in

languages like

Spanish, German, and

Gaelic .

Whew or phew [ɸɪu]

("what a relief!"), also

spelled shew, may

start with abilabial

fricative, a sound

pronounced with a

strong puff of air

through thelips. This

sound is a common

phoneme in such

languages asSuki (a

language of New

Guinea) and Ewe and

Logba (both spoken in

Ghana).

Gah ("Gah, there's

nothing to do!") ends

with [h], which does

not occur with regular

English words.

Yeah [jæ] ("yes") ends,

in some dialects, with

the short vowel [æ],

which is not found at

the end of any regular

English words

LEARNING ENGLISH TIPS

How should I use my

dictionary?

What dictionaries do I

need? If possible, you

should buy two

dictionaries: a good

bilingual dictionary and a

good English-English

dictionary. The bilingual

dictionary is quicker and

easier for you to

understand; the English-

English dictionary may

give you more

information about a word

or phrase, It is also a

good idea for you to work

in English as much as

possible. Here are some

current recommended

English-English

dictionaries: Large

dictionaries Cambridge

International Dictionary of

English Longman

Dictionary of

Contemporary English

Collins COBUILD English

Dictionary Oxford

Advanced Learner’s

Dictionary Medium-sized

dictionaries Collins

COBUILD Essential

Dictionary Oxford

Wordpower Dictionary

Longman Active Study

Dictionary What

information does a

dictionary give me? the

meaning, e.g. homesick =

unhappy when you are

away from home for a

long time the

pronunciation, e.g.

chaos /kems/, dreadful /

dredful/, island /aitand/

the part of speech, e.g.

dirty adj {= adjective), lose

v (= verb), law n (= noun)

any special grammatical

features, e.g. advice (U) (=

uncountable) common

collocations (word

partners), e.g. you do

homework [NOT you

make homcwofk]

example phrases or

sentences, e.g. It was

such a big menu, I didn’t

know what to choose.

opposites (where they

exist), e.g. polite (*

impolite/rude) Note: In

most English-English [...]

FILED UNDER: LEARNING

ENGLISH TIPS

Punctuation

QUOTATION MARK “”

Quotation marks are most

commonly used to

enclose speaker’s exact

words, and to set apart

words that are discussed.

a) Our teacher then asked,

“Would you like to go

outside today?” (direct

quotation) b) The word

“thunderstorm” often

brings fear among the

very young in our group.

COLON : A colon

introduces a list, a direct

quotation, and the end

portion of a sentence that

is an explanation. It is

used after an introductory

classification, after the

salutation in a formal letter

and between numbers in

time. a) The following

items were bought at the

pharmacy: pop,

newspaper, and a bottle

of hair shampoo. b) I

learned the following: I

was too old and run

down to compete. c) He

immediately replied by

saying: “I am completely

innocent.” d) Her actions

made me think of one

thing: revenge! e) Dear

Lucas: f) Being out in the

sun made me think of

only one thing: water! g)

3:30 PM APOSTROPHE ‘

An apostrophe is used to

show ownership

(possessives—singular

and plural), period of time

and a sum of money. It

also acts as a place holder

for a missing letter. In

addition, it is used to

construct a [...]

FILED UNDER: LEARNING

ENGLISH TIPS

LEARNING ENGLISH TIPS

LEARN ENGLISH GRAMMAR ONLINE

mind

Mind can mean ‘dislike’,

‘be annoyed by’, ‘object

to’. We use mind mostly

in questions and negative

sentences. I don’t mind

you coming in late if you

don’t wake me up. Do

you mind the smell of

tobacco?’ ‘Not at all.’ Do

you mind . . . ? and

Would you mind . . . ? are

often used to ask for

permission, or to ask

people to do things. We

can use -ing forms or if-

clauses. Do you mind/

Would you mind. .. -

ing. .. ? Would you mind

opening the window? (=

Please open the window.)

Would you mind my

opening the window? (=

Can / open the window?)

Do you mind people

smoking in the kitchen?

Do you mind/Would you

mind if… ? Would you

mind if I opened the

window? Do you mind if

people smoke in the

kitchen? Do you mind if I

smoke?’ ‘No, please do.

‘Note that the answer ‘No’

is used to give permission

after Do you mind …? (I

don’t mind means ‘I have

nothing against it; it’s all

right’.)

FILED UNDER: ESL

LESSONS M

go … -ing

We often use the

structure go .. . -ing,

especially to talk about

sports and free-time

activities. Let’s go climbing

next weekend. Did you go

dancing last Saturday? go

climbing go hunting go

shooting go swimming

go dancing go riding go

shopping go walking go

fishing go sailing go skiing

FILED UNDER: ESL

LESSONS G

Enough

1 Enough comes after

adjectives (without nouns)

and adverbs. adjective/

adverb + enough Is it

warm enough for you?

(NOT . . . enough

warm . . .) You’re not

driving fast enough 2

Enough comes before

nouns. enough (+

adjective) + noun Have

you got enough milk?

(NOT . .. enough of milk.)

There isn’t enough blue

paint left. We use enough

of before pronouns and

determiners (for example

the,my, this). enough of +

pronoun We didn’t buy

enough of them enough

of + determiner (+

adjective) + noun The

exam was bad. I couldn’t

answer enough of the

questions. Have we got

enough of those new

potatoes? 3 We can use

an infinitive structure after

enough. … enough… +

infinitive She’s old enough

to do what she wants. I

haven’t got enough

money to buy a car. .. .

enough… + for+ object +

infinitive It’s late enough

for us to stop work.

Incoming search

terms:enough noun

adjective

FILED UNDER: ESL

LESSONS E

too

1 We can use an infinitive

structure after too. too +

adjective/adverb +

infinitive He’s too old to

work It’s too cold to play

tennis. We arrived too late

to have dinner. We can

also use a structure with

for + object + infinitive.

too + adjective/adverb +

for + object + infinitive It’s

too late for the pubs to be

open. The runway’s too

short for planes to land 2

We can modify too with

much, a lot, far, a little, a

bit or rather. much too

old (NOT very too old) a

little too confident a lot too

big a bit too soon far too

ycung rather too often 3

Don’t confuse too and too

much. We do not use too

much before an adjective

without a noun, or an

adverb. You are too kind

to me. (NOT . . . too

much kind to me.) I

arrived too early (NOT too

much early ) 4 Don’t

confuse too and very.

Too means ‘more than

enough’, ‘more than

necessary’. He’s a very

intelligent child. He’s too

intelligent for his class —

he’s not learning anything.

It was very cold, but we

went out. It was too cold

to [...]

FILED UNDER: ESL

LESSONS T

can with remember,

understand, speak,

play, see, hear, feel,

taste and smell

1 remember, understand,

speak, play These verbs

usually mean the same

with or without can. I

(can) remember London

during the war. She can

speak Greek I She speaks

Greek. I can’t/don’t

understand. Can/Do you

play the piano? 2 see,

hear, feel, smell, taste We

do not use these verbs in

progressive tenses when

they refer to perception

(receiving information

through the eyes, ears

etc). To talk about seeing,

hearing etc at a particular

moment, we often use

can see, can hear etc. I

can see Susan coming,

(not I’m seeing . . . ) I can

hear somebody coming

up the stairs. What did

you put in the stew? I can

taste something funny.

