Lesson No 2

• ok now students, learning about the parts of speech is the first step in grammar study just as learning the letters of the alphabet is the first step to being able to read and write.
•  From learning the parts of speech we begin to understand the use or function of words and how words are joined together to make meaningful communication. 
• To understand what a part of speech is, you must understand the idea of putting similar things together into groups or categories. 

Let's look at some examples of categories.

• Colors, fruits, drinks, and languages are categories. 
•  If I tell you that Grebo is a language, you would understand exactly what Grebo is.  If we did not have the category language, it would be hard to explain what is meant by the word Grebo. 
•  It is very convenient to have categories to talk about similar things.

Let's try another example.  Which of these does not belong with the others?

The philosopher Aristotle and later scientists studied animals and classified them according to what they have in common.

• Aristotle and others also studied language and classified words according to what they have in common.  
• We usually use 8 categories or parts of speech to classify all the words we use in English. 
•  This classification is not perfect.  
• Sometimes it is hard to tell which category a word belongs in.  
• The same word may belong in different categories depending on how it is used.  
• There may be better ways to classify English than by using the 8 parts of speech. 
•  But this classification has been used for a long time and many grammar books use it, so it is easier to keep on using it. 
•  It is possible to speak or learn a language without  knowing the parts of speech, but for most of  us, knowing about  parts of speech makes things easier.

The 8 parts of speech that are used to describe English words are:

1.     Nouns 
2.     Verbs 
3.     Adjectives 
4.     Adverbs 
5.     Pronouns 
6.     Prepositions 
7.     Conjunctions 
8.     Articles