Parts of Speech

Collective Nouns – Definition and Examples

8th July 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Hello reader! Welcome. We all know that noun is one of the elements of parts of speech in the English language. It is important to learn in detail about all the different types of parts of speech. Among nouns, one of the important types is the collective noun. In this article, we are going to see in-depth notes about the collective nouns, its definition, rules, and some examples.

Definition of Collective Nouns

Any noun that represents a specific group of people or things is called a Collective Noun. In short, a noun that refers to a collection of common nouns is a collective noun. There are many examples of collective nouns. Some of them are:

Rules

The most important rue of a collective noun is that it is usually singular. Hence, the helping verb is/was comes after the collective noun instead of are/were. For example,

The committee agrees to the decision.
The class commences at 10 AM.
The legislature passes the bills.

However, when the individual noun of the collective nouns is mentioned in a form or in spirit, the plural is used.

The committee members are discussing the verdict.
The students in the class are dispersing.

Some More Examples

The following are some examples of a collection of people:

A troop of soldiers
A panel of Judges
A gang of robbers
A crowd of protestors
A company of actors

The following are some examples of a collection of things:

A bouquet of flowers
A string of pearls
A galaxy of stars
A pile of sand
A bunch of keys
A row of buildings
A junction of roads
A packet of chocolates
A box of crackers

While using collective nouns, it is important to use proper verbs and pronouns to make sure the sentence is grammatically correct. As mentioned above, some collective nouns are singular and some are mentioned in the plural. So, be careful while writing a sentence with collective nouns.

What are Proper Nouns? Definition and Examples

3rd July 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Hello reader! In this article, we are going to discuss the definition, rules, and some example sentences of Proper Nouns. There are eight parts of speech in the English language. A Noun is one of those parts of speech and is one of the basic elements to learn in the English language. We all know that the noun denotes the names of persons, places, things, collections, events, and groups, etc. There are various types of nouns such as proper nouns, collective nouns, common nouns, etc. Each type signifies a peculiar variety of nouns. Among them, proper nouns are one of the most important types of nouns.

Definition of Proper Nouns

Nouns that are used to name a specific person, a specific place, thing, a particular event, and a group are known as Proper Nouns. So, all names of people, the particular names of things and places come under this category. Secondly, if any noun has a specific name to it, it comes under the category of a proper noun.

Examples

In order to understand it easier, let us take the word “Barack Obama”. Well, Barack Obama comes under the category of noun since he is a man. However, the name of the man is given specifically. hence, Barack Obama comes under the category of a proper noun, and the word “man’ is a common noun.

Some more examples are: The World War II, Lake Superior, Sunday, Roger Federer, the NASA, etc.

Rule: The first letter of a proper noun should always be capitalized.

For example,

Lake Superior, Buckingham Palace, GT Road, the Nile River, the Andes Mountains, etc.

Examples of Proper Nouns in Sentences:

I ordered a Dell Laptop Online.
Canada is one of the most beautiful countries in the world.
The Andes Mountains are home to rich flora and fauna.
They are going shopping in the Inorbit Mall.
Narendra Modi is one of the most powerful leaders in the world.
I am craving Hyderabadi Biryani.
I got accepted to Harvard Law.
She is going to perform in the Central Auditorium.
Napolean Bonaparte killed hundreds of people in fierce battles.

For examples of all kinds of Noun sentences, click here

Possessive Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives

1st July 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Hello reader! In this chapter, let us delve into the concept of possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives, their meanings, rules, and some examples related to them. Let’s get started!

We all know that a pronoun is any word that is used instead of a noun. A possessive pronoun is a form of the pronoun that denotes ownership of something in the sentence. For example,

It is his car.
That group invited me to their party.

It is interesting to note that possessive pronouns are also similar to possessive adjectives, which describe the possessions of a noun in the sentence. For example,

That car is mine / That is my car. (The word ‘mine’ is an adjective while ‘my’ is a pronoun).

Possessive Pronouns and Possessive Adjectives

A thin line of difference exists between possessive pronouns and possessive adjectives. The following are the differences between the two for the three persons of personal pronouns.

Possessive Pronouns	Possessive Adjectives
My, Our	Mine, Ours
Your	Yours
His, Her, Its, Their	His, Hers, its, theirs

Rule: A common confusion exists while writing the possessive pronoun. That is the presence of an apostrophe (‘) and s to the pronoun while describing the possessive case. However, while writing about the possession of any pronoun, ‘s should not be used. Let us see this example.

The dress is her’s (Incorrect) /// The dress is hers (Correct).
The box is missing it’s lid (Incorrect) /// The box is missing its lid (Correct).
Is that pen your’s? (Incorrect) /// Is that pen yours? (Correct).