Incoming search

terms:Can remember to

hearcould smell taste feel

grammarGrammar

lesson: to hear of to hear

about and to hear

fromhear smell

grammarsee hear feel

taste and smell

FILED UNDER: ESL

LESSONS C

After all

After all gives the idea that

one thing was expected,

but the opposite

happened. It means

‘Although we expected

something different’. I’m

sorry. I thought I could

come and see you this

evening, but I’m not free

after all I expected to fail

the exam, but I passed

after all Position: usually at

the end of the clause. We

can also use after all to

mean ‘We mustn’t forget

that … ‘ It is used to

introduce a good reason

or an important argument

which people seem to

have forgotten. It’s not

surprising you’re hungry.

After all, you didn’t have

breakfast. I think we

should go and see

Granny. After all she only

lives ten miles away, and

we haven’t seen her for

ages. Position: usually at

the beginning of the

clause.

FILED UNDER: ESL

LESSONS A

articles: the

The means something like

‘you know which one I

mean’. It is used with

uncountable, singular and

plural nouns. the water

(uncountable) the table

(singular countable) the

stars (plural countable)

We use the: a. to talk

about people and things

that we have already

mentioned. She’s got two

children: a girl and a boy.

The boy’s fourteen and

the girl’s eight. b. when

we are saying which

people or things we

mean. Who’s the girl in

the car over there with

John? c. when it is clear

from the situation which

people or things we

mean. Could you close

the door? (Only one door

is open.) ‘Where’s Ann?’

‘In the kitchen.’ Could you

pass the salt? 2 We do not

use the with other

determiners (for example

my, this, some.) This is

my uncle. (NOT . . . the

my uncle.) I like this beer.

(NOT . . . the this beer )

We do not usually use the

with proper names (there

are some exceptions).

Mary lives in Switzerland.

(NOT The Mary lives in the

Switzerland.) We do not

usually use the to talk

about things in general —

the does not mean ‘all’.

Books are expensive.

(NOT The [...]

FILED UNDER: ESL

LESSONS A, ESL LESSONS

T

about to

be + about + to-infinitive If

you are about to do

something, you are going

to do it very soon. Don’t

go out now — we’re

about to have supper I

was about to go to bed

when the telephone rang.

FILED UNDER: ESL

LESSONS A

Ages

We talk about people’s

ages with be + number

He is thirty-five. She will

be twenty-one next year.

be + number + years old

He is thirty-five years old

To ask about somebody’s

age, say How old are

you?(What is your age ? is

correct but not usual.)

Note the structure be + .. .

age (without preposition)

When I was your age. I

was already working. The

two boys are the same

age She‘s the same age as

me.

FILED UNDER: ESL

LESSONS A

Regular and irregular

verbs

Regular and irregular

verbs 1. Regular verbs If a

verb is regular, the past

simple and past participle

end in -ed. infinitive clean

finish use stop carry paint

past simple past participle

cleaned finished used

stopped carried painted 2.

Irregular verbs When the

past simple and past

participle do not end in -

ed (for example, I saw /I

have seen), the verb is

irregular. With some

irregular verbs, all three

forms (infinitive, past

simple and past participle)

are the same. For

example, hit: □ Don’t hit

me. (infinitive) □

Somebody hit me as I

came into the room, (past

simple) □ I’ve never hit

anybody in my life, (past

participle – present

perfect) □ George was hit

on the head by a stone,

(past participle – passive)

With other irregular

verbs, the past simple is

the same as the past

participle (but different

from the infinitive). For

example, tell – told: □ Can

you tell me what to do?

(infinitive) □ She told me

to come back the next

day. (past simple) □ Have

you told anybody about

your new job? (past

participle – present

perfect) □ I was told to

come back the next day.

(past participle – passive)

[...]

FILED UNDER: GRAMMAR

INDEX

LIST OF COMMON ADVERB

A

abnormally

absentmindedly

accidentally

acidly

actually

adventurously

afterwards

almost

always

angrily

annually

anxiously

arrogantly

awkwardly

B

badly

bashfully

beautifully

bitterly

bleakly

blindly

blissfully

boastfully

boldly

bravely

briefly

brightly

briskly

broadly

busily

C

calmly

carefully

carelessly

cautiously

certainly

cheerfully

clearly

cleverly

closely

coaxingly

colorfully

commonly

continually

coolly

correctly

courageously

crossly

cruelly

curiously

D

daily

daintily

dearly

deceivingly

delightfully

deeply

defiantly

deliberately

delightfully

diligently

dimly

doubtfully

dreamily

E

easily

elegantly

energetically

enormously

enthusiastically

equally

especially

even

evenly

eventually

exactly

excitedly

extremely

F

fairly

faithfully

famously

far

fast

fatally

ferociously

fervently

fiercely

fondly

foolishly

fortunately

frankly

frantically

freely

frenetically

frightfully

fully

furiously

G

generally

generously

gently

gladly

gleefully

gracefully

gratefully

greatly

greedily

H

happily

hastily

healthily

heavily

helpfully

helplessly

highly

honestly

hopelessly

hourly

hungrily

I

immediately

innocently

inquisitively

instantly

intensely

intently

interestingly

inwardly

irritably

J

jaggedly

jealously

joshingly

joyfully

joyously

jovially

jubilantly

judgementally

justly

K

keenly

kiddingly

kindheartedly

kindly

kissingly

knavishly

knottily

knowingly

knowledgeably

kookily

L

lazily

less

lightly

likely

limply

lively

loftily

longingly

loosely

lovingly

loudly

loyally

M

madly

majestically

meaningfully

mechanically

merrily

miserably

mockingly

monthly

more

mortally

mostly

mysteriously

N

naturally

nearly

neatly

needily

nervously

never

nicely

noisily

not

O

obediently

obnoxiously

oddly

offensively

officially

often

only

openly

optimistically

overconfidently

owlishly

P

painfully

partially

patiently

perfectly

physically

playfully

politely

poorly

positively

potentially

powerfully

promptly

properly

punctually

Q

quaintly

quarrelsomely

queasily

queerly

questionably

questioningly

quicker

quickly

quietly

quirkily

quizzically

R

rapidly

rarely

readily

really

reassuringly

recklessly

regularly

reluctantly

repeatedly

reproachfully

restfully

righteously

rightfully

rigidly

roughly

rudely

S

sadly

safely

scarcely

scarily

searchingly

sedately

seemingly

seldom

selfishly

separately

seriously

shakily

sharply

sheepishly

shrilly

shyly

silently

sleepily

slowly

smoothly

softly

solemnly

solidly

sometimes

soon

speedily

stealthily

sternly

strictly

successfully

suddenly

surprisingly

suspiciously

sweetly

swiftly

sympathetically

T

tenderly

tensely

terribly

thankfully

thoroughly

thoughtfully

tightly

tomorrow

too

tremendously

triumphantly

truly

truthfully

U

ultimately

unabashedly

unaccountably

unbearably

unethically

unexpectedly

unfortunately

unimpressively

unnaturally

unnecessarily

utterly

upbeat

upliftingly

upright

upside-down

upward

upwardly

urgently

usefully

uselessly

usually

utterly

V

vacantly

vaguely

vainly

valiantly

vastly

verbally

very

viciously

victoriously

violently

vivaciously

voluntarily

W

warmly

weakly

wearily

well

wetly

wholly

wildly

willfully

wisely

woefully

wonderfully

worriedly

wrongly

Y

yawningly

yearly

yearningly

yesterday

yieldingly

youthfully

Z

zealously

zestfully

zestily

ADVERB

An adverb is a part of

speech. It is any word

that modifies verbs or any

part of speech other than

anoun (modifiers of

nouns are primarily

adjectives and

determiners). Adverbs

can modify verbs,

adjectives (including

numbers), clauses,

sentences, and other

adverbs.

