Learn the Foundational Blocks of Business English: Parts of Speech
The Foundational Blocks of English: Parts of Speech
What is the purpose of language generally and business communication in particular if not to convey a message effectively? This question leads to the next: What makes communication effective? The answer is clarity. The clarity with which you express an idea is ultimately determined by your ability to use words according to their functions. Different types of words have different functions, and these types of words are referred to in grammar as the Parts of Speech. So while there are over 200,000 words in English, each of them is one of just eight types! This lesson will be the foundation for comprehending all of Business English style and grammar.
Nouns
What are they? things (people, places, concepts, emotions, etc.)
Examples: John, the student, New York, table, politics, absurdity, happiness
Types:
Count-nouns (can be either singular or plural): dollar/s, person/people, pen/s, study/ies, survey/s
Non-count nouns (cannot be counted, have no plural form, and thus are always singular): money, water, air, dirt, evidence, research
Quantifiers
What are they? Words that describe the quantity of a noun.
many of, much of, more of, most of, few of, little of, fewer of, less of, fewest of, least of, several of, a number of, both of, all of, any of, some of, any % of, any fraction of
Careful! Some of these quantifiers can be used only with singular and other only with the plural.
Quantifiers that are only for plural nouns:
many, few, fewer, fewest, several, a number of, both
Quantifiers that are only for singular nouns (non-count nouns):
much, little, less, least, an amount of
Let’s practice!
Choose the correct option in each of the following sentences:
Problem 1: The research and development team has overcome much/many of the technical difficulties.
Problem 2: It is expected that fewer/less junior developers will be enrolling in the training program this year.
Problem 3: The amount/number of people attending the conference is greater than expected.
Pronouns
What are they? Words that refer noun.
Types:
Subject Pronouns: ___ called Joe.
First person singular: I
First person plural: We
Second person singular: You
Second person plural: You
Third person singular: He, She, It, One
Third person plural: They
2. Object Pronouns: Joe called ___.
First person singular: Me
First person plural: Us
Second person singular: You
Second person plural: You
Third person singular: Him, Her, It, One
Third person plural: Them
3. Possessive Pronouns: This is ___ ball. /This ball is ___.
First person singular: My / Mine
First person plural: Our / Ours
Second person singular: Your /Yours
Second person plural: Your / Yours
Third person singular: His, Her, Its / His, Hers, Its
Third person plural: Their / Theirs
Careful! Check your use of contractions.
“It’s” is a contraction, the joining of two words, “it” and “is” to reflect spoken English. Use of contractions (e.g., “don’t,” “can’t,” won’t,” etc.) is not considered formal use of language, but that doesn’t make it wrong. Often the style, voice, and setting in which you are writing require a less formal, more laid-back tone. But mistakes with contractions look bad, so let’s get them straight.
Let’s practice!
Let’s practice!
Choose the correct option in each of the following sentences:
Problem 4: Its/It’s nice to see you!
Problem 5: The company has made significant changes to its/it’s marketing strategy.
Problem 6: The students have arrived. There/Their/They’re waiting right there/their/they’re in the lobby and are ready to submit there/their/they’re applications.
Also pay attention to plural possessives:
“The dog’s ball is red,” means the ball belongs to one dog.
”The dogs’ ball is red,” means the ball belongs to several dogs. (The ‘s’ used to create the possessive is left off for the simple reason that it can’t be pronounced.)
4. Reflexive Pronouns: I/You/He/She/It/They talk/s to ___
First person singular: Myself
First person plural: Ourselves
Second person singular: Yourself
Second person plural: Yourselves
Third person singular: Himself, Herself, Itself
Third person plural: Themselves
Be careful! In formal English there is no ‘hisself’ or ‘theirselves’. So know what level of formality your audience expects.
5. Relative Pronouns
That
Which
Who
Whom
Whose
Gerunds
What are they? Words that end in “ing” and function like nouns.
Example: Alex likes reading.
Note: In the sentence “Alex likes steak,” steak plays the same role as eating in the sentence, “Alex likes reading”— both function as things Alex likes.