Difference between It’s and Its

Another area where many people make a mistake is between the use of it’s and Its. As discussed above, it’s is a contracted form of it is, and its is a possessive pronoun. For a clear explanation on this and for more examples, see this article on its vs it’s.

In the same manner,

Their = Belonging to them /// They’re = they are
Your = belonging to you /// You’re = You are
Whose = Belonging to who /// Who’s = Who is

Like and Follow us on Facebook for daily doses of Vocabulary.

Personal Pronouns: Meaning, Types and Examples

30th June 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Hello learners! Welcome. The concept of Personal pronouns is one of the most important concepts in the whole parts of speech. If you are a student of English grammar, this is the chapter you must master in order to easily grasp other chapters and concepts. We all know that a pronoun is a word that is used instead of a noun. There are many types of pronouns such as personal pronouns, relative pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns, and interrogative pronouns, etc. In this article, we are going to learn about the meaning, types, and example sentences of personal pronouns.

Personal Pronouns – Meaning and Types

Every sentence consists of two important parts. The speaker (or) the subject, the person spoken about (or) the object. These two are indicated by personal pronouns in the sentence. There are three types of personal pronouns.

The first person is the pronoun that talks about the subject/ the speaker where the self is the one included in the discussion. I and We comprise the first person.
The second person denotes the person that is spoken to. You is the example of second person.
The third person is the person that is spoken of. He, She, It, and They are the examples of the Third person.

The Nominative and the Objective Case

Every personal pronoun can be expressed in two cases, i.e., the nominative and the Objective case. We use the nominative case when the pronoun is the subject of the sentence. We use the objective case when the pronoun is the object.

The following table describes the two cases for all the personal pronouns:

Nominative Case (Singular/ Plural)	Objective Case (Singular/ Plural)
I, We	Me, Us
You, You	You.
He, She, It, They	Him, Her, It, Them

Examples of the nominative case include:

He goes for a stroll in the park every day.
They are getting ready to attend the function.
She received the honorary doctorate from the Vice-chancellor.

Some Examples of the Objective case are as follows:

The doctor advised me to rest well.
The lecturer gave us some work to do.
I asked her to give me some time to finish the project.

Multiple Pronouns and How to Use them

If more than one pronoun is involved, it is important to split the sentence into two parts and decide the correct pronoun to use. For example,

He, she, and I went shopping. (In this sentence, there are three pronouns. So, in order to use the correct pronoun form, it becomes easy if you split those sentences and determine the right form- He went shopping, she went shopping, I went shopping.

Justin went to the movies with her and me. (In this case, We cannot use she and I as the pronouns, because after splitting the sentence as- Justin went to the movies with her, Justin went to the movies with me. Hence, the objective case is used.

Some more examples of Personal Pronouns:

I gave them a letter written by her.
He asked if he could join us.
Kumar and his friends went to the pool.
It was me in the background of the photo.

Follow us on Facebook for regular updates of English grammar and daily doses of Vocabulary.

Gender Pronouns – Types and Examples

26th June 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Hello reader! Welcome. In this article, we are going to discuss everything related to the concept of Gender Pronouns. This is one of the concepts that is gaining a lot of importance in the recent past, thanks to the gender-neutral pronoun concept. Before proceeding, let us first see what a Gender pronoun is.

Gender Pronouns

We all know that a Pronoun is a word that we use instead of a noun. For example, the pronoun indicates a subject which maybe I, we, You, He, She, It, and they or an object which may be my, our, us, his, hers, and them. Gender is the sex of the subject that’s being talked about. A gender pronoun is a pronoun that indicates particular sex.

In the English language, the masculine gender has the pronoun his, the feminine gender her, the neutral genders they/their/ze, zir, hir, etc. Sometimes the person decides what pronoun they choose for themselves.

Some examples of Gender Pronouns are as follows

Martina drove her car to the airport.
the team members went to their respective places.
Christine ate hir lunch at 1 PM. (Some people do not wish to be associated with any gender and those people wish to be associated with a gender-free pronoun).
My name was at the top of the list.
What are your items among these?

In English, while talking about pronouns, it is important to use the correct gender pronoun because gender is one of the things which people take seriously. Nowadays, due to the increasing awareness of the LGBTQ community and rights, it is absolutely essential to be gender-sensitive and be sensitive and respectful of the other’s gender. That is the reason for the additional number of pronouns other than he/him/his, she/her/hers and they/them/theirs. If you’re not really sure of the other person’s gender, it is important to politely ask so that the person might not feel disrespected.

