WORD CLASSIFICATION

Word is a combination of sounds or letters that represent or convey a meaning.

Function Words and Content Words

A function or grammatical word is a word that expresses a grammatical function or structural
relationship with other words of the sentence. It is a word that has little or no meaning. A content or
a lexical word is a word that conveys information in a text or speech act.

FUNCTION WORDS CONTENT WORDS

Determiners are articles (the, a, an), A content word or lexical word is a word that
demonstratives (that, this, those, these), conveys information in a text or speech act:
quantifiers (all, some, few, lots of, some, nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.
boht), possessives (my, your, his, her, its,
their , our) Nouns is traditionally defined as the part of
speech that names or identifies a person,
Conjunctions and, but, for, or, nor, yet, and place, thing, quality, or activity.
so.
Adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a
Preposition is a word that shows the pronoun.
relationship between a noun or pronoun and
other words in a sentence: aboard, about, Verb is a word that refers to an action, an
above, across, after, against, along, amid, occurrence, or a state of being.
among, around, as, at, atop, before, behind,
below, beneath, beside, between, Adverb is word that describes or modifies an
beyond, by, despite, down, during, for, from, adjective or verb.
in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, out,
outside, over, past, regarding, round, since,
than, through, throughout, till, to, toward,
under, unlike, until, up, upon, with, within,
without

Pronoun is a word that takes the place of a

noun: Personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it,
we, they), Object pronouns (Me, you, him,
her, it, us, them), Reflexive pronouns (myself,
yourself, himself, herself, ourselves,
yourselves, itself), Relative pronouns (that,
what, where, when, how, which, who, whose,
whom, why), Auxiliary Verbs an auxiliary is
a verb (such as have, do, or will) that
determines the mood, tense, or aspect of
another verb in a verb phrase (be, am, are,
is, been, was, were, being, have, has,
having, had, will, would, shall, should, must,
might, may)
 WORD FORMATION

Affixation is one of the processes by which the base may be modified by adding a prefix or a suffix.
This process may or may not change the class word.
Prefixation
Prefixes are added at the beginning of the word they do not generally alter the word class. Prefixes
can help you understand what a new word means. Here there are some common prefixes.
Prefix Meaning Example
ex (+ noun) was but not now ex-wife, ex-president
half (+ noun or adjective) 50% of something half-price, half-hour
In, im (+ adjective ) not informal, impossible
non (+ adjective or noun) Not non-smoking
pre before pre-school
Re again redo, rewrite
Un Not unhappy, unsafe
Ir Not Irresponsible
Il Not Illegible
Dis Not Disable, disagree
Over Too much Overwork, overdo
Mis Badly or incorrect Misunderstand, misread

Suffixation
Suffixes are added to the root of the word. Unlike prefixes, suffixes frequently alter the word-class
of the base; for example, the adjective kind, by the addition of the suffix ness, is changed into a
noun kindness.
We can group suffixes not only by the class of word they form (as noun suffixes, verb suffixes, etc.)
but also by the class of base they are typically added to. They help you to understand the meaning
of a new word. Here are some common suffixes:

Suffix Meaning Examples

-er, or (noun) Noun. person Worker, swimmer,
instructor
-er, or (noun) Noun. Person, machine, thing Cooker, word processor
-ian (noun) Person with specific job Historian, comedian
-ship (noun) Showing a state Frienship
-ess (noun) Woman who works in something Actress
-Ful (adjective) full of useful, beautiful
-Ology (noun) subject of study sociology, psychology
-Ics (noun subject of study Economics, politics
singular)
 -Less without Useless, endless
(adjective)
-Ly makes an abstract adverb from an sadly, happily
adjective
Suffix Meaning Examples
-Ness makes an noun from an adjective happiness, sadness
-Y makes an adjective from a noun sandy, sunny
-ment Makes a noun from a verb Improvement
-ion Makes a noun from a verb Election
-ation Makes a noun from a verb Information
-ity Makes a noun from an adjective Punctuality
-ist Person (from another noun) Artist
-ous Adjective (from a noun) Famous
-al Adjective (from nouns) Musical
-ish Adjective with the characteristic of Childish, English
-ical Adjective from nouns Physical
-ic Adjectives from noun Artistic
-y Adjective (from nouns) Cloudy
-able Adjective Loveable
-ible Adjective Comprehensible
-ward (adj. or In the direction of Backward
adverbs)
-ive Adjective Attractive
-ence Makes a noun (from verbs) Existence
-ance Makes a noun (from verbs) Performance
-ance Makes a noun (from adjectives) Elegance
-ee Makes a noun From a verb. Employee
-ant Makes a noun from a verb Informant
-ent Makes a noun from a verb Student
-ize Makes a verb from an adj. Legalize
-ify Makes a verb from an adj. Simplify
-en Makes a verb from an adj. Shorten
-ward Makes an adverb In the direction of

Zero affixation
Many words in English can function as a noun and verb, or noun and adjective, or verb and
adjective, with no change in form.

