PART OF SPEECH

1. NOUN

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are often used with an article (the, a, an), but not always. Proper nouns always start with a capital letter; common nouns do not. Nouns have a sometimes been defined in terms of the grammatical categories to which they are subject. Such definitions tend to be language-specific, since noun do not have the same categories in all language.

Examples :

a. Person – John started to run.

b. Place – Harvard and Yale are two famous universities.

c. Thing – Money doesn’t grow on trees.

d. Idea – The theory of relativity is an important concept. 

Types of Nouns in English

Nouns are among the most important words in the English language – without them, we’d have a difficult time speaking and writing about anything. This guide to noun types is intended as a basic overview. Every type of noun comes with its own rules, so be sure to read more in our pages about specific types of nouns.

a.  Abstract Nouns

Abstract nouns are those referring to ideas, concepts, emotions, and other “things” you can’t physically interact with. You can’t see, taste, touch, smell, or hear something named with an abstract noun.  Example : Success seems to come easily to certain people

b. Collective Nouns

When talking about types of noun, it’s important to remember collective nouns. A collective noun is a word that refers to a group. It can be either singular or plural, but is usually used in the singular. Some collective noun examples are included in the following sentences. Example:Our team is enjoying an unbroken winning streak.

c. Common Nouns

Common nouns are used to refer to general things rather than specific examples. Common nouns are not normally capitalized unless they are used as part of a proper name or are placed at the beginning of a sentence. Some common noun examples are included in the following sentences. Example : Be sure to pick a top university.

d. Concrete Nouns

Concrete nouns are words used for actual things you can touch, see, taste, feel, and hear – things you interact with every day. Notice that concrete nouns can also be countable, uncountable, common, proper, and collective nouns. Some concrete noun examples are included in the following sentences.Example : Please remember to buy oranges.
 

2. VERB

A verb is A word that describes an action (bring, read, walk, run, learn), an occurrence (happen, become), or a state of being (be, exist, stand). In the usual description of English, the basic form, with or without the particle to, is the infinitive. In many languages, verbs are inflected (modified in form) to encode tense, aspect, mood, and voice. A verb may also agree with the person, gender or number of some of its arguments, such as its subject, or object. Verbs have tenses: present, to indicate that an action is being carried out; past, to indicate that an action has been done; future, to indicate that an action will be done.

Verb types

Intransitive verbs

An intransitive verb is one that does not have a direct object. Intransitive verbs may be followed by an adverb (a word that addresses how, where, when, and how often) or end a sentence. For example: "The woman spoke softly." "The athlete ran faster than the official." "The boy wept."

Transitive verbs

A transitive verb is followed by a noun or noun phrase. These noun phrases are not called predicate nouns, but are instead called direct objects because they refer to the object that is being acted upon. For example: "My friend read the newspaper." "The teenager earned a speeding ticket."

A way to identify a transitive verb is to invert the sentence, making it passive. For example: "The newspaper was read by my friend." "A speeding ticket was earned by the teenager."

Ditransitive verbs

Ditransitive verbs (sometimes called Vg verbs after the verb give) precede either two noun phrases or a noun phrase and then a prepositional phrase often led by to or for. For example: "The players gave their teammates high fives." "The players gave high fives to their teammates."

When two noun phrases follow a transitive verb, the first is an indirect object, that which is receiving something, and the second is a direct object, that being acted upon. Indirect objects can be noun phrases or prepositional phrases.[2]

Double transitive verbs

Double transitive verbs (sometimes called Vc verbs after the verb consider) are followed by a noun phrase that serves as a direct object and then a second noun phrase, adjective, or infinitive phrase. The second element (noun phrase, adjective, or infinitive) is called a complement, which completes a clause that would not otherwise have the same meaning. For example: "The young couple considers the neighbors wealthy people." "Some students perceive adults quite inaccurately." "Sarah deemed her project to be the hardest she has ever completed."

Copular verbs

Copular verbs (a.k.a. linking verbs) can't be followed by an adverb or end a sentence, but instead must be followed by a noun or adjective, whether in a single word or phrase. Common copulae include be, seem, become, appear, look, and remain. For example: "His mother looked worried." "Josh remained a reliable friend." Copulae are thought to 'link' the adjective or noun to the subject.

The verb be is manifested in eight forms: be, is, am, are, was, were, been, and being. These verbs precede nouns or adjectives in a sentence, which become predicate nouns and predicate adjectives similar to those that function with a linking verb. They can also be followed by an adverb of place, which is sometimes referred to as a predicate adverb. For example: "Her daughter was a writing tutor." "The singers were very nervous." "My house is down the street."

Adjectives that come after copular verbs are predicate adjectives, and nouns that come after linking verbs are predicate nouns.

3. ADJECTIVE

An adjective modifies or describes a noun or pronoun.

An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun. It "describes" or "modifies" a noun (The big dog was hungry). In these examples, the adjective is in bold and the noun that it modifies is in italics.