Adverbs typically answer

questions such as how?,

in what way?, when?,

where?, and to what

extent?. This function is

called theadverbial

function, and is realized

not just by single words

(i.e., adverbs) but by

adverbial phrases and

adverbial clauses.

Adverbs in English

Adverbs are words like

slowly, tomorrow, now,

soon and suddenly. An

adverb usually modifies a

verb or a verb phrase. It

provides information

about the manner, place

or circumstances of the

activity denoted by the

verb or verb phrase.

She walked slowly.

(Here the adverb

slowly shows the

manner in which she

walked.)

The kids are playing

upstairs. (Here the

adverb upstairs

provides information

about the place of the

activity.)

Adverbs can also modify

adjectives and other

adverbs.

You are quite right.

(Here the adverb quite

modifies the adjective

right.)

She spoke quite

loudly. (Here the

adverb quite modifies

another adverb –

loudly.)

There are very many

kinds of adverbs.

Examples are: adverbs of

manner, adverbs of

frequency, adverbs of

time, adverbs of place,

adverbs of certainty etc.

In English, adverbs of

manner (answering the

question how?) are often

formed by adding -ly to

adjectives. For example,

great yields greatly, and

beautiful yields beautifully.

(Note that some words

that end in -ly, such as

friendly and lovely, are

not adverbs, but

adjectives, in which case

the root word is usually a

noun. There are also

underived adjectives that

end in -ly, such as holy

and silly.)

The suffix -ly is related to

the Germanic word "lich".

(There is also an obsolete

English word lych orlich

with the same meaning.)

Both words are also

related to the word like.

The connection between -

ly and like is easy to

understand. The

connection to lich is

probably that both are

descended from an earlier

word that meant

something like "shape" or

"form".[1] The use of like

in the place of -ly as an

adverb ending is seen in

Appalachian English, from

the hardening of the ch in

"lich" into a k, originating

in northern British speech.

In this way, -ly in English

is cognate with the

common German

adjective ending -lich, the

Dutch ending -lijk, the

Dano-Norwegian -lig and

Norwegian -leg. This

same process is followed

in Romance languages

with the ending -mente, -

ment, or -mense meaning

"of/like the mind".

In some cases, the suffix -

wise may be used to

derive adverbs from

nouns. Historically, -wise

competed with a related

form -ways and won out

against it. In a few words,

like sideways, -ways

survives; words like

clockwise show the

transition. Again, it is not a

foolproof indicator of a

word being an adverb.

Some adverbs are formed

from nouns or adjectives

by prepending the prefix

a- (such as abreast,

astray). There are a

number of other suffixes

in English that derive

adverbs from other word

classes, and there are also

many adverbs that are

not morphologically

indicated at all.

Comparative adverbs

include more, most, least,

and less (in phrases such

as more beautiful, most

easily etc.).

The usual form pertaining

to adjectives or adverbs is

called thepositive.

Formally, adverbs in

English are inflected in

terms ofcomparison, just

like adjectives. The

comparative and

superlative forms of some

(especially single-syllable)

adverbs that do not end in

-ly are generated by

adding -er and -est (She

ran faster; He jumps

highest). Others,

especially those ending -

ly, areperiphrastically

compared by the use of

more or most (She ran

more quickly) -- while

some accept both forms,

e.g. oftener and more

often are both correct.

Adverbs also take

comparisons with as ...

as, less, and least. Not all

adverbs are comparable;

for example in the

sentence He wore red

yesterday it does not

make sense to speak of

"more yesterday" or

"most yesterday".

Adverbs as a "catch-

all" category

Adverbs are considered a

part of speech in

traditional English

grammar and are still

included as a part of

speech in grammar

taught in schools and

used in dictionaries.

However, modern

grammarians recognize

that words traditionally

grouped together as

adverbs serve a number

of different functions.

Some would go so far as

to call adverbs a "catch-

all" category that includes

all words that do not

belong to one of the other

parts of speech.

A more logical approach

to dividing words into

classes relies on

recognizing which words

can be used in a certain

context. For example, a

noun is a word that can

be inserted in the

following template to

form a grammatical

sentence:

The _____ is red. (For

example, "The hat is

red".)

When this approach is

taken, it is seen that

adverbs fall into a number

of different categories. For

example, some adverbs

can be used to modify an

entire sentence, whereas

others cannot. Even when

a sentential adverb has

other functions, the

meaning is often not the

same. For example, in the

sentences She gave birth

naturally and Naturally,

she gave birth, the word

naturally has different

meanings. Naturally as a

sentential adverb means

something like "of course"

and as a verb-modifying

adverb means "in a

natural manner". This

"naturally" distinction

demonstrates that the

class of sentential adverbs

is aclosed class (there is

resistance to adding new

words to the class),

whereas the class of

adverbs that modify

verbs isn't.

Words like very and

particularly afford another

useful example. We can

say Perry is very fast, but

not Perry very won the

race. These words can

modify adjectives but not

verbs. On the other hand,

there are words like here

and there that cannot

modify adjectives. We

can say The sock looks

good there but not It is a

there beautiful sock. The

fact that many adverbs

can be used in more than

one of these functions can

confuse this issue, and it

may seem like splitting

hairs to say that a single

adverb is really two or

more words that serve

different functions.

However, this distinction

can be useful, especially

considering adverbs like

naturally that have

different meanings in their

different functions.

Huddleston distinguishes

between a word and a

lexicogrammatical-word.

[2]

The category of adverbs

into which a particular

adverb falls is to some

extent a matter of

convention; and such

conventions are open to

challenge as English

evolves. A particular

category-breaking use

may spread after its

appearance in a book,

song, or television show

and become so

widespread that it is

eventually acknowledged

as acceptable English. For

example, "well"

traditionally falls in a

category of adverb that

excludes its use as a

modifier of an adjective,

except where the adjective

is a past-participle

adjective like "baked".

However, imitating

characters in television

shows, a growing

number of English

speakers (playfully or

even without reflection)

use "well" to modify non-

past-participle adjectives,

as in "That is well bad!" It

is possible that this usage

will one day become

generally accepted.

Similarly, other category-

breaking uses of adverbs

may, over time, move

some English adverbs

from a restricted adverbial

class to a less-restricted

one.

Not is an interesting case.

Grammarians have a

difficult time categorizing

it, and it probably belongs

in its own class[3][4]

Other languages

Other languages may

form adverbs in different

ways, if they are used at

all: adverb of manners

and adverb of place.

In non-standard

Brazilian Portuguese,

the adverb menos

(less) sometimes

inflects for gender

before a feminine

noun. Menos água

thus becomes menas

água (less water). This

kind of inflection is

considered

ungrammatical and is

not recommended.[1]

In Dutch adverbs have

the basic form of their

corresponding

adjectives and are not

inflected (except for

comparison in which

case they are inflected

like adjectives, too).

In German the term

Adverb is differently

defined than in the

English language.

German adverbs form

a group of not

inflectable words

(except for

comparison in which

in rare cases some are

inflected like

adjectives, too). An

English adverb, which

is derived from an

adjective, is arranged

in the German

language under the

adjectives with

adverbial use in the

sentence. The others

are also called adverbs

in the German

language.

In Scandinavian

languages

, adverbs are typically

derived from

adjectives by adding

the suffix '-t', which

makes it identical to

the adjective's neuter

form. Scandinavian

adjectives, like English

ones, are inflected in

terms of comparison

by adding '-ere'/'-

are' (comparative) or '-

est'/'-ast' (superlative).

