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Parts of Speech: Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives
Every English sentence is built from eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. The APTET syllabus asks for “all types, functions and usage”, so this course gives them two lessons. This lesson covers the naming and describing words: nouns, pronouns and adjectives, including the order of adjectives. A word’s part of speech depends on its job in the sentence, not on the word alone: fast is an adjective in “a fast train”, an adverb in “She runs fast”, a noun in “a three-day fast” and a verb in “They fast on Fridays”.
Nouns and pronouns
A noun names a person, place, animal, thing, idea or feeling.
| Kind of noun | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Proper | name of a particular person, place or thing; capital letter | Ravi, Tirupati, the Krishna, Monday |
| Common | a general name for any member of a class | boy, city, river, book |
| Collective | a group taken as one unit | team, class, flock, army, family |
| Material | a substance things are made of | gold, wood, cotton, water |
| Abstract | a quality, state or idea that cannot be touched | honesty, childhood, freedom, kindness |
Nouns are also countable (pen, pens) or uncountable (milk, advice, information). They show gender (masculine, feminine, common such as teacher, neuter such as table), number and case (subjective, objective, possessive: Ravi’s book).
A pronoun is used in place of a noun to avoid repetition.
| Kind of pronoun | Examples | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Personal | I, we, you, he, she, it, they; me, us, him, her, them | subject and object forms |
| Possessive | mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs | stands alone: “This pen is mine.” |
| Reflexive / emphatic | myself, yourself, himself, themselves | reflexive: “He hurt himself.” emphatic: “I myself saw it.” |
| Demonstrative | this, that, these, those | points out |
| Interrogative | who, whom, whose, what, which | asks questions |
| Relative | who, whom, whose, which, that | joins a clause to a noun |
| Indefinite | someone, anybody, everyone, nothing, all, some | not a definite person or thing |
| Distributive | each, either, neither | one at a time; takes a singular verb |
| Reciprocal | each other, one another | each other for two; one another for more than two (traditional rule) |
Adjectives and their kinds
An adjective describes or qualifies a noun or pronoun: “a tall tree”, “The tree is tall.”
| Kind | Examples |
|---|---|
| Quality | brave, honest, red, Indian (a proper adjective comes from a proper noun) |
| Quantity (how much) | some, much, little, enough, whole |
| Number (how many) | one, three, many, few, several, first, second |
| Demonstrative | this, that, these, those (before a noun) |
| Possessive | my, our, your, his, her, its, their |
| Interrogative | which, what, whose (before a noun) |
| Distributive | each, every, either, neither |
Few, a few, the few; little, a little, the little
- Few (countable) and little (uncountable) are negative: almost none. “Few children were absent” means nearly all came.
- A few and a little are positive: some. “I have a little money; I can buy a pen.”
- The few and the little mean “all of the small amount”: “He gave away the few books he had.”
Order of adjectives
When several adjectives come before a noun, they follow a fixed order. Memory aid: OSASCOMP.
| Order | Type | Example words |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Opinion | beautiful, lovely, ugly |
| 2 | Size | big, small, tiny |
| 3 | Age | old, new, young |
| 4 | Shape | round, square, long |
| 5 | Colour | red, green, white |
| 6 | Origin | Indian, Chinese |
| 7 | Material | wooden, cotton, silver |
| 8 | Purpose | dining (table), sleeping (bag), cricket (bat) |
Example: a beautiful small old round brown Indian wooden dining table. Determiners and numbers come first: “two lovely little white puppies”.
Exam focus
- Possessive pronoun (mine, hers) stands alone; possessive adjective (my, her) comes before a noun.
- Few vs a few: “few” is negative, “a few” is positive.
- Order of adjectives questions: use OSASCOMP. “A big old red bus”, not “a red old big bus”.
- “Its” is a possessive adjective; “it’s” means “it is”.
Example
In a Class 4 lesson, Mrs Vani shows a picture of a market and asks children to name things (nouns), then to describe them (adjectives): “a big red tomato”, “two small green mangoes”. She writes the adjectives on cards and lets children arrange them in the right order before the noun.
Key takeaways
- The part of speech depends on the word’s job in the sentence.
- Nouns can be proper, common, collective, material or abstract.
- Pronouns include personal, possessive, reflexive, relative, distributive and reciprocal kinds.
- Adjectives show quality, quantity, number, possession and more.
- Few and little are negative; a few and a little are positive.
- Order of adjectives: Opinion, Size, Age, Shape, Colour, Origin, Material, Purpose.
Practice
- “Honesty is the best policy.” The noun “honesty” is a/an:
- (A) proper noun
- (B) collective noun
- (C) abstract noun
- (D) material noun
- “The children enjoyed themselves at the fair.” The word “themselves” is a:
- (A) reflexive pronoun
- (B) possessive pronoun
- (C) relative pronoun
- (D) demonstrative pronoun
- Choose the correct order: She bought a ___ saree.
- (A) silk red beautiful
- (B) red beautiful silk
- (C) silk beautiful red
- (D) beautiful red silk
- “There is ___ milk in the jug; we can make tea for everyone.”
- (A) few
- (B) a little
- (C) little
- (D) many
- In “This book is mine”, the word “mine” is a:
- (A) possessive adjective
- (B) possessive pronoun
- (C) personal pronoun in subject form
- (D) demonstrative adjective
- “The two sisters love ___.”
- (A) themselves
- (B) one another
- (C) theirselves
- (D) each other
- In “She runs fast”, the word “fast” is a/an:
- (A) adverb
- (B) adjective
- (C) noun
- (D) verb
- “A team of players” — the word “team” is a:
- (A) material noun
- (B) abstract noun
- (C) collective noun
- (D) proper noun
Answers and explanations (tap to show)
- (C) Honesty is a quality that cannot be touched, so it is an abstract noun.
- (A) The action returns to the subject, so “themselves” is reflexive.
- (D) Opinion (beautiful), colour (red), material (silk), following OSASCOMP.
- (B) “A little” is positive: there is enough milk. “Little” would mean almost none.
- (B) “Mine” stands alone without a noun, so it is a possessive pronoun.
- (D) For two people the traditional rule uses “each other”.
- (A) “Fast” tells how she runs, so it is an adverb here.
- (C) A team is a group taken as one unit: a collective noun.