Lesson video

Hi, I'm Mr. Buckingham, and I'm so glad you decided to join me for today's lesson on word classes.

Now this is gonna be a revision lesson where we review some important knowledge and apply it to some test questions, so I'm hoping you're going to find it really useful.

Let's make a start.

Today's lesson is called "Word Class Revision" from our unit called "Review, Including Word Class, Sentence Types, Tense, Commas, And Colons." By the end of today's lesson, we'll be able to practise word class test questions.

Now, word classes are different types of words, and many of them will be really familiar to you already.

In this lesson, we're gonna review some of the major word classes that we know and look at how we can tell the difference between them.

Let's get to work.

Here are our keywords for today's lesson.

My turn, your turn.

Noun.

Verb.

Adjective.

Adverb.

And determiner.

Now, some of these will be really familiar to you, but let's just run through the definitions quickly.

And noun, as I'm sure you know, is a naming word for people, places, and things.

A verb is a being, a doing, or a having word.

An adjective is a word that describes a noun, and an adverb is a word that can describe a verb or an adjective.

And a determiner is a word that introduces a noun in a clause or a phrase.

So let's have a look at our lesson outline.

We're going to start off by looking at nouns, adjectives, and determiners, and then we'll move on to verbs, adverbs, and modal verbs.

So as we said, a noun is a naming word for people, places, and things.

And there are four different types of noun.

There are common nouns, which are physical things, a committee, tissue, vegetable, yacht, vehicle.

Abstract nouns have no physical form, so they might be ideas or emotions even, like justice, hope, excellence, opportunity, or curiosity.

Proper nouns are specific named things, people, or places like Spanish, Houses of Parliament, Mr. Martinez, or France.

Those are all specific names for a specific language, a specific country, a specific person.

And then collective nouns are names of groups, like a swarm, or a herd, or a flock, or a cast, or a choir.

So the cast of a play is the people in the play, the group in the play.

And a choir is a group of singers.

So collective nouns are those names for groups.

So only proper nouns need capital letters because they're the ones where we're talking about specific named things.

And nouns are one type of word class that we might see in a sentence.

So let's practise our noun knowledge.

Can you find the four nouns in each sentence? And they might be from different types that we just saw.

Pause the video and have a look.

Well done.

Good job.

So A, hopefully you spotted "muscle", and "shoulder", and "rugby", and "Tuesday".

Of those, only Tuesday's a proper noun because it's the name for a day.

The rest are common nouns there.

In B, you might have found "existence", "criticism", "cat", and "mouse".

So, cat and mouse are common nouns.

Existence and criticism are abstract nouns because they're not physical things.

C has "controversy", "days", "drama", and "confusion".

So again, some abstract nouns in there which are ideas or non-physical things.

Great job if you spotted all of those.

Good work.

Now, a good way of spotting nouns is to look for determiners, because determiners are the words that often, but not always, come before nouns to introduce them.

For instance, they might be quantifiers, words like some fish, many fish, a few fish, no fish, all fish, three fish.

So quantifiers are a type of determiner that tells us how many of that noun we're talking about.

Just a few or many of them.

And I've put three there because all numbers are technically quantifiers.

They're a determiner that tells us which amount of nouns we're talking about.

Another type of determiner is articles, and these are easy.

There's only three.

A belief, an opinion, the expectation.

So "a", "an", and "the" are articles.

Notice how they come before a noun to introduce it.

Another type of determiner are demonstratives.

That's words like those fish, these fish, that fish, and this fish.

So it tells us which ones we're talking about.

Is it the ones in front of us or the ones over there? And then possessive pronouns can also be determiners.

My belief, your opinion, his expectation.

So those words show possession, and they're telling us that it's the belief that belongs to me.

There are other possessive pronouns too, like "hers" and "theirs".

There are other possessive pronouns too, like "her", and "their", and "our".

So they come before a noun to tell us who it belongs to.

So, if these words don't have a noun after them, they're not acting as determiners.

Let's take that as an example.

If I said, "Give me that," then there's no noun after the word "that".

So that's not acting as a determiner.

But if I said, "Give me that hammer," then I've got the noun "hammer" after "that", which means "that" is acting as a determiner in that sentence.

But nouns don't always have a determiner in front of them, unfortunately.

For instance, if I said, "I want fish," then "fish" is a noun, but it doesn't have a determinate in front of it.