NOUN GROUP
The Noun Group is a group of words with a noun as the nucleous.
The Noun Group can be the subject or object of a sentence which may be an indeterminately long
and complex structure having a noun as head, preceded by other words such an article, an
adjective, or another noun, (pre-modifier) and followed by an adjective, a prepositional group, a
relative clause or a nonfinite clause (post-modifier).
In the following chart you have the different elements of a noun group.

Elements of the Noun Group

Determiner Pre-modifier Head Post-modifier
1. article 1. adjectives 1. noun 1. prepositional group
the
a/an
2. possessive 2. noun 2. proper noun 2. relative clause
adjective
My, your, his,
her, its, our, their
3. demonstrativ 3. –ing 3. –ing. clause
e
this, that, these,
those
4. quantifiers 4. –ed 4. –ed clause
many, a few, a
lot, more,
several, etc.
5. numerals 5. ’s possessive 5. to clause
one, two… noun
first, second…
6. adjective

Examples:
a man-made creation
the heat of a direct flame
a key chain with an aerogel bob on the end
efforts to make all sorts of new products
The most recent headlines about aerogels
another frightening bioengineered society dominated by eugenics and populated with
beautifully perfect citizens

VERBAL GROUP
Many English verbs have six forms: the Base, the –s, the past, -ing participle, the –ed participle
and the to (infinitive). Regular verbs have the –ed inflection for both the past and past participle (-
ed). Irregular verb forms vary.
Forms Examples Functions
 Base Call, study, drink, put 1. all the present tense, except
3rd person singular
* Auxiliary: Do
I/you/we/they:
* Modal Auxiliaries: I study English.
2. imperative
will, would, can, could,
Study.
shall, should, may, might, 3. subjunctive *
He demanded that she
must, ought to, used to
study.
4. with modal verbs
He can study.
-s Calls, studies, drinks, puts 3rd person singular, Present tense
He studies hard.
She drinks water.
-ed1 Called, studied, drank, put Simple Past Tense
He called yesterday.
Auxilia: Did
-ed2 Called, studied, drunk, put 1. Perfect tenses (to have +
ed2)
I have studied English for 7 years.
2. Passive voice (to be + ed2)
She was called by the teacher.
3. ed2 clauses
The aerogel revealed last month is
made with new ingredients.
-ing Calling, studying, drinking, 1. progressive tenses (to be + -ing)
Other researchers are
putting
inventing sophisticated ways to
filter and carry water.
2. ing clauses
comet dust blowing through the
universe at six kilometers per
second

Infinitive To call, to study, to drink, infinitive clauses

(to) to put How can we improve technology to
tackle challenging medical
conditions?

MODAL AUXILIARIES

The modal verbs are can, could, may, might, shall, should, will and would.
The modals are used to show that we believe something is certain, probable or possible:

Possibility:
 We use the modals could, might and may to show that something is possible in the future, but not
certain:
They might come later. (= Perhaps/Maybe they will come later.)
They may come by car. (= Perhaps/Maybe they will come by car.)
If we don’t hurry we could be late. (= Perhaps/Maybe we will be late)
We use could have, might have and may have to show that something was possible now or at
some time in the past:
It’s ten o’clock. They might have arrived now.
They could have arrived hours ago.

We use the modal can to make general statements about what is possible:
It can be very cold in winter. (= It is sometimes very cold in winter)
You can easily lose your way in the dark. (= People often lose their way in the dark)

We use the modal could as the past tense of can:

It could be very cold in winter. (= Sometimes it was very cold in winter.)
You could lose your way in the dark. (= People often lost their way in the dark)

Impossibility:
We use the negative can’t or cannot to show that something is impossible:
That can’t be true.
You cannot be serious.
We use couldn’t/could not to talk about the past:
We knew it could not be true.
He was obviously joking. He could not be serious.

Probability:
We use the modal must to show we are sure something to be true and we have reasons for our
belief:
It’s getting dark. It must be quite late.
You haven’t eaten all day. You must be hungry.
We use must have for the past:
They hadn’t eaten all day. They must have been hungry.
You look happy. You must have heard the good news.

We use the modal should to suggest that something is true or will be true in the future, and to
show you have reasons for your suggestion:
Ask Miranda. She should know.
It's nearly six o'clock. They should arrive soon.

We use should have to talk about the past:

It's nearly eleven o'clock. They should have arrived by now.