Position of words in sentence Class: 9 & 10

Prepared by- Nimai Mondal Teacher of English Dumuria Govt. Girls’ High School Dumuria, Khulna. Mobile:

Aims & objectives: After going through this handout, Ss will be able to: ♦ recognize how the four basic parts of speech are used in sentences. ♦ identify the part of speech needed in a sentence by looking at the other words around it.

Read the following sentences. There are public libraries in many towns. People can easily go and read there. They can find many rare publications there. Publishers also like to keep their books in this library. Some libraries publish their own magazines every year.

Note that the words people, public, publish, publisher & publication are different forms of the word ‘people’.

Like the word ‘people’, many words have different forms. Most common forms are: Noun, Verb, Adjective & Adverb

Let us see the position of words in sentences.

Noun Name of person, place, thing, or idea

Position of Noun: ♦ A noun often comes before a verb Children play. ♦ A noun can come after a verb. The girl gave cookies to her friend. ♦ A noun comes after a preposition. She keeps papers in boxes.

Position of Noun: ♦ A noun often comes after a determiner. The dog barked. ♦ A noun can come after an adjective. The angry dog barked.

Determiners: a, an, the, my, our, your, his, her, their, this, that, these, those, some, any, many, few, one, two,……….., first, second,…….

Verb An action (run, call, argue) or a state (be, seem, become)

Position of Verb: ♦ A verb often comes after a noun (Subject). The baby cried. ♦ A verb can come between two nouns (Subject & Object). The boy hit the ball.

Describes a noun Adjective

Position of Adjective: ♦ An adjective most often comes before a noun. The red dog barked. ♦ An adjective can come after a stative verb such as be, feel or seem. The dog is red. ♦ An adjective can come after a noun with the verbs of causation (get, have, make). She made her brother angry.

Describes a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole sentence Adverb

♦ An adverb can come after an intransitive verb. She walked slowly. ♦ An adverb can come between a helping verb and its main verb. He has already finished his homework. Position of Adverb: ♦ An adverb can come after the object of a transitive verb. She opened the door softly.

Position of Adverb: ♦ An adverb can come before an adjective. The bag was extremely heavy. ♦ An adverb can come before another adverb. She talked very quietly. ♦ An adverb can come at the beginning of a sentence. Unfortunately, he lost his wallet. ♦ An adverb can come at the end of a sentence. He lost his umbrella, too

Exercise: Recognizing parts of speech needed in a sentence Read the following sentences. Identify the part of speech that should go in each blank. Write N (noun), V (verb), Adj (adjective) or Adv (adverb) to identify the part of speech that should go in each blank. Explain what clues showed you the part of speech that was needed.

Example: The cow jumped over the N. 5. Henry was __________ tired after walking all afternoon. Adv 4. _______, she got stopped by the police on her way to work. Adv 3. Cathy _______ her wallet at home today. 2. The ________ car was going too fast. 1. The ________ left. N Adj V

6. The office ________ wrote a memo to all the employees. 10. The bad weather made everyone ___. 9. The funny man spoke very _______. 8. He gave good ________ to his wife. 7. The students ______ their homework on time. N V N Adv Adj

11. They look almost the same. The ___________ is in their eyes. 15. The woman became ______ when the driver in front of her stopped for no reason. 14. She recognized the man who ______ the street. 13. Paul and his sister, Helen, _________ to the airport early. 12. My sister sent the letter which I __________ yesterday. N V V V Adj

16. They usually put the flowers on __________ in front of the store. 20. I found a _________ envelope on the sidewalk. 19. The letter _______ on Tuesday. 18. John’s ______ broke down on the bridge. 17. The radio blared __________. N Adv N V Adj

Bye