In inflected forms of

adjectives the '-t' is

absent.Periphrastic

comparison is also

possible.

In Romance languages

many adverbs are

formed from

adjectives (often the

feminine form) by

adding '-

mente' (Portuguese,

Spanish, Galician,

Italian) or '-

ment' (French, Catalan)

(from Latin mens,

mentis: mind,

intelligence). Other

adverbs are single

forms which are

invariable.

In the Romanian

language, the vast

majority of adverbs

are simply the

masculine singular

form of the

corresponding

adjective – one notable

exception being bine

("well") / bun ("good").

However, there are

some Romanian

adverbs that are built

from certain

masculine singular

nouns using the suffix

"-eşte", such as the

following ones: băieţ-

eşte (boyishly), tiner-

eşte (youthfully),

bărbăt-eşte (manly),

frăţ-eşte (brotherly),

etcaetara.

Interlingua also forms

adverbs by adding '-

mente' to the

adjective. If an

adjective ends in c, the

adverbial ending is '-

amente'. A few short,

invariable adverbs,

such as ben, "well",

and mal, "badly", are

available and widely

used.

In Esperanto, adverbs

are not formed from

adjectives but are

made by adding '-e'

directly to the word

root. Thus, from bon

are derived bone,

"well", and 'bona',

'good'. See also:

special Esperanto

adverbs

.

Modern Standard

Arabic

forms adverbs by

adding the indefinite

accusative ending '-an'

to the root. For

example, kathiir-,

"many", becomes

kathiiran "much".

However, Arabic often

avoids adverbs by

using acognate

accusative plus an

adjective.

Austronesian

languages

appear to form

comparative adverbs

by repeating the root

(as inWikiWiki),

similarly to the plural

noun.

Japanese forms

adverbs from verbal

adjectives by adding /

ku/ (く) to the stem

(e.g. haya- "rapid"

hayai "quick/early",

hayakatta "was quick",

hayaku "quickly") and

fromnominal

adjectives by placing /

ni/ (に) after the

adjective instead of the

copula /na/ (な) or /no/

(の) (e.g. rippa

"splendid", rippa ni

"splendidly"). These

derivations are quite

productive but there

are a few adjectives

from which adverbs

may not be derived.

In Gaelic, an adverbial

form is made by

preceding the

adjective with the

preposition go (Irish)

or gu (Scottish Gaelic),

meaning 'until'.

In Modern Greek, an

adverb is most

commonly made by

adding the endings <-
α> and/or <-ως> to

the root of an

adjective. Often, the

adverbs formed from

a common root using

each of these endings

have slightly different

meanings. So,

<τέλειος> (,

meaning "perfect" and

"complete") yields

<τέλεια> (,

"perfectly") and

<τελείως> (,

"completely"). Not all

adjectives can be

transformed into

adverbs by using both

endings. <Γρήγορος>

(, "rapid")

becomes <γρήγορα>

(, "rapidly"),

but not normally

*<γρηγόρως>

(*). When

the <-ως> ending is

used to transform an

adjective whose tonal

accent is on the third

syllable from the end,

such as <επίσημος>

(, "official")

, the corresponding

adjective is accented

on the second syllable

from the end;

compare <επίσημα>

() and

<επισήμως>

(), which

both mean "officially".

There are also other

endings with particular

and restricted use as

<-ί>, <-εί>, <-
ιστί>, etc. For

example,

<ατιμωρητί>

(, "with

impunity") and

<ασυζητητί>

(,

"indisputably");

<αυτολεξεί>

( "word for

word") and

<αυτοστιγμεί>

(, "in no

time"); <αγγλιστί>

[ "in English

(language)"] and

<παπαγαλιστί>

(, "by

rote"); etc.

In Latvian, an adverb

is formed from an

adjective, by changing

the masculine or

feminine adjective

endings -s and -a to -i.

"Labs", meaning

"good", becomes

"labi" for "well".

Latvian adverbs have

a particular use in

expressions meaning

"to speak" or "to

understand" a

language. Rather than

use the noun meaning

"Latvian/English/

Russian", the adverb

formed form these

words is used. "Es

runāju latviski/

angliski/krieviski"

means "I speak

Latvian/English/

Russian", or very

literally "I speak

Latvianly/Englishly/

Russianly". When a

noun is required, the

expression used

means literally

"language of the

Latvians/English/

Russians", "latviešu/

angļu/krievu valoda".

In Ukrainian/ Russian,

an adverb is formed

by removing the

adjectival suffices "-

ий" "-а" or "-е" from

an adjective, and

replacing them with

the adverbial "-о". For

example, "швидкий",

"гарна", and

"смачне" (fast, nice,

tasty) become

"швидко", "гарно",

and "смачно" (quickly,

nicely, tastefully). As

well, note that adverbs

are mostly placed

before the verbs they

modify: "Добрий син

гарно співає." (A

good son sings nicely/

well). Although, there

is no specific word

order in east slavic

languages.

In Korean, adverbs are

formed by replacing 다

of the dictionary form

of a verb with 게. So, 쉽

다 (easy) becomes 쉽게

(easily).

In Turkish, the same

word usually serves

as adjective and

adverb: iyi bir kız ("a

good girl"), iyi

anlamak ("to

understand well).

In Chinese, adverbs

end in the word "地",

the English equivalent

of "-ly". "地" on its own

literally means

"ground".

The Azerbaijan linguistic

school

does not consider an

adverb to be an

independentpart of

speech, as it is an

adverbialized form of

other parts of speech. I.e.,

recognition of its equity

with other parts of speech

violates the second and

fourth laws of logic

division. Adverbs are

derived from otherparts

of speech. Their functions

are performed by other

parts of speech when

they play the role of

"means of expression" for

anadverbial. That is, other

parts of speech, playing

the role of adverbial,

automatically transform

(convert) into an

adverb

VERBVERB

This article is about the

part of speech. For the

physical activity program,

seeVERB (program). For

English usage of verbs,

seeEnglish verbs.

"Verbs" redirects here. For

the Christian gospel

rapper, seeVerbs (rapper)

.

Examples

I washed the car

yesterday.

The dog ate the

homework.

John studies English

and French.

A verb, from the Latin

verbum meaning word, is

aword (part of speech)

that in syntax conveys an

action (bring, read, walk,

run, learn), or a state of

being (be, exist, stand). In

the usual description of

English, the basic form,

with or without the

particle to, is the infinitive.

In many languages, verbs

are inflected (modified in

form) to encode tense,

aspect, mood and voice.

A verb may also agree

with theperson, gender,

and/or number of some

of its arguments, such as

itssubject, or object.

Agreement

Main article: Verb

conjugation

In languages where the

verb is inflected, it often

agrees with its primary

argument (the subject) in

person, number and/or

gender. With the

exception of the verb to

be, English shows

distinctive agreement only

in the third person

singular, present tense

form of verbs, which is

marked by adding "-s" (I

walk, he walks) or "-

es" (he fishes). The rest of

the persons are not

distinguished in the verb (I

walk, you walk, they

walk, etc.).

Latin and the Romance

languages inflect verbs for

tense/mood/aspect and

they agree in person and

number (but not in

gender, as for example in

Polish) with the subject.

