English Grammar and Composition chapter 1: Parts of Speech

UNIT 01 Parts of Speech

Lesson 1: Noun

A. Read the following sentences:

We live in Bangladesh.

It is a beautiful country.

Our mother language is Bangla.

We love our country and our language.

Count the number of words in each of these sentences. Each word in a sentence is a part of speech. There are eight parts of speech in English. They are:

1. Noun
2. Pronoun
3. Adjective
4. Verb
5. Adverb
6. Preposition
7. Conjunction
8. Interjection

B. Read the following passage and look at the underlined words:

Shanta lives in Rajshahi with her parents. She is a student of class six. She goes to school regularly. She loves to read books. She also loves music. All her friends are fond of her.

These are all naming words. They are called nouns. Nouns refer to a large number of things. Here are some categories.

Names of people:

Names of countries:

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Names of cities:

Names of foods:

Names of fruits:

Names of flowers:

Names of animals:

Names of qualities

Names of institutions:

Names of relations:

In fact, there is no end to this list. You can add many other things like these.

• Supply four nouns for each of the above categories. Also refer to the above passage and

• Say which of the underlined words refers to what category of names.

C. Look at the underlined words in the following sentences:

I saw the boy sitting in the field. Some girls were also with him. They were discussing their problems of living in the school hostel.

Now say which of these words mean one person/thing and which ones mean more than one person/ thing.

When a noun refers to one person or thing, its form is singular. On the other hand, when a noun refers to more than one person or thing, its form is plural. Look at the following examples:

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Notice ‘s’, ‘es’ and ‘ies’ have been used to form plurals in the above examples. These are called plural markers. The words ending with ‘s’, ‘x’ and ‘ch’ have taken ‘es’ and the words ending with ‘y’ have taken ‘ies’ to form plurals.

But some plurals are irregular in their forms. For example:

Notice how the plurals are formed in the above examples.

Note: In English, plurals are usually formed by adding s, es or ies to the singular form.

D. Read the following passage and identify the nouns in it:

Mr. Habib is now a happy man for several reasons. Firstly, he has recently made a lot of money from his business. Secondly, he has bought two flats in Dhaka. Thirdly, his wife has recovered from her long illness. Fourthly, he has married all his daughters off. Finally, his son has got a good job. These are the causes of his present happiness.

Now say which of these nouns are singular and which of them are plural. Make sentences of your own with two singular nouns and two plural nouns.

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E. Fill in the blanks in the following passage with appropriate singular and plural nouns:

Salam is a ----- of class 6. He has some very good-----. They go to----- together. They also sit together in the ----- . All ----- love them.

F. Write a sentence with each of the following nouns:

reasons, business, illness, marriage, happiness

Lesson 2: Countable and Uncountable Nouns

A. Read the following conversation and notice the underlined nouns·

Aslam: Excuse me, do you have pencils and erasers?

Shopkeeper: Yes, we have a lot. How many do you want?

Aslam: I need one pencil and one eraser.

Shopkeeper: Here you are.

Aslam: Thank you. Can I have a tube of toothpaste, please?

Shopkeeper: Certainly. Anything else?

Aslam: Oh yes, a bar of soap and a small bottle of coconut oil.

Shopkeeper: Just a minute.

Which of these nouns can be and which of them cannot be counted? Those which you can count are called countable nouns and those which you cannot count are called uncountable nouns.

In the conversation, five items are underlined. Of them, ‘pencil’ and ‘eraser’ are countable nouns because they can be counted. You can say,

A pencil, one pencil or two pencils An eraser, one eraser or three erasers

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A countable noun can have both singular and plural forms. You can ask the question ‘how many ’ for a countable noun. For example,

Question: How many pens do you have?