Gender Pronouns of the Personal Pronouns

In the English language, there are seven personal pronouns. They are I, We, You, He, She, It, and They. These seven denote the three persons of pronouns. I and We constitute the first person, ‘You’ is the second person and he, she, it, and they are in the third person. Among these, only the third person constitutes gender pronouns. They are the following:

Feminine Singular	She, her, Hers, Herself
Masculine Singular	He, Him, his, Himself
Third-person neutral singular	It, Its, Itself
Third-person neutral plural	They, Them, Their, Theirs, Themselves

Some More Examples of Gender Pronouns

John and Claire told us that they are coming over for dinner. (Pronoun gender – neutral)
I love Barack Obama. He is my favorite leader. (Pronoun gender – masculine)
The dog is wagging its tail. (Pronoun gender – neutral)
The prime minister is doing everything at her disposal to make this happen. (Pronoun gender – feminine)
Greed is a dangerous thing and no one should be consumed by it. (Pronoun gender – neutral)

Read other topics in Pronouns

Noun meaning, Types, Examples, and usage

14th June 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Hello readers, Welcome to Edify English. In this article we are going to discuss Noun Meaning, types of Nouns with example sentences. In the forthcoming articles on nouns, we will be posting noun exercises. Stay tuned!

Noun Meaning

Noun is a word used to identify Person, people, places, or things. Simply, it is a Naming Word.

Examples of Nouns

Consider the following

Alexander – Name of a Person
Americans – Name given to the people of America
New York – Name of a place
Pen – Name of a thing (Object having physical existence)
Courage – Name of a Quality (No physical existence)

Thus if we name anything using a word, that word becomes Noun. Depending upon what we name using a Noun, there are some types of it.

Types of Nouns

There are basically four types of nouns based on what the word used as the noun names. They are

Common Noun
Proper Noun
Collective Noun
Abstract Noun

Let us see each of them mentioned above in detail

Common Noun

A common noun is a name that is given to any one of a class of persons, places, or things.

Example: King, City, Pen

Each of the above examples represent certain class of Persons, places or things

We use the noun King to name all the kings in the world in common. Hence it is a common Noun. Similarly, we use the Noun City to name any city and the Noun Pen to name pen of any brand. Hence these are common Nouns.

If you carefully observe, if one of the King or city or Pen is given a particular name, then it becomes Proper Noun.

Proper Noun

As said above, the name of a particular person, place or thing is called Proper Noun.

Example:

Alexander (Name of a particular king)
New York (name of a particular city)
Parker (name of a particular brand of pens)

Thus a Common Noun is a common attribution where as a Proper Noun is a Unique attribution.

Read: Difference Between Common Noun and Proper Noun

Collective Noun

A collective noun is the name of people or places or things taken collectively.

Examples:

Crowd – group of people
Army – group of soldiers
Fleet – group of ships
Flock – group of birds

Abstract Noun

An abstract noun is the name of a quality or general idea that we consider apart from the object to which it belongs. Generally these are derived from Adjectives, Common Nouns and Verbs

Examples:

Abstract Nouns derived from Adjectives:

Kind (Adjective) – Kindness (Abstract Noun)
Honest (Adjective) – Honesty (Abstract Noun)
Angry (Adjective) – Anger (Abstract Noun)

Abstract Nouns derived from Common Nouns:

King (Common Noun) – Kingship (Abstract Noun)
Child (Common Noun) – Childhood (Abstract Noun)
Slave (Common Noun) – Slavery (Abstract Noun)

Abstract Nouns derived from Verbs:

Grow (Verb) – Growth (Abstract Noun)
Obey (Verb) – Obedience (Abstract Noun)
Live (Verb) – Life (Abstract Noun)

Also Read: Noun Gender, Examples of Nouns used in Sentences

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs with examples

17th February 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

A verb is a word which denotes the action that happens in any sentence. Verbs are of many types, but the most important and fundamental of them are the Transitive and Intransitive Verbs. In this lesson, let us discuss what these the kinds of verbs are along with their examples.

What is a Transitive Verb?

In a sentence, if the action denoted by the verb is related to the object directly, it is known as a transitive verb. Simply put, it passes over the action done by the subject to the object. For example,

Brazil won the World Cup.

In this sentence, the verb “won” is directly related to the object “World Cup” and is passed on from the subject “Brazil”. Hence, the verb “won” is a transitive verb. We can find an answer in this sentence to “who won?” and also to “Who won what?”.

Some more examples for Transitive Verb sentences are:

The kid hit the wall.
He has learnt his lesson.
She found her lost pen.
My father gave me a gift on my birthday.
I gave my sister a mobile phone.
The manager discussed the company strategies with his employees.