I'm not saying, "I want a fish," or "I want some fish," or "I want those fish." I'm just saying, "I want fish." So there's a noun without a determiner there.

But we can often find nouns by looking for these determiners.

So determiners can be quantifiers, articles, demonstratives, possessive pronouns to introduce a noun in a clause, or a phrase, or a sentence.

So I wonder if you can find the determiners in each of these sentences and have a think about those different types in order to help you find them.

But also look for the nouns and see if there are words in front of the nouns, which might be determiners.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Good job.

Hopefully you found those nouns and thought, "What word is introducing the noun?" So in A, we've got "those" introducing "questions", "some" introducing "minutes", and "your" introducing "break time".

So those summon your determiners, introducing the nouns.

In B, we've got "our", "my", "the", and "that".

"Our" introduces "neighbours", "my" introduces "dad", "the" introduces "fence", and "that" introduces "storm".

So the determiner is introducing the noun.

In C, hopefully you spotted "forty", a number introducing "pencils", "a few" introducing "children", and "a lot of" introducing "inconvenience".

So remember, determiners introduce nouns to tell us which ones we're talking about.

Fantastic job of finding all those.

Now, in between determiners and nouns, we'll often find adjectives, which as you know are words that describe nouns.

For instance, "marvellous" and "nearby" in this sentence are adjectives.

"We had a marvellous day visiting a nearby castle." "Marvellous" is describing the noun "day", and "nearby" is describing the noun "castle".

But you might have noticed we've got "a" and "a" as our articles there, which are determiners.

So we've got "a marvellous day," an article, followed by an adjective, followed by a noun.

In this sentence, we've got "loud", "rumbling", and "small" as adjectives.

"The loud sound of his rumbling stomach filled the small room." "Loud" describes "sound", "rumbling" describes "stomach", and "small" describes room.

And in this case we've got determiners again.

The loud sound, his rumbling stomach, the small room, "the", "his", and "the" are the determiners there.

So, often adjectives come before the noun they describe.

For instance, "That is an excellent question." Here we've got "an" as our determiner, "excellent" as our adjective, and "question" as our noun.

Same thing here.

"Have some delicious treats." Here we've got "some" as our determiner, "delicious" as our adjective, and "treats" as our noun.

But sometimes adjectives come after the noun they describe.

Let's look at this one.

"The road was long and rough." We've got "the" as our determiner, "road" as our noun, but then the adjectives "long" and "rough" come after the noun there.

Same thing here.

"His voice is deafening." "His" is a? Well done, determiner.

"Voice" is the noun.

And then "deafening" is the adjective here.

So adjectives can come before nouns or they can come after nouns.

And we've seen that there are determiners often in the mix as well.

So let's see if you can find the adjectives in each of these sentences.

You might, again, want to look for the noun and see what word is describing that noun.

Pause the video and have a try.

Well done.

Great job.

So in A, hopefully you spotted "local" describing environment, "serious" describing oil spill, and "recent" describing months.

And again, there are some determiners there.

"Our" and "a" are determiners there, but "recent months" doesn't have a determiner there.

Let's look at B.

We've got "foreign" describing countries, "professional" describing doctors, and "sick" describing people.

So those are all adjectives.

In C, we've got the adjectives "wide" describing street, and then we've got "long and difficult".

Those are describing day, so they're after that noun they describe in that case, but they're still adjectives 'cause they're describing a noun.

Good work if you spot all those.

Well done.

Now let's do our first task for this lesson.

I'm gonna show you some sentences, and in each sentence I'd like you to label the nouns, adjectives, and determiners that make up each noun phrase using the labels N for noun, A for adjectives, and D for determiner.

So in each sentence there is a noun phrase made up of nouns, adjectives, and determiners.

That's the group of words that links to a noun with those adjectives and determiners included.

And I want you to label it up with the different word classes that we see, nouns, adjectives, and determiners.

Pause the video and have a try.

Well done.

Fantastic job.

Let's start by looking at the determiners.

We've got "a", and "lots of" in A.

In B we've got "the" and "these".

And in C we've got "his", "my", and "a" as our determiners.

So remember determiners introduce nouns.

Let's look at those nouns they introduce.

"A" introduces "person", "lots of" introduces "things", "the" introduces "vehicle", and then "these" introduces "lanes".

In C, "his" introduces "yacht", "my" introduces "uncle", and "a" introduces "model".