Japanese, like many

languages with SOV word

order, inflects verbs for

tense/mood/aspect as

well as other categories

such as negation, but

shows absolutely no

agreement with the

subject - it is a strictly

dependent-marking

language. On the other

hand,Basque, Georgian,

and some other

languages, have

polypersonal agreement:

the verb agrees with the

subject, the direct object

and even the secondary

object if present, a greater

degree ofhead-marking

than is found in most

European languages.

Valency

Main article: Valency

(linguistics)

The number of

arguments that a verb

takes is called its valency

or valence. Verbs can be

classified according to

their valency:

Avalent (valency = 0):

the verb has neither a

subject nor an object.

Zero valency does not

occur in English; in

some languages such

asMandarin Chinese,

weather verbs like

snow(s) take no

subject or object.

Intransitive (valency

= 1, monovalent): the

verb only has a

subject. For example:

"he runs", "it falls".

Transitive (valency =

2, divalent): the verb

has a subject and a

direct object. For

example: "she eats

fish", "we hunt

nothing".

Ditransitive (valency =

3, trivalent): the verb

has a subject , a direct

object, and an indirect

object. For example:

"He gives her a

flower."

Weather verbs are often

impersonal (subjectless,

or avalent) in null-subject

languages like Spanish,

where the verb llueve

means "It rains". In

English, they require a

dummy pronoun, and

therefore formally have a

valency of 1.

Intransitive and transitive

verbs are the most

common, but the

impersonal and

objective verbs are

somewhat different from

the norm. In the objective

the verb takes an object

but no subject; the

nonreferent subject in

some uses may be

marked in the verb by an

incorporated dummy

pronoun similar to that

used with the English

weather verbs.

Impersonal verbs in null

subject languages take

neither subject nor object,

as is true of other verbs,

but again the verb may

show incorporated

dummy pronouns despite

the lack of subject and

object phrases.Tlingit

lacks a ditransitive, so the

indirect object is described

by a separate, extraposed

clause.[citation needed]

English verbs are often

flexible with regard to

valency. A transitive verb

can often drop its object

and become intransitive;

or an intransitive verb can

take an object and

become transitive. For

example, the verb move

has no grammatical

object in he moves

(though in this case, the

subject itself may be an

implied object, also

expressible explicitly as in

he moves himself); but in

he moves the car, the

subject and object are

distinct and the verb has a

different valency.

In many languages other

than English, such valency

changes are not possible;

the verb must instead be

inflected in order to

change the valency.

[citation needed]

Tense, aspect, and

modality

A single-word verb in

Spanish contains

information about time

(past, present, future),

person and number. The

process of grammatically

modifying a verb to

express this information is

called conjugation.

Main articles: Grammatical

tense, Aspect (linguistics),

Linguistic modality, and

Tense-aspect-mood

Depending on the

language, verbs may

express grammatical

tense, aspect, or modality.

Grammatical tense[1][2][3]

is the use of auxiliary

verbs or inflections to

convey whether the

action or state is before,

simultaneous with, or

after some reference

point. The reference point

could be thetime of

utterance, in which case

the verb expresses

absolute tense, or it could

be a past, present, or

future time of reference

previously established in

the sentence, in which

case the verb expresses

relative tense.

Aspect[2][4] expresses

how the action or state

occurs through time.

Important examples

include:

perfective aspect, in

which the action is

viewed in its

entirety though

completion (as in "I

saw the car")

imperfective

aspect, in which

the action is viewed

as ongoing; in

some languages a

verb could express

imperfective aspect

more narrowly as:

habitual aspect,

in which the

action occurs

repeatedly (as in

"I used to go

there every

day"), or

continuous

aspect

, in which the

action occurs

without pause;

continuous

aspect can be

further

subdivided into

stative

aspect, in

which the

situation is a

fixed,

unevolving

state (as in "I

know

French"), and

progressive

aspect

, in which the

situation

continuously

evolves (as in

"I am

running")

perfect, which

combines elements

of both aspect and

tense, and in which

both a prior event

and the state

resulting from it are

expressed (as in "I

have studied well")

Aspect can either be

lexical, in which case the

aspect is embedded in the

verb's meaning (as in "the

sun shines", where

"shines" is lexically stative);

or it can be grammatically

expressed, as in "I am

running".

Modality[5] expresses the

speaker's attitude toward

the action or state given

by the verb, especially

with regard to degree of

necessity, obligation, or

permission ("You must

go", "You should go",

"You may go"),

determination or

willingness ("I will do this

no matter what"), degree

of probability ("It must be

raining by now", "It may

be raining", "It might be

raining"), or ability ("I can

speak French"). All

languages can express

modality withadverbs,

but some also use verbal

forms as in the given

examples. If the verbal

expression of modality

involves the use of an

auxiliary verb, that

auxiliary is called a modal

verb. If the verbal

expression of modality

involves inflection, we

have the special case of

mood; moods include the

indicative (as in "I am

there"), the subjunctive

(as in "I wish I were

there"), and theimperative

("Be there!").

Voice

The voice[6] of a verb

expresses whether the

subject of the verb is

performing the action of

the verb or whether the

action is being performed

on the subject. The two

most common voices are

theactive voice (as in "I

saw the car") and the

passive voice (as in "The

car was seen by me" or

simply "The car was

seen").

Main article: Non-finite

verb

Most languages have a

number ofverbal nouns

that describe the action of

the verb.

In the Indo-European

languages, verbal

adjectives are generally

calledparticiples. English

has an active participle,

also called a present

participle; and apassive

participle, also called a

past participle. The active

participle of break is

breaking, and the passive

participle is broken. Other

languages haveattributive

verb forms with tense

and aspect. This is

especially common

amongverb-final

languages, where

attributive verb phrases

act asrelative clauses.

PRONOUN

Personal pronouns

Standard English

personal pronouns:

You | Thou | We |

They | Them | It

Parts of speech:

Subjective

Possessive

Determinacy:

Dummy

Generic you

Singular they

Inclusive and

exclusive we

Pluralis majestatis

T-V distinction

Gender issues:

Androgynous

Gender-specific

Gender-neutral

Spivak | Ve | Xe |

Ze | Sie/hir

Slang:

Y'all | Yinz

Other languages:

French, personal

Spanish

Portuguese

Chinese

Japanese

Vietnamese

In linguistics and

grammar, a pronoun (Lat:

pronomen) is a pro-form

that substitutes for a noun

(or noun phrase), such as,

in English, the words it

(substituting for the name

of a certain object) andhe

(substituting for the name

of a person). The replaced

noun is called the

antecedent of the

pronoun.

For example, consider the

sentence "Lisa gave the

coat to Phil." All three

nouns in the sentence can

be replaced by pronouns:

"She gave it to him." If the

coat, Lisa, and Phil have

been previously

mentioned, the listener

can deduce what the

pronounsshe, it and him

refer to and therefore

understand the meaning

of the sentence; however,

if the sentence "She gave

it to him." is the first

presentation of the idea,

none of the pronouns

have antecedents, and

each pronoun is therefore

ambiguous. Pronouns

without antecedents are

also called unprecursed

pronouns. English

grammar allows

pronouns to potentially

have multiple candidate

antecedents. The process

of determining which

antecedent was intended

is known asanaphore

resolution.

Types of pronouns

Common types of

pronouns found in the

world's languages are as

follows:

Personal pronouns

stand in place of the

names of people or

things:

Subjective

pronouns

are used when the

person or thing is

thesubject of the

sentence or

clause. English

example:I like to

eat chips, but she

does not.

Second person

formal and

informal

pronouns

(T-V distinction).

For example,

vous and tu in

French. There is

no distinction in

modern English

though

Elizabethan

English marked

the distinction

with

"thou" (singular

informal) and

"you" (plural or

singular formal).