All the highlighted words are the verbs in the sentences and each verb has a relation to the object mentioned next to it.

What is an Intransitive verb?

An intransitive verb is a verb which does not pass on from the subject to the object. In such verbs, the words next to the verb are not objects in a way, and only emphasize the verb’s action or a state of being. For example,

The sun rises in the East.

In this sentence, the meaning of the verb “rises” cannot be passed on to the latter part “in the East”. Hence ‘rises’ is an Intransitive Verb.

Some more examples for Intransitive verbs are as follows:

She slept on the sofa.
He is a man.
The moon shone brightly in the night.
He speaks
I don’t feel
The bus stopped
The crocodile fights

The meaning and essence of the verbs mentioned above do not get passed on to the objects in the sentences, and hence are used as intransitive verbs.

Verbs Used both as Transitive and Intransitive

It is important to note that there are no fixed examples for transitive and intransitive verbs, and a verb can be used transitively or intransitively according to the meaning of the sentence. Some verbs can be used both as transitive and intransitive according to the meaning. Here are some examples for verbs of such cases:

Please ring the bell. (Transitive)
The bell is ringing loudly. (Intransitive)

In the same way,

The driver stopped the car. (Transitive)
The train stopped abruptly. (Intransitive)

Note: Sentences where verbs are used intransitively cannot be changed into passive voice.

Click here to learn more about Verbs

Types of Verbs – Stative | Auxiliary | Transitive | Intransitive

7th February 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

# Types of Verbs

A Verb is a word that denotes Action or State / Condition or Possession of the subject in the sentence. A verb describes what is done by the subject, or what is done to the subject, or simply what the subject is. It is the most important part of speech and the tense of the verb changes the tense of the entire sentence.

Examples of verbs

Sam sat on the sofa (Tells what the subject did)
The door is broken (tells what is done to the subject)
He is a doctor (Tells what the subject is)

Types of Verbs

The following are the important types of verbs

Main Verbs and Auxiliary Verbs

A main verb is the verb that shows the action or state or possession of the subject, while the auxiliary or helping verb is used to express the tense, and ask questions, etc.

For example,

In the sentence “I am driving a car”, the main verb is “drive” as it denotes an action the subject performs and the auxiliary verb is “am” because it denotes the tense of the main verb. Similarly,

She has boarded her flight.
I shall answer that question

Stative and Action Verbs

Stative verbs are the verbs that express the state of the subject, while the action verbs describe the action performed by the subject. For example,

She likes Tea (Here, ‘like’ is a state and not an action performed. Hence it is a stative verb.)
He owns a house.
Gabriel is walking on the pavement (“Walking” is an action performed. Hence it is an action verb).
Rocky helped that blind man.

*We cannot express Stative verbs in Continuous form i.e; we should never say ‘she is liking tea very much’, it should be ‘She likes tea very much’

Transitive and Intransitive Verbs

A transitive verb denotes an action done by the subject in relation to the object. For example,

England won the World Cup.
He kicked the football.

An intransitive verb denotes an action where the subject’s action does not pass on to the object. For example,

The sun shines brightly.
The child is crying profusely.

Some important examples of transitive verbs are as follows:

The iceberg sank the ship.
The pilot stopped the plane.
He spoke a lie.
The donkey kicked him.
I feel numbness in my hand.

Some important examples of Intransitive Verbs are as follows:

The train started suddenly.
The ship sank in the ocean.
Some cats fight very fiercely.
He spoke loudly.
This dog never barks.

Reflexive Verbs

In some sentences, the subject and object refer to the same person. In such sentences, the verb is said to be used reflexively. For example,

Please keep quiet.
Make yourself comfortable.
He killed himself with a knife.
The person identified himself in the crowd.

Regular and Irregular Verbs

In English, the general rule for writing the past and past participle forms of the verb is to add ‘ed’ or ‘d’ to the verb. The verbs whose past and past participle tenses of the verb conform to this rule are known as regular verbs. For example,

The past and past participle forms of Raise are “raised” and “raised”. It is a regular verb. Similarly, Cook, Walk, laugh etc.

Irregular verbs are those that do not follow this rule and have different words for past and past participle tenses. For example,

Go (Past and Past participle are ‘went’ and ‘gone’)
Do (Did- Done)
Become (became- become)
Bring (Brought- brought)

Primary and Modal Auxiliaries :

Auxiliary verbs discussed above can be further classified into Primary auxiliaries and Modal Auxiliaries

Primary Auxiliaries:

These are ‘Be-forms’, ‘Have-forms’ and ‘Do-forms’

Be-forms:

Am, is, are, was, were, will be, shall be, can be, may be etc are called Be-form auxiliaries

Have-forms:

Have, has, had. will have shall have can have may have etc. are called Have-form auxiliaries.