Now let's look at the adjectives that describe those nouns.

So we've got "determined" describing "person", "incredible" describing "things".

We've got "the vehicle" being described by "damaged and muddy" after the noun.

And then we've got "narrow" describing "lanes" before the noun.

In C, we've got "old" describing the "yacht", "wealthy" describing the uncle, and "new" describing that "model".

So fantastic job if you've managed to spot all those different word classes in these sentences.

Good work.

Okay, so you've already talked about three word classes, nouns, adjectives, and determiners.

Let's move on to some more now and talk about verbs, adverbs, and modal verbs.

So together the noun and any adjectives and determiners linked to it make a noun phrase, as we just saw.

Other things can be included in noun phrases too, but we'll talk about these for now.

So, if we look at our one we had before, "That is an excellent question," we had to determiner, an adjective, and a noun, making up the noun phrase, "an excellent question." A noun phrase cannot contain a verb, a being, a doing or a having word.

And that's because a phrase never contains a verb.

We know that a verb is a being, a doing, or a having word, and we can see that inside this noun phrase "an excellent question" we don't have a verb.

So if you look at this one, "Her loud voice filled the room." We can see we've got a noun phrase here, "her loud voice," a determiner, an adjective, and a noun.

But the verb "filled" can't be part of that noun phrase.

So this is the noun phrase and "filled" is not part of it.

So phrases, like noun phrases, never contain verbs.

But all sentences include at least one clause that contains a verb, because clauses contain verbs.

So if I look at this sentence, it says, "The committee made its decision." It contains the verb "made".

"She caused a nuisance," contains the verb "caused".

And "The temperature rises when the sun appears," includes the verbs, "rises" and "appears".

Every sentence contains at least one verb because every sentence contains at least one main clause, and a main clause, any clause, must contain a verb.

So we can see here the difference between a noun phrase that doesn't contain a verb, like "her loud voice" or "an excellent question" and a sentence made of a clause that does include a verb like "made", "caused", "rises", and "appears".

And remember a verb is a being a doing or a having word.

So in each sentence can you identify the verb, and then separately the noun phrase? Remember they won't overlap because a noun phrase can't contain a verb.

Pause the video and see if you can spot both.

Well done.

Great job.

So in A we've got the noun phrase, "Several huge openings".

So we've got the determiner "several", the adjective "huge", and the noun "openings".

And then we've got the verb "appeared", In B we've got "those mysterious symbols" as a noun phrase.

"Those" are the determiner.

"Mysterious" is the adjective, "symbols" is the noun.

And then "puzzled" is the verb.

Notice how they're separate, because the noun phrase can't contain a verb.

And in C, we've got "a firm guarantee." "A" is the determiner, "firm" is the adjective, "guarantee" is the noun, and then "gave" is the verb here.

Again, they're separate because a noun phrase can't contain a verb.

But look how each sentence does contain a verb because sentences always do.

Really well done if you spotted all those.

So, often we have a main verb in a sentence paired with an auxiliary verb.

And I'm sure you've seen these before.

For instance, in, "She was causing a nuisance," I bet you can see that main verb "causing".

That's the main thing that's being done.

But we've also got this verb "was" which is an auxiliary verb there, which helps us to change the tense.

We could also say this, "They have taken the vehicle." We've got the main verb? Well done, "taken", paired with the auxiliary verb "have".

So again, it's changing the tense here.

What's happening is the auxiliary verb is helping the main verb.

It's doing something to the tense, but it's linked to that main verb in the sentence.

So, one type of auxiliary verb that we need to know is a modal verb.

And it usually comes before the main verb.

So for instance, "You can shout, but I won't listen." "Can" and "won't" are modal verbs.

They come before the main verbs, "shout" and "listen".

"We have to try or we will lose." "Have to" and "will" are modal verbs coming before the main verbs "try" and "lose".

"They must be defeated." "Must" is a modal verb coming for that verb "be".

So modal verbs help us to say how likely or possible or necessary something is.

You can shout, you are able to shout.

I won't listen.

I certainly won't listen.

We have to try, it's something we should do.

We will lose.

We certainly will lose.

They must be defeated is something we believe is necessary to happen.

So we could say, "She might be an MP one day." It's possible.

Or we could say, "She should be an MP one day." It's something we think should happen.

Or, "She will be an MP one day." It's certain to happen.

So modal verbs show us different levels of certainty and possibility.