Example: Reading gives her great pleasure.
Infinitives
What are they? to + base verb (V1)
Example: Alex likes to read.
Note: Unlike the gerund, the infinitive does not function like a noun. Hence, “Alex likes to read because it gives her great pleasure,” would be incorrect because the pronoun it cannot refer to an infinitive (to read); an infinitive does not function like a noun while a gerund does. Thus, “Alex likes reading because it gives her great pleasure,” would be correct, since it is able to refer to “eating”; eating/it is the thing that gives her pleasure.
Verbs
What are they? They are either the action the subject takes in the sentence or the verb 'be’.
Kinds of verbs
State of being (any conjugation of ‘be’): am, is, are, was, were, has been, have been, will be, would be….
Verbs of action
How do I recognize them?
To better identify verbs, let’s look at the verb ‘attend’ in all its conjugations.
Present Simple: attend/s
Example: Sue attends university.
2. Present Progressive: am/is/are attending
Example: Sue is attending university this year.
3. Past Simple: attended
Example: Sue attended university last year.
4. Past Progressive: was/were attending
Example: Sue was attending university at the time.
5. Present Perfect Simple: has/have attended
Example: Sue has attended university since September, 2014.
6. Present Perfect Progressive: has/have been attending
Example: Sue has been attending university for the past three years.
7. Past Perfect Simple: had attended
Example: Sue had attended university prior to deciding to pursue a career in medicine.
8. Past Perfect Progressive: had been attending
Example: Sue had been attending university for three years before deciding to pursue a career in medicine.
9. Future Simple: will attend
Example: Sue will attend university next year.
10. Future Progressive: will be attending
Example: Sue will be attending university next year.
11. Future Perfect Simple: will have attended
Example: Sue will have attended university for three months by the end of this year.
13. Future Perfect Progressive: will have been attending
Example: Sue will have been attending university for three months by the end of this year.
Descriptive Words
Adjectives
What are they? Words that describe nouns.
Example: The ___ student/car (shiny, new, happy, crazy, careful, real, special, irresponsible...)
2. Adverbs (usually have the suffix –ly)
What are they? Words that describe words that are NOT NOUNS.
Example: He drives irresponsibly/crazily/happily/carefully… (adverbs describing a verb)
Example: He drives incredibly/especially/really… carefully. (adverbs describing another adverb)
Example: The child is exceptionally/unbelievably/phenomenally… bright. ( adverbs describing an adjective)
Let’s practice!
Choose the correct option in each of the following sentences:
Problem 7:
Explaining that there has been a recent/recently extended slowdown in in-store sales, the retailer announced that it would open an online store.
3. Present Participles
What are they? Words ending in “ing” that are descriptive
Consider the following three sentences and how “barking” is used in each:
The dog is barking and is annoying the neighbors.
The dog’s barking is annoying the neighbors.
The barking dog is annoying the neighbors.
As we see here, there are three ways to use a word ending in “ing”:
1.As part of a verb. When an –ing word is preceded by a conjugation of be (is, was, were, has been…etc.), together they form a verb.
Examples: The dog has been barking since 5 o’clock.
2. As a gerund. An –ing word can function as a noun/a thing.
Example: The barking is annoying the neighbors.
3. As a present participle. An –ing word can function as a description.
Example: The barking dog is excited. Barking, here, describes the dog.
Let’s practice! Choose the correct option in the following sentence:
Problem 8:
The sanitation plant dumped waste into the city river, and it led/and that led/and this led/which led to the extinction of an entire species of fish.
This is a trick question! All of these options are actually wrong, because it, that, this, and which are pronouns, and thus their function is to refer to a noun. Regardless of whether you use it, that, this, or which, you are saying that some thing led to the extinction of the species. A clear sentence will make explicit what that thing is and not leave it up to the reader to interpret or intuit what was meant.
Here, there is no one word in the sentence that is the thing that led to the extinction; the entire occurrence—the sanitation plant dumped waste into the city river—led to the extinction.