Inclusive and

exclusive

"we" pronouns

indicate whether

the audience is

included. There

is no distinction

in English.

Intensive

pronouns

, also known as

emphatic

pronouns, re-

emphasize a

noun or

pronoun that has

already been

mentioned.

English uses the

same forms as

for the reflexive

pronouns; for

example: I did it

myself (contrast

reflexive use, I

did it to myself).

Objective

pronouns

are used when the

person or thing is

the object of the

sentence or

clause. English

example: John likes

me but not her.

Direct and

indirect object

pronouns

. English uses the

same forms for

both; for

example: Mary

loveshim (direct

object); Mary

senthim a letter

(indirect object).

Reflexive

pronouns

are used when a

person or thing

acts on itself.

English example:

John cut

himself.

Reciprocal

pronouns

refer to a

reciprocal

relationship.

English example:

They do not like

each other.

Prepositional

pronouns

come after a

preposition. No

distinct forms exist

in English; for

example: Anna

and Maria looked

athim.

Disjunctive

pronouns

are used in

isolation or in

certain other

special

grammatical

contexts. No

distinct forms exist

in English; for

example: Who

does this belong

to?Me.

Dummy

pronouns

are used when

grammatical rules

require a noun (or

pronoun), but

none is

semantically

required. English

example:It is

raining.

Weak pronouns.

Possessive

pronouns

are used to indicate

possession or

ownership.

In a strict sense,

thepossessive

pronouns

are only those that

act syntactically as

nouns. English

example: Those

clothes aremine.

Often, though, the

term "possessive

pronoun" is also

applied to the so-

called

possessive

adjectives

(or possessive

determiners).

For example, in

English: I lostmy

wallet. They are

not strictly

speaking

pronouns[citation

needed] because

they do not

substitute for a

noun or noun

phrase, and as

such, some

grammarians

classify these

terms in a

separate lexical

category called

determiners (they

have a syntactic

role close to that

ofadjectives,

always qualifying

a noun).

Demonstrative

pronouns

distinguish the

particular objects or

people that are

referred to from other

possible candidates.

English example: I'll

take these.

Indefinite pronouns

refer to general

categories of people or

things. English

example:Anyone can

do that.

Distributive

pronouns

are used to refer

to members of a

group separately

rather than

collectively.

English example:

To each his own.

Negative

pronouns indicate

the non-existence

of people or

things. English

example:Nobody

thinks that.

Relative pronouns

refer back to people or

things previously

mentioned. English

example: Peoplewho

smoke should quit

now.

Indefinite

relative

pronounshave

some of the

properties of both

relative pronouns

and indefinite

pronouns. They

have a sense of

"referring back",

but the person or

thing to which

they refer has not

previously been

explicitly named.

English example: I

knowwhat I like.

Interrogative

pronouns

ask which person or

thing is meant. English

example:Who did

that?

In many

languages (e.g.,

Czech, English,

French,

Interlingua, and

Russian), the sets

of relative and

interrogative

pronouns are

nearly identical.

Compare English:

Who is that?

(interrogative) to I

knowwho that is.

(relative).

Pronouns and

determiners

Pronouns and

determiners are closely

related, and some

linguists think pronouns

are actually determiners

without a noun or a noun

phrase.[1] The following

chart shows their

relationships in English.

Pronoun

Determiner

Personal (1st/2nd)

we

we Scotsmen

Possessive

ours

our freedom

Demonstrative

this

this gentleman

Indefinite

some

some frogs

Interrogative

who

which option

The views of different

schools

Pronouns have been

included inparts of

speech since at least the

2nd Century BC where

they were included in Art

of Grammar. Strict

objections against this

approach have appeared

among grammatical

theories in the 20th

century. Their

grammatical

heterogeneity, many-

sided pronouns were

underlined, which were

classified as follows:

«indicative words»

(Karl Brugmann, Karl

Bühler, Uriel

Weinreich);

«indexes» or

«indicators» (Charles

Sanders Peirce,

William Edward

Collinson

);

«words with

changeable

signification» (Adolf

Noreen);

«moveable identifiers»

(Otto Jespersen,

Roman Jakobson);

«updating» or «means

of transferring from

language to speech»

(Charles Bally, Émile

Benveniste);

words of «subjective-

objective lexical

meaning» (Alexey

Peshkovsky);

«word remnants» or

«substitutes» (Lev

Shcherba, Leonard

Bloomfield, Zellig

Harris);

«represents»

(Ferdinand Brunot);

«survivals of special

part of speech» (Viktor

Vinogradov), etc.

"Azerbaijan Linguistic

School

" denies independence of

pronoun, it is not

considered to be an

independentpart of

speech, because relations

between pronouns and

otherparts of speech are

not equal and mutually

exclusive, since the

properties of pronouns

overlap with otherparts

of speech as a subset of

them. But this contradicts

the second law of "logic

division" (which reads:

"Members of division

should be mutually

exclusive, i.e. should not

overlap").

Dismemberment of all

majorparts of speech first

to general and particular

and then to abstract and

concrete types shows that

the place of abstract-and-

general form of each part

of speech is empty. The

conclusion is that this is a

pronoun which is

traditionally (by historical

inertia or under influence

authority of ancient

schools) separated from

the other parts of speech,

gathered in one class and

called a pronoun. On the

basis of this logic this

school considers it

appropriate to distribute

pronouns among other

parts of speech.

NOUN

A noun can co-occur with

anarticle or an attributive

adjective. Verbs and

adjectives can't. In the

following, an asterisk (*) in

front of an example

means that this example is

ungrammatical.

1. the name (name is a

noun: can co-occur with a

definite article the.)

2. *the baptize (baptize is a

verb: cannot co-occur

with a definite article.)

3. constant circulation

(circulation is a noun: can

co-occur with the

attributive adjective

constant.)

4. *constant circulate

(circulate is a verb: cannot

co-occur with the

attributive adjective

constant.)

5. a fright (fright is a noun:

can co-occur with the

indefinite article a.)

6. *an afraid (afraid is an

adjective: cannot co-occur

with the article a.)

7. terrible fright (The noun

fright can co-occur with

the adjective terrible.)

8. *terrible afraid (The

adjective afraid cannot co-

occur with the adjective

terrible.)

In linguistics, a noun is a

member of a large, open

lexical category whose

members can occur as

the main word in the

subject of a clause, the

object of a verb, or the

object of a preposition (or

put more simply, a noun

is a word used to name a

person, animal, place,

thing or abstract idea).[1]

Lexical categories are

defined in terms of how

their members combine

with other kinds of

expressions. Thesyntactic

rules for nouns differ

from language to

language. InEnglish,

nouns may be defined as

those words which can

occur with articles and

attributive adjectives and

can function as the head

of a noun phrase.

In traditional English

grammar, the noun is one

of the eightparts of

speech.

History

Noun comes from the

Latin nōmen "name",[2] a

translation of Ancient

Greek ónoma.[3] Word

classes like nouns were

first described byPāṇini in

the Sanskrit language and

by Ancient Greek

grammarians, and were

defined by the

grammaticalforms that

they take. In Greek and

Sanskrit, for example,

nouns are categorized by

gender and inflected for

case and number.