They can show us something is definitely going to happen, is certain, or is only possible to happen.

So which of these sentences uses a modal verb to show the highest likelihood, that means the greatest certainty, of something happening? See if you can spot the modal verb in each and then decide which one's showing us the highest likelihood of something happening.

Pause the video and have a think.

Hopefully you spotted the modal verbs, "might", "should", and "will".

So let's see which of those suggests the highest possibility, highest likelihood of something happening.

It's "will".

"We will ensure." We're definitely going to ensure that the experiment is a fair test.

In the first one we've said, "I might be able to get my dad's signature." That shows a low level of likelihood.

"You should have the opportunity," suggests it's something which ought to happen but won't definitely happen.

Whereas "will" suggests this is a certainty.

It's definitely going to happen.

So that is the highest likelihood.

Great job of you spotted that.

Now sometimes the same word in English can function as a noun and as a verb.

So we have to look carefully to see is it being a noun or is it being a verb.

So if we look at this word "play" in this sentence, it says, "Let's play cricket today." That is a verb, we're saying is something we're going to do.

But in this sentence we have the same word.

"We went to see a play today." Now you might have spotted that determiner "a" in front of "play".

So that's a hint that here "play" is a noun.

If we say we're going to see a play, we're not playing anything, we're going to watch something, maybe in the theatre.

So here it's a noun.

Let's try it with another word.

"I don't like it when you smirk." That is a verb, isn't it? I'm saying I don't like the action of you smirking.

But if I say this, "I don't like your smirk," that's a noun there with the same word.

And notice that determiner "your" in front of it, which hints to us this is a noun.

So if the word is something we do, it must be a verb.

And if it's a thing, it's a noun, and it might have a determiner in front of it.

But we can only tell that by looking at the whole sentence to see is it acting as something we do, a verb, or is it acting as a thing, a noun.

So we have to look carefully there.

And sometimes the same root word can be used to create not just nouns and verbs, but also adjectives.

Let's read three sentences.

"I appreciate your explanation." "He explained it perfectly." "She gave me an explanatory note." Can you see how they've all come from the root word "explain", but we have three different word classes here.

"I appreciate your explanation," is a noun.

And we've got that determiner "your" which hints to us.

"He explained it perfectly," is something he's doing.

So that's a verb.

And if she gave me an explanatory note, notice that noun phrase there, "an explanatory note," with the determiner "an", the adjective "explanatory" describing the noun "note".

It's describing something, it must be an adjective.

So we have to think carefully about what the word's doing in the sentence in order to be sure of its word class.

So, can you decide if the highlighted word in each sentence is acting as a noun, a verb, or an adjective? And can you explain why? Pause the video and have a careful think.

Well done.

Really interesting question, this one.

Let's look at A.

It says, "We all composed our own rhymes, which we perform to the class." Now hopefully you spotted that we're talking about a thing we have composed, and nouns are things.

So here "rhymes" must be a noun.

And there's a hint.

It says "our own rhymes." That's a noun phrase, a determiner, an adjective, and a noun.

So "our own rhymes," "rhymes" must be a noun.

B says, "If a poem rhymes, it can be easier to read." Hmm.

Well here we're saying something a poem does, "If a poem rhymes." So doing words are verbs.

So here "rhymes" must be a verb.

Notice how it's exactly the same word as in A, but here we can tell from the sentence it's acting as a verb.

In C, we've said, "although I love rhyming poetry, it can limit the ideas you can use in your poem." Here, "rhyming" is describing the poetry.

Adjectives described nouns.

So the word "rhyming" here must be an adjective.

Really good job if you've managed to see those differences.

Good work.

So let's talk about adverbs.

Adverbs are often used to describe when, how, where, or to what extent verbs are done.

For instance, "He runs frequently." That tells us how often.

"He never runs." "He ran here." So that tells us where.

We could say, "She nearly won." That's to what extent she won.

"She almost won." "She lives nearby." Again, that tells us where.

"They arrived today." That tells us when they arrived.

"It rained heavily." That tells us how it rained.

And, "We fell down hard." That tells us how we fell down.

So notice how each of these adverbs in green is linking to a verb to tell us more about it.

"She nearly won." If we just said "She won," we haven't learned more about it.

But if we say "She nearly won," that ad verb "nearly" tells us more about the verb "won" and to what extent she did it.

When we say "They arrived today," we are saying more about when that verb "arrived" happened.