Order

In many languages, attributive adjectives usually occur in a specific order. In general, the adjective order in English can be summarised as: opinion, size, age, shape, colour, origin, material, purpose.

a. Determiners – articles, adverbs, and other limiters (e.g. three blind mice)

b. Observation/opinion – postdeterminers and limiter adjectives (e.g. a real hero, a perfect idiot) and adjectives subject to subjective measure (e.g. beautiful, interesting), or objects with a value (e.g. good, bad, costly)

c. Size – adjectives denoting physical size (e.g. tiny, big, extensive).

d. Age – adjectives denoting age (e.g., young, old, new, ancient, six-year-old).

e. Shape - adjectives describing more detailed physical attributes than overall size (e.g. round, sharp, swollen)

f. Colour – adjectives denoting colour (e.g. red, black, pale).

g.Origin – denominal adjectives denoting source (e.g. French, volcanic, extra-terrestrial).

h.Material – denominal adjectives denoting what something is made of (e.g., woollen, metallic, wooden).

i.Qualifier/purpose – final limiter, sometimes regarded as part of the noun (e.g., rocking chair, hunting cabin, passenger car, book cover)

Comparison

In many languages, some adjectives are comparable. For example, a person may be "polite", but another person may be "more polite", and a third person may be the "most polite" of the three. The word "more" here modifies the adjective "polite" to indicate a comparison is being made, and "most" modifies the adjective to indicate an absolute comparison (a superlative). Among languages that allow adjectives to be compared, different means are used to indicate comparison. Some languages do not distinguish between comparative and superlative forms.

In English, many adjectives can take the suffixes "-er" and "-est" (sometimes requiring additional letters before the suffix; see forms for far below) to indicate the comparative and superlative forms, respectively :

"great", "greater", "greatest""deep, "deeper", "deepest"

Some adjectives are irregular in this sense:

"good", "better", "best""bad", "worse", "worst""many", "more", "most" (sometimes regarded as an adverb or determiner)

"little", "less", "least"

Some adjectives can have both regular and irregular variations:

"old", "older", "oldest""far", "farther", "farthest"

also

"old", "elder", "eldest""far", "further", "furthest"
 

4. ADVERB

The English word adverb derives (through French) from Latin adverbium, from ad- ("to"), verbum ("word", "verb"), and the nominal suffix -ium. The term implies that the principal function of adverbs is to act as modifiers of verbs or verb phrases.An adverb used in this way may provide information about the manner, place, time, frequency, certainty, or other circumstances of the activity denoted by the verb or verb phrase. Some examples:

• She sang loudly (loudly modifies the verb sang, indicating the manner of singing)
• We left it here (here modifies the verb phrase left it, indicating place)
• I worked yesterday (yesterday modifies the verb worked, indicating time)
• You often make mistakes (often modifies the verb phrase make mistakes, indicating frequency)
• He undoubtedly did it (undoubtedly modifies the verb phrase did it, indicating certainty)

Adverbs can also be used as modifiers of adjectives, and of other adverbs, often to indicate degree. Examples:

• You are quite right (the adverb quite modifies the adjective right)
• She sang very loudly (the adverb very modifies another adverb – loudly)

They can also modify noun phrases, prepositional phrases, or whole clauses or sentences, as in the following examples:

• I bought only the fruit (only modifies the noun phrase the fruit)
• She drove us almost to the station (almost modifies the prepositional phrase to the station)
• Certainly we need to act (certainly modifies the sentence as a whole)

Adverbs are thus seen to perform a wide range of modifying functions. The major exception is the function of modifier of nouns, which is performed instead by adjectives (compare she sang loudly with her loud singing disturbed me; here the verb sang is modified by the adverb loudly, whereas the noun singing is modified by the adjective loud). However, as seen above, adverbs may modify noun phrases, and so the two functions may sometimes be superficially very similar:

• Even camels need to drink
• Even numbers are divisible by two

The word even in the first sentence is an adverb, since it is an "external" modifier, modifying camels as a noun phrase (compare even these camels ...), whereas the word even in the second sentence is an adjective, since it is an "internal" modifier, modifying numbers as a noun (compare these even numbers ...). It is nonetheless possible for certain adverbs to modify a noun; in English the adverb follows the noun in such cases,as in:

• The people here are friendly
• The show features dances galore
• There is a shortage internationally of protein for animal feeds

Adverbs can sometimes be used as predicative expressions; in English this applies especially to adverbs of location:

• Your seat is there.

When the function of an adverb is performed by an expression consisting of more than one word, it is called an adverbial phrase or adverbial clause, or simply an adverbial.

     5. PRONOUN

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.

Pronouns replace nouns. Without them, language would be repetitious, lengthy, and awkward:

President John Kennedy had severe back trouble, and although President John Kennedy approached stairs gingerly and lifted with care, President John Kennedy did swim and sail, and occasionally President John Kennedy even managed to play touch football with friends, family members, or co-workers.

With pronouns taking the place of some nouns, that sentence reads more naturally:

President John Kennedy had severe back trouble, and although he approached stairs gingerly and lifted with care, he did swim and sail, and occasionally he even managed to play touch football with friends, family members, or co-workers.

The pronoun he takes the place of the proper noun President John Kennedy. This makes President John Kennedy the antecedent of the pronoun. The antecedent is the noun or pronoun that a pronoun replaces. There are six types of pronouns: 

Personal	Reflexive
Indefinite	Relative
Possessive	Demonstrative

 

References :
http://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/nouns/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verb
http://www.butte.edu/departments/cas/tipsheets/grammar/parts_of_speech.html