Lesson 3: Basic English Words

 Objectives:

• To enumerate the different types of basic English words
• To use these words in a sentence
• To indicate what these words are used for

Quick Navigation through the Lesson 3:

• Noun
• Verbs
• Adjectives
• Adverb
• Pronouns

Like most languages, words are the basic unit of information in English. In this section, we will take a general look at the basic kinds of words that we will encounter in the future lessons. We’ll outline the definitions of these types of words, what they’re used for and how they’re used in sentences.

Noun

Nouns are usually the subject of a sentence (i.e. Jenny ate). In this part of our lesson, we’ll define what a noun is and show some examples of nouns.

a.)     Defintion

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, a noun can be defined as a word used to name people, places, things or events.

b.)    Example

Bag, juice, cars, Christmas, sun, stars, sword, Joey, Anna

[WpProQuiz 101]

Verbs

Verbs are words which work in tandem with nouns. If a noun is the subject of a sentence, a verb is often the action of the sentence (i.e. Jenny ate).

a.)     Definition

A verb is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as a word which conveys action or being.

b.)    Example

eating, walks, zooming, passing, becomes, throwing, caught

Adjectives

Adjectives are used in relation to nouns (i.e. Jenny is fast). They can also be used to describe pronouns, which we will discuss later on in this lesson.

a.)     Definition

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines an adjective  as a word used to describe a noun or pro-noun.

b.)    Example

slow, fast, bright, dull, loud, soft, rough

 [WpProQuiz 102]

Adverb

Adverbs are usually used to add depth to a sentence.

a.)     Definition

 Merriam-Webster defines an adverb as a word used to describe a verb (e.g. Jenny eats slowly), an adjective (e.g. Jenny’s pink ribbon is untied) or another adverb (e.g. Jenny eats slowly a lot).

b.)    Example

 ran quickly, sobbed quietly, painfully loud

Pronouns

Pronouns are used to shorten nouns by substituting them.

a.)     Definition

A pronoun according to Merriam-Webster is a word which is used to substitute the noun it’s referring to (e.g. Sally was hungry so she ate a sandwich).

b.)    Example

He, she, it, they, we, us, him, her

[WpProQuiz 103]

In this lesson, we took a quick look at some of the different types of words that we’re going to be studying in this class. We provided definitions along with examples. We also explained briefly how these words are used in a sentence.

Our next lesson is going to take an in-depth look at nouns—we’ll be studying different types of nouns and how they’re used in a sentence.