Answer : I have only one pen (singular )

: I have two pens. (plural )

On the other hand, ‘toothpaste’, ’soap’ and ‘oil’ are uncountable nouns. Uncountable nouns cannot be counted and they do not have any plural form. When you want to mention the quantity of an uncountable item, you should use some measure words before it. For example, ‘a tube of’, ‘a bar of’ and ‘a bottle of’ are measure words. You can say,

two tubes of toothpaste

three bars of soap

four bottles of oil

B. Use appropriate measure words before the uncountable nouns in the following sentences. Choose the measure words from the box below:

a piece of two cups of a sheet of stick of

a grain of two kilograms of a lot of

1. I take___________________ tea a day.
2. Take this_______________chalk and write your name on the board.
3. He gave me_____________news.
4. I do not take even____________ sugar in my tea.
5. Give me___________ paper.
6. She bought__________sugar.
7. He has____________ money.

C. Work with a partner and ask and answer the following questions:

1. How many friends do you have?
2. How many classes do you attend a day?

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3. How many subjects do you study?
4. How many books do you read in class six?
5. How many students are there in your class?

Are the nouns in these questions and your answers countable or uncountable? Why?

Now answer the following questions:

1. Do you have any money on you?
2. Did your teacher give you any advice about improving your English?
3. How many types of furniture do you have in your room?
4. Have you got any information about the exam?
5. Do you have straight or curly hair?

Are these nouns countable or uncountable? Why?

D. Read the following conversation:

Salam: How many televisions do you have in your house?

Salma: We have two televisions.

Salam: How much television do you watch?

Salma: In fact, I watch a lot of television.

Here ‘television’ is used both as a countable and an uncountable noun. There are many such nouns which can be used as both countable and uncountable nouns. In this case, the meaning of the noun undergoes a change. Say which use of television is countable and which one is uncountable in the above examples.

(i) Look at the following examples and say whether the nouns in bold are countable or uncountable:

Rice and chicken is my favourite food.

I have bought two chickens.

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This house is made of brick.

There are some bricks on the road.

Her hair is very long.

I found two hairs in the soup.

I went to Dhaka by bus.

Two buses are standing there.

(ii) Use 5 more nouns, using each of them as countable and uncountable noun.

Lesson 3: Pronouns

A. Read the following dialogue and notice the underlined words:

Tipu : Tamanna, who are there before the notice board? 1

Tamanna : They are Mr. and Mrs. Ahsan. They are my neighbours. 2

Today they bring me to school with their children. 3

Tipu : Oh really! They are very helpful. 4

Tamanna : Sure! They are very good and very helpful. 5

They have great relations with all neighbours. 6

My parents like them a lot. So they sometimes depend on them. 7

Tipu : Are their children students of this school? 8

Tamanna : Yes, they are. 9

One of them is a 3rd grader and another one is a 5th grader. 10

They are so lovely as well. They often come to our place. 11

I also go to their place almost every day. We are good friends. 12

The underlined words in the dialogue are used in place of a name or names. For example, they in the 2^nd sentence refers to Mr. and Mrs. Ahsan and their in the 3^rd sentence refers to Mr. and Mrs. Ahsan’s .

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So pronouns are words that we use in place of a noun or nouns.

Look at the list of pronouns in different forms below.

Now try to find out the nouns which the following pronouns refer to in the dialogue in section A.

My in the 2nd line refers to ____________________________________

Me in the 3^rd line refers to ____________________________________

Them in the 7^th line refers to ____________________________________

They in the 7^th line refers to ____________________________________

Their in the 8^th line refers to ____________________________________

They in the 9^th line refers to ____________________________________

They in the 11^th line refers to ____________________________________

We in the 12^th line refers to ____________________________________

B. (i) Now fill in the gaps in the following sentences with appropriate forms of pronouns:

1. ___ are a good boy.
2. My parents love ___.
3. This is ___ pen.
4. ___ bought this pen.
5. The food was good. We enjoyed___ very much.
6. I borrowed___ pen in ___ math class.

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(ii) Make sentences of your own using some other pronouns in the following forms.

Subject form: ____________________________________________

Object form: ____________________________________________

Possessive form: ____________________________________________

Another Possessive form: ____________________________________________