So, adverbs here are telling us more information about the verb in the sentence.

But adverbs can actually also describe adjectives.

So if I say this, "He lives very close to school," then "close" is an adjective.

But the word "very" is an adverb that's describing "close".

It's describing, an adjective is describing to what extent we are close.

Here's another one.

"It was a deliciously creamy sauce." Now "creamy" is an adjective describing the noun "sauce".

But "deliciously" is an adverb describing the adjective "creamy".

It's saying, well, how was it creamy? In what way was it creamy? We could say, "We were really concerned about it." "Concerned" is an adjective, "really" describes to what extent we felt that adjective.

Then we've got, "They were quite angry with us." "Angry" is the adjective, "quite" is an adverb describing that adjective "angry".

So some words can be both adverbs and adjectives.

For instance, "I pushed him hard," and "It was a hard push." Now look at the first one.

"I pushed him hard." That word is linking back to the verb "pushed", isn't it? So that's an adverb.

It's describing how a verb has been done.

But if I look at the second one, "It was a hard push," That word "hard" is linking to the noun "push".

It's describing a noun.

So we have to check, is it describing a verb or a noun.

In the first one, "hard" describes the verb "pushed", so it's an adverb.

In the second one, "hard" describes the noun, "a push", so it's an adjective.

So again, we have to look really carefully at the context of the whole sentence.

So I want you, if you can, identify the two adverbs in each sentence.

Remember they could be describing verbs, or they could be describing adjectives.

Pause the video and have a think.

Well done, great effort.

So in A maybe you spotted "often" and "happily".

Often is describing that verb "ask".

How often do we do it.

And "happily" is describing that verb "answers".

B, we have "yesterday" and "thoroughly".

So, "Sitting at home yesterday," that tells us when we were doing that verb, "sitting at home." And then "thoroughly" describes that verb "practised".

So in these cases we've got adverbs describing verbs.

In C, we've got "snowing hard," so that verb "hard" is describing the verb "was snowing", our auxiliary verb "was", and then "everywhere" describes "settled", the verb, and it's telling us where that verb happened.

So we have to look carefully for which verbs these adverbs are linking back to to check, are they definitely acting as adverbs here? Great job if you manage to get to all of those.

Well done.

So let's do our final test for this lesson.

I'm going to show you some sentences with a highlighted word in each.

And I want you to identify the word class of the highlighted word in each sentence.

Is it an adverb, describing a verb or an adjective? Or is it an adjective, which will describe a noun? So here are the sentences with the words highlighted.

For each of those words is it an adjective or is it an adverb? Pause the video and have a think.

Well done.

Fantastic job.

Let's share some answers together.

In A, we've said, "We rarely watch that programme." "Rarely" is describing "watch" so it must be an adverb.

It's describing a verb.

In B, "We had a rare opportunity." That is a noun phrase, isn't it? So "rare" is describing a noun "opportunity".

So it's an adjective.

In C we've said "This profession isn't very easy to master." "Easy" is describing the profession.

So that would be an adjective there.

In D, we've got "Easily managed." "Easily" is describing how we manage, so that's an adverb.

It's describing a verb.

In E, we've got "The yacht departed early." Now, "early" there isn't describing a noun, it's linking back to that verb "departed" to say when we did it, so it must be an adverb.

In F we said "He had an early meeting," so "early" is describing that noun "meeting", so it must be an adjective.

In G we said, "He was very angry after it happened." Well, "angry" is an adjective and "very" come before it to say a description of the adjective.

Now adjectives can't describe adjectives.

Adverbs describe adjectives.

So this is an adverb.

And in H you said, "I don't think it's quite ready to eat." So here we've got "ready" describing "it", the thing that's not quite ready to eat.

So that is an adjective there.

Amazing job if you've managed to get those word classes all sorted out.

Okay, let's summarise our learning in this lesson.

We've said that a noun is a naming word for people, places, or things.

And it's often introduced by determiner and it can be described by an adjective.

A verb is a being, a doing, a having word, and it can be paired with an auxiliary verb, such as a modal verb, that helps to show how likely, possible, or necessary something is.

We've learned that an adverb can modify a verb or an adjective to say more about when, where, how, or to what extent it happens.

We've covered a lot of ground in this lesson and I'm really impressed with how well you've kept up with it.

Well done.

You've done a great job.

I'd love to see you again in a future lesson.

Goodbye.