English Grammar and Composition chapter 1: Parts of Speech

Unit One

Parts of Speech

Lesson 1: Nouns

A. Look at the underlined words in the following passage:

Anika is in class seven. She lives in a village of Jamalpur with her parents. She has two sisters. She often takes them to school. She has to help her mother as well. Her father is a small businessman. In her free time, Anika likes to draw pictures and write poems in Bangla. Anika's dream is to become a computer engineer.

These are all nouns. A noun is a word used to refer to people, animals, objects, substances, states, events, ideas and feelings.

B. Nouns can be countable or uncountable. The nouns which can be counted are countable and those which cannot be counted are uncountable.

Read the following sentences and say whether the underlined nouns are countable or uncountable:

He has many friends.

Kamal has given me some good news.

Urmi borrowed some books from the library.

Afsana eats bread for breakfast.

Zahid's father is a teacher.

C. Countable nouns have two forms: singular and plural. The singular form refers to one person or thing and the plural form refers to more than one person or thing.

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a. How to make plurals

Regular plurals are formed by adding ' s' to the singular forms of nouns. For example:

book-------------books

flower----------------flowers

teacher---------- teachers

b. By adding '-es' to nouns ending in ‘ss’, ‘ch’, ‘s’, ‘sh’ or ‘x’. For example: watch-------------- watches

class----------------classes

box----------------boxes

c. Nouns ending in consonants and ‘y’ change to ‘ies' in the plurals.For example: country --------------countries

victory -------------- victories

lady ----------------------- ladies

d. Nouns ending in a vowel and ‘y’ have an ‘s’ in the plurals. For example: boy ---------------boys

day --------------------- days

key -------------- keys

e. Some common nouns have irregular plurals. For example: child --------------- children

foot --------------------------- feet

mouse --------------------- mice.

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Give the plurals of the following nouns. One is done for you:

horse-------horses woman--------- tooth --------

glass -------- wish -------- truck --------

pencil------- friend ------- monkey -----

tomato ----- way ---------- eye -----------

D. Rewrite these sentences using plural nouns. One is done for you:

1. A bus is quicker than a rickshaw. / Buses are quicker than rickshaws.
2. A tiger is a ferocious animal. / ______________________________
3. A banker earns more money than a teacher. / _________________
4. A laptop is an expensive piece of equipment. / _________________
5. A student has to work hard. / ______________________________
6. A good book helps to pass time. / __________________________

E. Complete these sentences with a singular or plural noun:

1. The __________ stops outside our house. (car / cars).
2. The ________ were waiting for me. (child/children)
3. The __________ are in the shelf. ( book/books)
4. Do you know the ______ who lives next door? ( man/men)
5. The dentist pulled out the ________ that was hurting. (tooth/teeth)
6. The ____ who was waiting here has gone home. (boy/boys)

F. Complete these sentences with a singular or a plural verb:

1. The children___________ ready for school. (is getting/ are getting)
2. My uncle ________________ in the army. (is/are)
3. The flower________________ sweet. (smell/smells)
4. The chocolates we bought ___________ very expensive. (was/were)
5. The letters you posted yesterday ___________ confidential. (was/were)
6. The young man you met yesterday ____________ transferred to this office recently. (has been/ have been)

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Lesson 2: Pronouns

A. Look at the underlined words in the following texts :

a. Mr Ahmed is reading a book. It is very interesting.

b. Students of this school are very disciplined. They all stay in the hostel.

c. The game teacher asked players to go to the field in the afternoon. But nobody was there.

Note: Here 'It' refers to a book, ' they' refers to students and ‘nobody’ refers to players. Here it, they and nobody are called pronouns as they are used instead of nouns. In other words, pronouns are alternatives to nouns. When something or someone is already mentioned in a sentence you refer to them again by using a pronoun.

B. Look at the pronouns in the box:

These are called personal pronouns. Let us learn more about personal pronouns. Pronouns have 3 forms namely subjective, objective and possessive. Look at the table below and see different forms of pronouns.

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C. Look at the following sentences:

My brother is healthy. He weighs 75 kg.

Ms Shaila works in a bank. She has been doing this job for the last 15 years.

Note: In English, 'he' and 'she' normally refer to people, but they often refer to animals too.

D. Now use personal pronouns in the following text:

Maruf's father is a businessman. ______ has been in business for about 15 years. Currently in his farm, there are 20 people working full time. _____ has three children who are going to school. Maruf is _______________ second child.The youngest and eldest are both ___________ daughters.

E. Let us use pronouns in their possessive forms. Look at the examples :

This is our school.

Who is your brother?

Do you know where my pen is?

Look at the following sentences. 'Yours', 'hers', 'his' and 'ours' are also possessives.

This is my book. That is yours.

These toys are hers.

This bicycle is his.

This garden is ours.

Now use possessives in the following sentences.

After retirement Mr Kamal is living in _______ own village. He lives with his wife who has also retired from ____________ job as a school teacher. _______ children live in Bogra where they have ____________ own families. _____________ children often ask them to visit them.

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Lesson 3: Adjectives

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

Sharmin is a pretty girl.

Our library is big.

Do you have any digital camera?

Note: The words 'pretty', 'big' and 'digital' describe a girl, a library and a camera respectively. These words are called adjectives.

Look at the underlined words in the following text :

Ms Tahmina Anwar is a skilled teacher. She is qualified too. She has a long teaching experience. She has an excellent academic record as well. She is a favourite teacher to her students as she is very caring.

Now say which words these adjectives describe or modify.

B. Now look at the passage below and fill in the gaps with adjectives:

My uncle is a ______________ engineer. He works in a ______________ company as a __________ engineer. He graduated in _____________ engineering from BUET. He also studied abroad for his _________ qualification. Currently he is in charge of a ___________ project.

C. You may use words with 'ing' ending as adjectives to describe the effect that something has on your feelings or on the feelings of people in general.

Look at the words in the box below and use some of them as adjectives in your own sentences:

charming, amazing, boring, exciting, disappointing, encouraging, welcoming, surprising, shocking, alarming, embarrassing, confusing, depressing, existing, living, tiring, dying,

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The past participle forms of verbs that describe our feelings can be used as adjectives too. Look at the words in the box below:

delighted, interested, frustrated, worried, depressed, surprised, tired, amazed, exhausted, satisfied, bored, pleased,

Use 4-5 of these adjectives in your own sentences:

D. Now use appropriate words in the blanks of the following sentences:

1. My friend Tumpa is __________ in music. But she thinks cricket is an _____________ game.

2. Moynamoti is an _________ place to visit but my uncle was ____________ with the long journey there.

3. I felt really _____________ to see my teacher in my uncle's wedding; it was ___________ too.

4. The film was quite __________ but I felt ___________ to my favorite heroine there.

5. I was so _______ in the work that I could finish in due time. And my teacher thinks it is _____.