Because nouns and

adjectives share these

three categories,

Dionysius Thrax does not

clearly distinguish

between the two, and

uses the term ónoma

"name" for both, although

some of the words that

he describes as

paragōgón (pl. paragōgá)

"derived"[4] are

adjectives.[5]

Different

definitions of

nouns

Expressions of natural

language have properties

at different levels. They

have formal properties,

like what kinds of

morphological prefixes or

suffixes they take and

what kinds of other

expressions they combine

with; but they also have

semantic properties, i.e.

properties pertaining to

their meaning. The

definition of a noun at the

outset of this article is thus

a formal, traditional

grammatical definition.

That definition, for the

most part, is considered

uncontroversial and

furnishes the means for

users of certain languages

to effectively distinguish

most nouns from non-

nouns. However, it has

the disadvantage that it

does not apply to nouns

in all languages. For

example inRussian, there

are no definite articles, so

one cannot define nouns

as words that are

modified by definite

articles. There have also

been several attempts to

define nouns in terms of

theirsemantic properties.

Many of these are

controversial, but some

are discussed below.

Names for things

In traditional school

grammars, one often

encounters the definition

of nouns that they are all

and only those

expressions that refer to a

person, place, thing,

event, substance, quality,

quantity, or idea, etc. This

is a semantic definition. It

has been criticized by

contemporary linguists as

being uninformative.[6]

Contemporary linguists

generally agree that one

cannot successfully define

nouns (or other

grammatical categories) in

terms of what sort of

object in the world they

refer to or signify. Part of

the conundrum is that the

definition makes use of

relatively general nouns

(thing, phenomenon,

event) to define what

nouns are.

The existence of such

general nouns

demonstrates that nouns

refer to entities that are

organized intaxonomic

hierarchies. But other

kinds of expressions are

also organized into such

structured taxonomic

relationships. For example

the verbs stroll, saunter,

stride, and tread are more

specific words than the

more general walk – see

Troponymy. Moreover,

walk is more specific than

the verb move, which, in

turn, is less general than

change. But it is unlikely

that such taxonomic

relationships can be used

to define nouns and

verbs. We cannot define

verbs as those words that

refer to changes or states,

for example, because the

nouns change and state

probably refer to such

things, but, of course, are

not verbs. Similarly,

nouns like invasion,

meeting, or collapse refer

to things that are done or

happen. In fact, an

influentialtheory has it

that verbs like kill or die

refer to events,[7][8] one

of the categories of things

that nouns are supposed

to refer to.

The point being made

here is not that this view

of verbs is wrong, but

rather that this property of

verbs is a poor basis for a

definition of this category,

just like the property of

having wheels is a poor

basis for a definition of

cars (some things that

have wheels, such as

most suitcases or a

jumbo jet, aren't cars).

Similarly, adjectives like

yellow or difficult might

be thought to refer to

qualities, and adverbs like

outside or upstairs seem

to refer to places, which

are also among the sorts

of things nouns can refer

to. But verbs, adjectives,

and adverbs are not

nouns, and nouns are not

verbs, adjectives, or

adverbs. One might argue

that definitions of this sort

really rely on speakers'

prior intuitive knowledge

of what nouns, verbs,

and adjectives are, and so

do not really add

anything. Speakers'

intuitive knowledge of

such things might

plausibly be based on

formal criteria, such as the

traditional grammatical

definition of English nouns

aforementioned.

Predicates with

identity criteria

The British logician Peter

Thomas Geach proposed

a more subtle semantic

definition of nouns.[9] He

noticed that adjectives like

"same" can modify

nouns, but no other kinds

of parts of speech, like

verbs or adjectives. Not

only that, but there also

do not seem to be any

other expressions with

similar meaning that can

modify verbs and

adjectives. Consider the

following examples.

grammatical: John and Bill

participated in thesame

fight.

ungrammatical: *John and

Billsamely fought.

There is no English adverb

samely. In some other

languages, like Czech,

however there are

adverbs corresponding to

samely. Hence, in Czech,

the translation of the last

sentence would be fine;

however, it would mean

that John and Bill fought in

the same way: not that

they participated in the

same fight. Geach

proposed that we could

explain this, if nouns

denote logicalpredicates

with identity criteria. An

identity criterion would

allow us to conclude, for

example, that person x at

time 1 is the same person

as person y at time 2.

Different nouns can have

different identity criteria. A

well known example of

this is due to Gupta:[10]

National Airlines

transported 2 million

passengers in 1979.

National Airlines

transported (at least) 2

millionpersons in 1979.

Given that, in general, all

passengers are persons,

the last sentence above

ought to follow logically

from the first one. But it

doesn't. It is easy to

imagine, for example, that

on average, every person

who travelled with

National Airlines in 1979,

travelled with them twice.

In that case, one would

say that the airline

transported 2 million

passengers but only 1

million persons. Thus, the

way that we count

passengers isn't

necessarily the same as

the way that we count

persons. Put somewhat

differently: At two different

times, you may

correspond to two distinct

passengers, even though

you are one and the same

person. For a precise

definition of identity

criteria, see Gupta.[10]

Prototypically

referential

expressions

Another semantic

definition of nouns is that

they are prototypically

referential.[11]

Recently, Mark Baker[12]

has proposed that Geach's

definition of nouns in

terms of identity criteria

allows us to explain the

characteristic properties of

nouns. He argues that

nouns can co-occur with

(in-)definite articles and

numerals, and are

prototypically referential

because they are all and

only thoseparts of speech

that provide identity

criteria. Baker's proposals

are quite new, and

linguists are still evaluating

them.

Classification of

nouns in English

Proper nouns and

common nouns

Main article: Proper noun

A proper noun or proper

name is a noun

representing unique

entities (such asLondon,

Jupiter, Larry, or Toyota),

as distinguished from

common nouns which

describe a class of entities

(such as city, planet,

person or car).[13]

Countable and

uncountable nouns

Main articles: Count noun

and Mass noun

Count nouns are

common nouns that can

take aplural, can combine

with numerals or

quantifiers (e.g., one, two,

several, every, most), and

can take an indefinite

article (a or an). Examples

of count nouns are chair,

nose, and occasion.

Mass nouns (or non-

count nouns) differ from

count nouns in precisely

that respect: they can't

take plural or combine

with number words or

quantifiers. Examples

from English include

laughter, cutlery, helium,

and furniture. For

example, it is not possible

to refer to a furniture or

three furnitures. This is

true even though the

pieces of furniture

comprising furniture

could be counted. Thus

the distinction between

mass and count nouns

should not be made in

terms of what sorts of

things the nouns refer to,

but rather in terms of

how the nouns present

these entities.[14][15]

Collective nouns

Main article: Collective

noun

Collective nouns are

nouns that refer to groups

consisting of more than

one individual or entity,

even when they are

inflected for thesingular.

Examples include

committee, herd, and

school (of fish). These

nouns have slightly

different grammatical

properties than other

nouns. For example, the

noun phrases that they

head can serve as the

subject of a collective

predicate, even when they

are inflected for the

singular.

Concrete nouns and

abstract nouns

Further information:

physical

bodyand abstract object

Concrete nouns refer to

physical entities that can,

in principle at least, be

observed by at least one

of thesenses (for

instance, chair, apple,

Janet or atom). Abstract

nouns, on the other hand,

refer toabstract objects;

that is, ideas or concepts

(such as justice or hatred).

While this distinction is

sometimes exclusive,

some nouns have

multiple senses, including

both concrete and

abstract ones; consider,

for example, the noun art,

which usually refers to a

concept (e.g., Art is an

important element of

human culture) but which

can refer to a specific

artwork in certain contexts

(e.g., I put my daughter's

art up on the fridge).

