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gerund, infinitival and gerundial phrases, noun-clauses with the noun, adjective and the verb in a
sentence. Being formal words they do not perform any function in a sentence.
Conjunctions (conj) have the meaning of connection, they are unchangeable and connect words of the
same parts of speech: N conj N, A conj A, V conj V, Adv conj Adv, N/Pron conj N/Pron, etc. No
syntactical function is performed by them.
The determining formal words are articles (art) and particles (part). They have a peculiar meaning and
are unchangeable. They determine notional parts of speech: the article determines nouns (art + N) and
particles determine any notional part of speech for emphasis, e.g. Only he did so. He did only this. He
only listened but did nothing. They do not perform the functions of subject, predicate, object, etc. in a
sentence, they emphasize the meaning of the word they modify.
Interjections (int) express human emotions, they are unchangeable, they make a sentence in
themselves, e.g. Oh, how happy I feel, and are often homonymous with notional words, e.g. My God,
here you are at last.
Words Yes and No express affirmation and negation; they are unchangeable and make a sentence in
themselves.
Modal words express the attitude of the speaker to what is said and are used as parentheses. E.g.
Luckily, no one suffered from it. Honestly, you are making the most of it.
Here is a poem written by someone unknown about the parts of speech in English.
Grammar in Rhyme
Three little words you often see,
Are Articles A, An and The.
A Noun is the name of anything,
As School, or Garden, Hoop, or Swing.
Adjectives tell the kind of Noun,
As Great, Small, Pretty, White, or Brown.
Instead of Adjectives the Pronouns stand,
Her head, His face, Your arm, My hand.
Verbs tell of something being done —
To Read, Count, Laugh, Sing, Jump, or Run.
How things are done the Adverbs tell,
As Slowly, Quickly, Ill, or Well.
Conjunctions join the words together —
As men And women, wind And weather.
The Preposition stands before
A Noun, as In or Through a door.
The Interjection shows surprise,
As Oh! How Pretty! Ah! How Wise!
The whole are called nine parts of speech
Which reading, writing, speaking teach.
Nine parts of speech are mentioned in the poem against thirteen indicated in the chart. Among notional
parts of speech numerals are not mentioned in the poem since they may be regarded in the group of
adjectives due to the similarities of their characteristics and are often treated as such. Particles are easily
comparable with adverbs, the same refers to modal words; words of affirmation and negation can with a
certain degree of proximity be considered to be referring to the group of interjections. So, nine parts of
speech is good enough for teaching purposes.
A chart like the one presented above would orientate the learners about the section of grammar they
are in every time a grammar point is being taught facilitating them to overlook the complete picture of
grammar.
The information about parts of speech may be helpful in teaching how to use an English-English,
English-Russian, Russian-English dictionaries. It is taken for granted that students should make use of