We will be having a look at the *PARTS OF SPEECH IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE.*
Let me make this very clear, you can never be good in English language, if you don't know your parts of speech and its uses very well. So many people keep saying that they don't do well in English language, the reason is because they haven't taken time to study the parts of speech very well.
What is *part of speech?*
The definition of a part of speech is a class of words based on the word's function and the way it works in a sentence. The parts of speech in English language are- noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
Let me say this, in practice we have seven of it, while in theory they are eight.
*A NOUN*.
Right from primary all through higher institution, many of us believe that Noun is simply the name of a person, place, animal or thing.
Well, I wouldn't condemn those that taught it then, but on a clearer note, that teaching is deceptive.
It is deceptive, because a given word that serves as a noun in one context in a sentence, can perform other grammatical functions in certain positions.
For example, the following words- fish, fast, singing, import, teaching, et'cetera, have the capacity to perform roles either as nouns, verbs, adjectives or adverbs.
In essence, the way I define noun to my students is: Anything you can think of. You can think of God, ocean, sea, wind, air, culture, home, culture, economy, religion, government, love, hatred, phone, sex, books etc.
So you see, noun is made up of the seen/the unseen, the known/the unknown, the tangible/the intangible, the countable/the uncountable, etc.
All names of all things are nouns. Nouns acts as *subjects in a sentence*. Subject in a sentence is the person or thing being talked about, and it usually comes before a verb.
*Examples of noun as a subject*
1. *Obi* kicked the ball.
2. *The dog* chased the boy.
3. *The driver of the lorry* spoke to the police.
Now, the subjects in these sentences are- 'Obi', 'The dog' and 'The driver of the lorry'.
You will find out that a subject can be one word, two words or more. Now when you have two or more words as a subject, it is called *NOUN PHRASE*
*Types of Noun:*
1. *COMMON NOUN:* This is the general name of person, place, animal, thing or idea. E.g- Woman, man, flower, school, market etc.
2. *PROPER NOUN:* This is a specific name of a person, place or thing. Now, common noun is given a specific name: Mrs. Florence(Woman), Mr. Kenneth (man), Hibiscus(flower), University of Lagos(school), Mercedes(car). etc.
Hope you got that?
NB: the first letter of every proper noun must be capitalized.
3. *ABSTRACT NOUNS:* This names ideas, feelings and things you cannot see. E.g- beauty, love, honesty, kindness, lies etc.
4. *COLLECTIVE NOUN:* It is the collective names of things, ideas or group of people.
E.g-
A HERD of cattles
A GANG or robbers
A SCHOOL of fish
A RANGE of mountains
A GALAXY of stars
A SET of tools
A BUNCH of keys
Others includes- swarm, committee, group, audience etc.
5. *POSSESSIVE NOUN:* This shows ownership. One interesting thing about this type of noun is the reference to name of firms. E.g-
I bought the drugs at the Shawn's.
I bought the drugs at Shawns
The above is the same thing as saying "I bought the drugs at the Shawn's pharmacy". If the pharmacy is owned by one person called Shawn, you write it as 'Shawn's', but if it is ownes and controlled by Shawn's family, you write it as 'Shwans'.
From the lesson, you will find out that Noun is very important as far as making a sentence is concerned. But most importantly, you don't just use a noun; use the one that best captures your subject(s).
Mbah Dandy™©•••✍️✍️✍️(Convener).
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