Do-forms:

Do, Does, Did are called Do-form auxiliaries.

Modal Auxiliaries

These are used to express different moods like ability, possibility, obligation, advice, wish etc. They are:

Will, shall, can,may, would, should, could, might, must, have to, had to , ought to etc.

Click here to learn all Parts of Speech

Follow us on Facebook

Conjunction Definition and Examples

6th January 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Conjunctions are words that join words or a group of words or sentences. The conjunction definition and examples is essential to gain knowledge over parts of speech and English grammar.

There are two types of Conjunctions.

Coordinate Conjunctions

The Coordinate conjunction joins two groups of words that are independent of each other and are equally important in the sentence. For example,

Rice and wheat are sold here.

He is tired but active.

The deadline is over and the task is still incomplete.

Some coordinate conjunctions are: And, therefore, moreover, not only-but also, for, but, however, nevertheless, then, yet, still, notwithstanding, etc…

Subordinate Conjunctions

The subordinate conjunction joins clauses that are dependent on one another, or one is dependent on the other. For example,

Since you want a good job, you have to work hard.

Though she was angry, she did not express it.

Unless you concentrate, you cannot pass the test.

Some examples of subordinate conjunctions are although, though, that, if, unless, since, than, because, as if, whether etc…

Rules on Conjunction definition and examples

No sooner should be followed by than.

No sooner had we reached the station than the bus left.

Scarcely should be followed by when.

Scarcely had he arrived when he had to leave again.

Then is an adverb when it denotes time, but is a conjunction when it denotes consequence.

Then the bus moved (Here, then is a preposition).

No one is perfect. We must not, then, expect them to not make mistakes.

Some more examples:

There is nothing else but nepotism in the industry.

Not only the headmaster but also the teachers were responsible for the downgrading of the school’s ranking.

She is neither truthful nor honest.

They will leave either on Sunday or Monday.

More examples can be found during practice exercises.

Lessons on other parts of speech can be found here

Adverb Definition and Examples

5th January 2020 By Edify English Leave a Comment

Adverb Definition and Examples

Simply put, an Adverb is a word used to modify the meaning of a verb, or an adjective or another adverb. The adverb definition and examples go a long way in making English grammar easy for the student. They are reclassified according to their meaning, such as the following:

Adverbs of

Manner
Time
Place
Degree

Adverbs of Manner:

These adverbs answer the question” how” of the verb, such as,

Rahul answered the question frankly.

The poor kid was roaming on the road helplessly.

Carbon emissions are rising surprisingly fast.

Adverbs of Time:

These adverbs answer the question “when” of the verb. For example,

He bought a car recently.

My daughter arrived today.

The train has already left the station.

Adverb of Place:

These adverbs answer the question “where”. For example,

He went there.

The woman was murdered here.

She moved abroad.

Adverbs of Degree

These adverbs answer the question “to what extent”. For example,

Mother is very angry.

He hardly studied for the examination.

The task at hand looks utterly hopeless.

Relative Adverbs

Relative adverbs are placed before the subordinate clause of the sentence and act as a relative pronoun, such as,

I know a place where/in which we can sleep tonight.

He had Typhoid when He was in Australia.

Make hay while the sun shines.

In these sentences, the adverb acts as a link to the subordinate clause and the rest of the sentence.

Some of the other relative adverbs are where, wherever, whence, while, before, why, after, till, since, until.

Interrogative Adverbs

When, where, how, why, whether can be used as interrogative adverbs and their function is similar to relative adverbs but they are used in interrogative sentences.

Adverb Definition and Examples

Adverbs have generally two forms. One is the form ending in ‘ly’ and the other is the same as the adjective and so It is important to distinguish the difference and use them. For example,

He studied hardly for the examination (Incorrect). Hardly means scarcely. The correct adverb is

He studied hard for the examination.

Sam came lately to the ground (Incorrect).

Sam came late to the ground. (Correct)

She was dressed pretty. (Incorrect)

She was dressed prettily. (Correct)

He is prettily right about the outcome. (Incorrect)

He is pretty right about the outcome. (Correct)

[The meaning of the word “pretty” is different in the last two examples and hence It is important to understand the meaning of the word during the usage of adverb.]

Some more adverb definition and examples can be learnt in exercises.

For more lessons on parts of speech, click here.

Connect with us on Facebook.