Page 120 - DENG101_Communication Skills-I

Unit 11: Articles, Nouns, Adjectives and Adverbs

Noun is the part of speech (or word class) that is used to name or identify a person, place, thing, Notes
quality, or action.
An adjective is a word or phrase naming an attribute, added to or grammatically related to a
noun to modify or describe it.

An adverb is a word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a
phrase, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc.
11.1 Articles

An article is a word that combines with a noun to indicate the type of reference being made by
the noun, and may also specify the volume or numerical scope of that reference.
The articles used in the English language are a, an and the. An article is sometimes called a noun
marker.
Articles can have various functions:

1. A definite article (the) is used before singular and plural nouns that refer to a particular
member of a group.

Example: The ball is on the red mat.
A definite article is mostly used to refer to an object or person that has been previously

introduced.

Example: A bird was sitting on the branch. Looking me going towards it, the bird fl ew
away.
2. An indefi nite article (a, an) is used before singular nouns that refer to any member of a
group.

Example: A man is a mammal.
A is used before words starting with non vowel sounds, while an is used before words
starting with a vowel sound, regardless of whether the word begins with a vowel letter or
not.

Examples: A hypothesis; an hour; a ewe; a hero; a one-armed bandit; an heir; a unicorn,
etc.

3. A partitive article indicates an indefinite quantity of a mass noun; there is no partitive

article in English, although the quantifi ers some or any often have that function.
Examples: 1. Would you like some coffee?

2. Do you have any books?

11.2 Nouns

We have all heard about nouns. Of course, we all know about them. They are naming words. So
in order to avoid redundancy in learning, we will limit ourselves to a select type of nouns.

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