Some abstract nouns

developed etymologically

by figurative extension

from literal roots. These

include drawback,

fraction, holdout, and

uptake. Similarly, some

nouns have both abstract

and concrete senses, with

the latter having

developed by figurative

extension from the

former. These include

view, filter, structure, and

key.

In English, many abstract

nouns are formed by

adding noun-forming

suffixes (-ness, -ity, -ion)

to adjectives or verbs.

Examples are happiness

(from the adjective

happy), circulation (from

the verb circulate) and

serenity (from the

adjective serene).

Nouns and

pronouns

Nouns and noun phrases

can typically be replaced

bypronouns, such as he,

it, which, and those, in

order to avoid repetition

or explicit identification, or

for other reasons. For

example, in the sentence

Janet thought that he was

weird, the word he is a

pronoun standing in place

of the name of the person

in question. The English

word one can replace

parts ofnoun phrases,

and it sometimes stands

in for a noun. An example

is given below:

John's car is newer than

the one that Bill has.

But one can also stand in

for bigger subparts of a

noun phrase. For

example, in the following

example, one can stand in

for new car.

This new car is cheaper

than that one.

Substantive as a

word for noun

"Substantive" redirects

here. For other uses, see

Substance

(disambiguation).

Starting with old Latin

grammars, many

European languages use

some form of the word

substantive as the basic

term for noun (for

example, Spanish

sustantivo, "noun").

Nouns in the dictionaries

of such languages are

demarked by the

abbreviation s. or sb.

instead of n, which may

be used for proper nouns

instead. This corresponds

to those grammars in

which nouns and

adjectives phase into each

other in more areas than,

for example, the English

term predicate adjective

entails. In French and

Spanish, for example,

adjectives frequently act

as nouns referring to

people who have the

characteristics of the

adjective. The most

common metalanguage

to name this concept is

nominalization. An

example in English is:

This legislation will have

the most impact on the

poor.

Similarly, an adjective can

also be used for a whole

group or organization of

people:

The Socialist International.

Hence, these words are

substantives that are

usually adjectives in

English.

The word nominal also

overlaps in meaning and

usage with noun and

adjective.

See also

Description

Grammatical case

Phi features

Reference

Lexical categories and

their features

Noun

Abstract/Concrete ·

Adjectival · Agent ·

Animate/Inanimate ·

Attributive · Collective ·

Common/Proper ·

Countable · Deverbal ·

Initial-stress-derived ·

Mass · Relational ·

Strong · Verbal · Weak

Verb

Verb

forms

Finite · Non-

finite —

Attributive ·

Converb ·

Gerund ·

Gerundive ·

Infinitive ·

Participle

(adjectival ·

adverbial) ·

Supine · Verbal

noun

Verb

types

Accusative ·

Ambitransitive ·

Andative/

Venitive·

Anticausative ·

Autocausative ·

Auxiliary ·

Captative ·

Catenative ·

Compound ·

Copular ·

Defective ·

Denominal ·

Deponent ·

Ditransitive ·

Dynamic ·

ECM · Ergative ·

Frequentative ·

Impersonal ·

Inchoative ·

Intransitive ·

Irregular ·

Lexical · Light ·

Modal ·

Monotransitive ·

Negative ·

Performative ·

Phrasal ·

Predicative ·

Preterite-

present·

Reflexive ·

Regular ·

Separable ·

Stative ·

Stretched ·

Strong ·

Transitive ·

Unaccusative ·

Unergative ·

Weak

Adjective

Collateral ·

Demonstrative ·

Possessive · Post-

positive

Adverb

Genitive ·

Conjunctive · Flat ·

Prepositional ·

Pronomial

Pronoun

Demonstrative ·

Disjunctive ·

Distributive · Donkey ·

Dummy · Formal/

Informal · Gender-

neutral · Gender-

specific · Inclusive/

Exclusive · Indefinite ·

Intensive ·

Interrogative ·

Objective · Personal ·

Possessive ·

Prepositional ·

Reciprocal · Reflexive ·

Relative · Resumptive ·

Subjective · Weak

Preposition Inflected · Casally

modulated

Conjunction

Determiner

Article ·

Demonstrative ·

Interrogative ·

Possessive · Quantifier

Classifier

Particle Discourse · Modal ·

Noun

Complementizer

Other

Copula · Coverb ·

Expletive · Interjection

(verbal) · Measure

word · Preverb · Pro-

form · Pro-sentence ·

Pro-verb · Procedure

word

References

1. ^ Loos, Eugene E., et al.

2003. Glossary of

linguistic terms: What is a

noun?

2. ^ nōmen. Charlton T.

Lewis and Charles Short.

A Latin Dictionary on

Perseus Project.

3. ^ ὄνομα. Liddell, Henry

George; Scott, Robert; A

Greek-English Lexicon at

Perseus Project

4. ^ παραγωγός in Liddell

and Scott

5. ^ Dionysius Thrax. τέχνη

γραμματική (Art of

Grammar), section ιβ´

(10b): περὶ ὀνόματος

(On the noun). Bibliotheca

Augustana.

εἴδη δὲ παραγώνων

ἐστὶν ἑπτά·

πατρωνυμικόν,

κτητικόν,

συγκριτικόν,

ὑπερθετικόν,

ὑποκοριστικόν,

παρώνυμον, ῥηματικόν.

There are seven types of

derived [nouns]:

patronymic, possessive,

comparative, superlative,

diminutive, derived from

a noun, [and] verbal.

6. ^ Jackendoff, Ray. 2002.

Foundations of language:

brain, meaning,

grammar, evolution.

Oxford University Press.

Page 124.

7. ^ Davidson, Donald. 1967.

The logical form of action

sentences. In Nicholas

Rescher, ed., The Logic of

Decision and Action,

Pittsburgh, Pa: University

of Pittsburgh Press.

8. ^ Parsons, Terence. 1990.

Events in the semantics of

English: a study in

subatomic semantics.

Cambridge, Mass.:MIT

Press

9. ^ Geach, Peter. 1962.

Reference and Generality.

Cornell University Press.

10. ^ a b Gupta, Anil. 1980,

The logic of common

nouns. New Haven and

London: Yale University

Press.

11. ^ Croft, William. 1993. "A

noun is a noun is a noun -

or is it? Some reflections

on the universality of

semantics". Proceedings

of the Nineteenth Annual

Meeting of the Berkeley

Linguistics Society, ed.

Joshua S. Guenter,

Barbara A. Kaiser and

Cheryl C. Zoll, 369-80.

Berkeley: Berkeley

Linguistics Society.

12. ^ Baker, Mark. 2003,

Lexical Categories: verbs,

nouns, and adjectives.

Cambridge University

Press, Cambridge.

13. ^ Lester, Mark; Larry

Beason (2005). The

McGraw-Hill Handbook of

English Grammar and

Usage. McGraw-Hill. p. 4.

ISBN 0-07-144133-6.

14. ^ Krifka, Manfred. 1989.

"Nominal Reference,

Temporal Constitution and

Quantification in Event

Semantics". In R. Bartsch,

J. van Benthem, P. von

Emde Boas (eds.),

Semantics and Contextual

Expression, Dordrecht:

Foris Publication.

15. ^ Borer, Hagit. 2005. In

Name Only. Structuring

Sense, Volume I. Oxford:

Oxford University Press.

Bibliography

Laycock, Henry, 2005

'Mass nouns, Count

nouns and Non-count

nouns', Draft version of

entry in Encyclopedia of

Language and Linguistics

Oxford: Elsevier (pdf)