17.1.1 Parts of speech, articles and determiners

Explained

1. One word, many jobs

A word's part of speech depends on its job in the sentence, not on the word alone.

Another example: She came after* lunch* (preposition); She came after* I left* (conjunction, because a full clause follows).

2. Nouns: kinds and plurals

• Proper noun: a particular name, always with a capital letter: Godavari, Bathukamma.
• Common noun: a general name: river, festival.
• Collective noun: a group: a team of players, a flock of sheep, a herd of cattle, a bunch of keys, a swarm of bees.
• Abstract noun: an idea or quality: kindness, freedom, childhood.
• Uncountable nouns have no plural and take no a/an: information, advice, furniture, luggage, equipment, news, poetry, scenery. Say a piece of advice, an item of news, much luggage.
• Some plurals: child → children, man → men, mouse → mice, tooth → teeth, criterion → criteria, phenomenon → phenomena, sheep → sheep, deer → deer.
• Mother-in-law → mothers-in-law; passer-by → passers-by (the main word takes the plural).

3. Pronouns

• Subject forms I, we, he, she, they; object forms me, us, him, her, them. After a preposition use the object form: between you and me** (not between you and I).
• In formal written English, after than and as think of the missing verb: She is taller than I* (am).* (than me is common in speech.)
• Reflexive pronouns end in -self/-selves: He hurt himself. Never hisself or theirselves.
• Relative pronouns: who for people (subject), whom for people (object), whose for possession, which for things, that for people or things.
• Each, every, either, neither, everyone, somebody are singular: Everyone must bring his or her* own lunch.*
• Order of personal pronouns (politeness): second, third, then first person: You, he and I will go. For a fault, first person comes first: I and he were wrong.

4. Adjectives and degrees of comparison

• Use the comparative for two, the superlative for three or more: Ravi is the taller* of the two brothers.*
• Never double a comparative: ✗ more better ✓ better.
• Latin comparatives take to, not than: senior to, junior to, superior to, inferior to, prior to, prefer … to**.
• Elder/eldest for members of a family; older/oldest for people and things in general. Elder is never followed by than.
• Some adjectives name an absolute quality and are not compared in exam grammar: unique, perfect, complete, round, square. ✗ more unique, ✗ very unique.
• Order of adjectives before a noun: number – opinion – size – age – colour – origin – material: two lovely small old brown Pochampally cotton saris.

5. Adverbs

• Many adverbs add -ly to an adjective: quick → quickly, careful → carefully, happy → happily.
• Some words are both adjective and adverb with no -ly: fast, hard, late, early, straight.
• Hard (with effort) ≠ hardly (almost not): He works hard. He hardly* works.*
• Late (not on time) ≠ lately (recently).
• Adverbs of frequency (always, usually, often, sometimes, never) go before the main verb but after am/is/are/was/were: She always* comes early. She is always early.*
• After linking verbs (look, seem, feel, taste, smell, sound) use an adjective: The food tastes good. She looks happy.
• Very goes with adjectives and present participles (very tall, very interesting); much goes with comparatives and past participles (much taller, much admired).
• Too means "more than needed" and has a negative sense: It is too* hot to go out.*

6. Articles in detail

The rule is about sound, not spelling.

The is used:

• for something mentioned before: I saw a* dog. The dog was barking.*
• for unique things and directions: the sun, the sky, the east.
• with superlatives and ordinals: the best, the first, the last.
• with rivers, seas, oceans, mountain ranges, groups of islands: the Godavari, the Bay of Bengal, the Himalayas, the Andamans.
• with holy books, newspapers and famous buildings: the Gita, the Quran, the Hindu, the Charminar.
• with musical instruments: She plays the* veena.*
• with a plural or class name to mean the whole class: the rich, the poor, the Telugus.
• with "the + comparative … the + comparative": *The more you read, the more you learn.*

No article is used:

• before names of people, cities, states and most countries: Kavitha, Nizamabad, Telangana, India (but the USA, the UK, the Netherlands).
• before single mountains and lakes: Mount Everest, Hussain Sagar.
• before meals, games and languages: We had lunch. They play cricket. She speaks Telugu.
• before school, college, hospital, church, prison, bed when used for their main purpose: He goes to school (as a student); He went to the* school* (to meet the teacher).
• before uncountable or plural nouns used in a general sense: *Honesty is the best policy. Dogs are loyal.*

7. Determiners

• Few = almost none (negative): Few people attended. A few = some (positive): A few people attended. The few = all of the small number: The few books he had were old.
• Little / a little / the little work the same way with uncountable nouns: There is a little* milk left.*
• Each for two or more taken one by one; every for three or more as a group: Each of the two boys got a prize.
• Either / neither for two; any / none for more than two.
• Some in offers and requests even in questions: Would you like some* tea?*
• Much in negatives and questions: I don't have much time. In positive sentences prefer a lot of.
• Less with uncountable (less sugar), fewer with countable (fewer mistakes).