# Parts of Speech: Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives

- Link: https://thecuriosi.com/lessons/aptet-english-nouns-pronouns-adjectives/
- Published: 2026-11-03T14:14:23+05:30
- Author: MAHENDRA MANCHIKALAPATI

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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

 1.  “Honesty is the best policy.” The noun “honesty” is a/an:
 2.   * (A) proper noun
      * (B) collective noun
      * (C) abstract noun
      * (D) material noun
 3.  “The children enjoyed themselves at the fair.” The word “themselves” is a:
 4.   * (A) reflexive pronoun
      * (B) possessive pronoun
      * (C) relative pronoun
      * (D) demonstrative pronoun
 5.  Choose the correct order: She bought a ___ saree.
 6.   * (A) silk red beautiful
      * (B) red beautiful silk
      * (C) silk beautiful red
      * (D) beautiful red silk
 7.  “There is ___ milk in the jug; we can make tea for everyone.”
 8.   * (A) few
      * (B) a little
      * (C) little
      * (D) many
 9.  In “This book is mine”, the word “mine” is a:
 10.  * (A) possessive adjective
      * (B) possessive pronoun
      * (C) personal pronoun in subject form
      * (D) demonstrative adjective
 11. “The two sisters love ___.”
 12.  * (A) themselves
      * (B) one another
      * (C) theirselves
      * (D) each other
 13. In “She runs fast”, the word “fast” is a/an:
 14.  * (A) adverb
      * (B) adjective
      * (C) noun
      * (D) verb
 15. “A team of players” — the word “team” is a:
 16.  * (A) material noun
      * (B) abstract noun
      * (C) collective noun
      * (D) proper noun

Answers and explanations (tap to show)

 1. (C) Honesty is a quality that cannot be touched, so it is an abstract noun.
 2. (A) The action returns to the subject, so “themselves” is reflexive.
 3. (D) Opinion (beautiful), colour (red), material (silk), following OSASCOMP.
 4. (B) “A little” is positive: there is enough milk. “Little” would mean almost none.
 5. (B) “Mine” stands alone without a noun, so it is a possessive pronoun.
 6. (D) For two people the traditional rule uses “each other”.
 7. (A) “Fast” tells how she runs, so it is an adverb here.
 8. (C) A team is a group taken as one unit: a collective noun.

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