To describe an entire event, use the present participle! So, the best version of the sentence would be:
The sanitation plant dumped waste into the city river, leading to the extinction of an entire species of fish. (“Leading” describes the entire clause, “The sanitation plant dumped waste into the city river.”)
4. Past Participles (V3)
What are they? The third form of the verb, which acts like an adjective
What are the verbs in each of the following sentences?
The pen is broken and is leaking ink.
The broken pen is leaking ink.
Solution:
The pen is broken and is leaking ink.
The broken pen is leaking ink.
Note: Just like the adjectives cheap or red, broken describes the pen.
Review of V1, V2, V3:
V1(base verb):break, bake
V2 (past simple verb):broke, baked
V3 (past participle):broken, baked
Note: The V3 is part of a verb only when it appears with have, has, or had,
Example: Sue has broken her leg.
Prepositions
What are they? Words that create relationships with nouns
The most common prepositions : in, on, at, to, for, from, of, with, by
prepositions of time: after, ahead, of before, during, since, throughout, until, at, in, on
prepositions of connection: about, apropos, as to, besides, contrary to, in spite of, like, regarding, according to, as, because of, concerning, despite, in view of, of, per
prepositions of space: aboard, off, beside, ahead of, past, down, among, under, near, behind, via, out of, between, above, to, from, alongside, upon, of, around, down, over, beneath, off, toward, by, past, about, inside, under, along, onto, , apart from, through, below, up, beside, beyond, as far as, within, in, against, about, alongside, amid
Prepositional Phrases
What are they? Descriptive groups of words starting with a preposition and ending with a noun
Examples: On time; at sea; in bed; beside the big, fat, orange, lazy cat
Let’s practice!
Mark all the prepositional phrases in the following sentence:
Problem 9:
On a Tuesday during a terrible snowstorm in the dead of winter, the Committee for Early Childhood Education met at the Town Hall in the city center on Maine St. to discuss at considerable length the budget for the following year.
Check your answer and then read the parts of the sentence that you did not mark. You should be left with just “…the Committee… met… to discuss… the budget.” This is much easier to understand, is it not? Let’s consider what happened. Every prepositional phrase is actually descriptive information about a different word in the sentence. For instance, “for the following year” is a description of the word “budget”. So, when you are reading something that is complicated, try skipping some of the prepositional phrases!
Let’s practice Parts of Speech!
Problem 10:
Identify the subjects, pronouns, verbs, present participles, past participles, and prepositional phrases in the following sentence.
Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov was the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov, a land-owner well known in our district in his own day and still remembered among us, owing to his gloomy and tragic death, which happened thirteen years ago and which I will describe in its proper place.
(from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1880)
Solutions to Problems
Problem 1: The research and development team has overcome many of the technical difficulties.
Problem 2: It is expected that fewer junior developers will be enrolling in the training program this year.
Problem 3: The number of people attending the conference is greater than expected.
Problem 4:
It’s nice to see you!
Problem 5:
The company has made significant changes to its marketing strategy.
Problem 6:
The students have arrived. They’re waiting right there in the lobby with and are ready to submit their applications.
Problem 7:
Explaining that there has been a recent extended slowdown in in-store sales, the retailer announced that it would open an online store.
Problem 8:
The sanitation plant dumped waste into the city river, and leading to the extinction of an entire species of fish.
Problem 9:
[On a Tuesday] [during a terrible snowstorm] [in the dead] [of winter], the Committee [for Early Childhood Education] met [at the Town Hall] [in the city center] [on Maine St.] to discuss [at considerable length] the budget [for the following year].
Problem 10:
Alexey Fyodorovitch Karamazov (subject) was (verb) the third son of Fyodor Pavlovitch Karamazov (prepositional phrase), a land-owner well known (past participle) in our district (prepositional phrase) in his own day (prepositional phrase) and still remembered (past participle) among us (prepositional phrase), owing (present participle) to his gloomy and tragic death (prepositional phrase), which (pronoun, subject) happened (verb) thirteen years ago and which (pronoun) I (subject) will describe (verb) in its proper place (prepositional phrase).
(from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, 1880)