Verbal Ability – Parts of Speech
Pronouns
What are Pronouns?
A pronoun (I, me, he, she, herself, you, it, that, they, each,
few, many, who, whoever, whose, someone, everybody,
etc.) is a word that takes the place of a noun.
To cut down on repetitiveness like:
Janet has to study in order for Janet to get the job that
Janet wants
We can change our original sentence to:
Janet has to study in order for her to get the job that she
wants.
More examples of pronouns:
I passed the test.
You passed the test.
He passed the test.
She passed the test..
We passed the test.
They passed the test.
Verbs
What is a verb?
What is a Noun? A verb is one of the main parts of a sentence or question in
Of all the parts of speech, nouns are perhaps the most English.
important. A noun is a word that identifies a person, In fact, you can’t have a sentence or a question without a
animal, place, thing, or idea. verb! That’s how important these “action” parts of speech
are.
Person – A term for a person, whether proper name, The verb signals an action, an occurrence, or a state of
gender, title, or class, is a noun. being. Whether mental, physical, or mechanical, verbs
Animal – A term for an animal, whether proper name, always express activity.
species, gender, or class is a noun.
Place – A term for a place, whether proper name, physical Physical Verb Examples
location, or general locale is a noun. Let’s run to the corner and back.
Thing – A term for a thing, whether it exists now, will exist, I hear the train coming.
or existed in the past is a noun. Call me when you’re finished with class.
Idea – A term for an idea, be it a real, workable idea or a
fantasy that might never come to fruition is a noun. Mental Verb Examples
I know the answer.
Person – John started to run. She recognized me from across the room.
Person – Sharon admires her grandfather. Do you believe everything people tell you?
Person – My mother looks a lot like my grandmother, and I States of Being Verb Examples
look very much like them. I am a student.
We are circus performers.
Animal – The dog barked at the cat. Please be quiet.
Animal – Elephants never forget.
Animal – Sophie is my favorite horse.
Place – The restaurant is open.
Place – Let’s go to the beach.
Place – Harvard and Yale are two famous universities.
Place – Look! There’s the Eiffel Tower.
Thing – Throw the ball. Adverb
Thing – Please close the door and lock it. What is adverb?
Thing – The lamp sits on a table next to the sofa. One function of adverbs is to intensify the meaning of the
Thing – Money doesn’t grow on trees. word it is modifying. It does this by either putting more or
less emphasis on the word, amplifying the meaning of the
Idea – Follow the rules. word, or to toning down the feeling of the word.
Idea – The theory of relativity is an important concept.
Idea – Love is a wonderful emotion. • Very
• Too
Verbal Ability – Parts of Speech
• Almost Examples:
• Also He speaks slowly (tells how)
• Only He speaks very slowly (the adverb very tells how slowly)
• Enough She arrived today (tells when)
• So She will arrive in an hour (this adverb phrase tells when)
• Quite
• Almost Conjunctions
• Rather
They may be small words, but conjunctions are highly
functional and very important for constructing sentences.
• Here
As you can see in the first sentence the coordinating
• There
conjunction “and” was used to link different parts of the
• Everywhere sentence. This is the main job of conjunctions. Basically,
• Somewhere conjunctions join words, phrases and clauses together.
• In
• Inside Prepositions
• Underground A preposition is a word which shows relationships among
• Out other words in the sentence. The relationships
• Outside include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount.
• Upstairs In the sentence She went to the store, to is
• Downstairs a preposition which showsdirection. In the sentence He
came by bus, by is a preposition which shows manner. In
Adjectives the sentence They will be here at three o'clock, at is
What is an adjective? a preposition which shows time and in the sentence It is
Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words. under the table, under is apreposition which shows place.
They can identify or quantify another person or thing in the A preposition always goes with a noun or pronoun which is
sentence. Adjectives are usually positioned before the noun called the object of the preposition. The preposition is
or the pronoun that they modify. almost always before the noun or pronoun and that is why
In the following examples, the highlighted words are it is called a preposition. The preposition and the object of
adjectives: the preposition together are called a prepositional phrase.
• They live in a beautiful house. The following chart shows the prepositions, objects of the
• Lisa is wearing a sleeveless shirt today. preposition, and prepositional phrases of the sentences
above.
Lists of adjectives:
Common adjectives
Good, New, First, Last, Long, Great, Little, Own, Other, Old,
Right, Big, High, Different
Small Large Next Early Young Important
Few
Public Bad Same Able
Difference between adverbs and adjectives:
An adjective is a word or set of words that modifies (i.e.,
describes) a noun or pronoun. Adjectives may come before
the word they modify.
Examples:
That is a cute puppy.
She likes a high school senior.
Adjectives may also follow the word they modify:
Examples:
That puppy looks cute.
The technology is state-of-the-art.
An adverb is a word or set of words that modifies verbs,
adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs
answer how, when, where, why, or to what extent—how
often or how much (e.g.,daily, completely).
Verbal Ability – Parts of Speech
Preposition – time
English Usage Example
on days of the week on Monday
in months / seasons in August / in winter
time of day in the morning
year in 2006
after a certain period of time (when?) in an hour
at for night at night
for weekend at the weekend
a certain point of time (when?) at half past nine
since from a certain point of time (past till since 1980
now)
for over a certain period of time (past till for 2 years
now)
ago a certain time in the past 2 years ago
before earlier than a certain point of time before 2004
to telling the time ten to six (5:50)
past telling the time ten past six (6:10)
to / marking the beginning and end of a from Monday to/till Friday
till / period of time
until
till / in the sense of how long something is He is on holiday until Friday.
until going to last
by in the sense of at the latest I will be back by 6 o’clock.
up to a certain time By 11 o'clock, I had read five pages.
Verbal Ability – Parts of Speech
Prepositions – Place (Position and Direction)
English Usage Example
in room, building, street, town, country in the kitchen, in London
book, paper etc. in the book
car, taxi in the car, in a taxi
picture, world in the picture, in the world
at meaning next to, by an object at the door, at the station
for table at the table
for events at a concert, at the party
place where you are to do something typical at the cinema, at school, at work
(watch a film, study, work)
on attached the picture on the wall
for a place with a river London lies on the Thames.
being on a surface on the table
for a certain side (left, right) on the left
for a floor in a house on the first floor
for public transport on the bus, on a plane
for television, radio on TV, on the radio
by, next left or right of somebody or something Jane is standing by / next to / beside the
to, beside car.
under on the ground, lower than (or covered by) the bag is under the table
something else
below lower than something else but above ground the fish are below the surface
over covered by something else put a jacket over your shirt
meaning more than over 16 years of age
getting to the other side (also across) walk over the bridge
overcoming an obstacle climb over the wall
above higher than something else, but not directly a path above the lake
over it
across getting to the other side (also over) walk across the bridge
getting to the other side swim across the lake
through something with limits on top, bottom and the drive through the tunnel
sides
to movement to person or building go to the cinema
movement to a place or country go to London / Ireland
for bed go to bed
into enter a room / a building go into the kitchen / the house
towards movement in the direction of something (but go 5 steps towards the house
not directly to it)
onto movement to the top of something jump onto the table
from in the sense of where from a flower from the garden
Interjections
Words like hmm, ouch!, oh!, oops!, wow!, yay, uggh, gosh! Ah!, umm, blah, nah, huh, ohho, ahan,
