Linguistic categories explaining how words are used. Examples are the verb, the noun, the pronoun, the adjective, the adverb, the preposition, the conjunction, and the interjection.
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1answer
633 views
Is there a simple word -> noun/verb/pronoun table? [closed]
I'm after a basic list of words and their "role" in language. It could be plain text, excel, csv, but all I want is, eg:
cat noun
run verb
etc. Simple as that. I'm teaching a young friend who's ...
0
votes
4answers
159 views
Is there a term for the phenomenon where the same word forms more than one part of speech?
Is there a term for e.g. the lexical symbol "duck"? It is both a verb and a noun, in contemporary use having no apparent connection, and so would appear to be represent two words.
Then, is the a ...
11
votes
1answer
1k views
What form of verb is “thank” in “thank you”?
Is the word thank in Thank you! a verb? If not, what part of speech is it then? If it is a verb, is it in the imperative mood? I'm asking because I've seen someone write
Do thank you!
which ...
10
votes
4answers
972 views
What part of speech are non-human “interjections” like “oink” and “bang”?
As a spin-off from this comment:
If a human exclaims something like "ouch!", I believe it's considered an interjection.
But if a pig exclaims "oink!", what is the part of speech?
And if a bell goes ...
2
votes
2answers
675 views
What does “just between you and me” function as?
We are trying to figure out the parts of speech in the following sentence and have been stumped by the first phrase:
Just between you and me, those boots aren't cool this year.
I say ...
3
votes
2answers
354 views
What part of speech is “atom” in “hydrogen atom”?
What is the type (adjective, noun, etc.) of the word atom in hydrogen atom?
I think that atom here does not qualify hydrogen in any way and we can use it or not, and the meaning of the word hydrogen ...
1
vote
4answers
886 views
What part of speech would “color” be in, “Mercury is the color red”? [closed]
Mercury is red.
Mercury is the color red.
Red is describing Mercury. What part of speech would color be?
4
votes
1answer
112 views
Can “stemwind” be used as a verb?
Further to my question on the suitability of the word, heartland to “shout-out” in today’s New York Times’ article, “The Rough Rider and the Professor,” I have one more question about the usage of the ...
0
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1answer
763 views
What is a difference between “what if” and “if”
My English teacher asked me what's the difference between what if and if last week.
I can't search anything about that. What only I know is what if is a question sentence. And if is a general(?) ...
6
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4answers
3k views
Part of speech for “please” followed by a verb
I know that "please" can be many different parts of speech; interjection, an adverb, or a verb, depending on how it's used. I'm looking specifically to find out what part of speech "please" is when ...
6
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9answers
3k views
What word can fulfill the most parts of speech?
I know there are several parts of speech:
Noun
Verb
Pronoun
Adjective
Adverb
Preposition
Conjunction
Interjection
There might be others as well. Sometimes a word, depending on how it is used, can ...
1
vote
4answers
681 views
What is the name of the difference between “doesn't” and “don't”?
I came across a phrase like this today, which is obviously incorrect:
The car don't run.
The correct version of this would be:
The car doesn't run.
I wanted to explain the issue to ...
1
vote
3answers
178 views
Grammar–are there any PoS patterns that are incorrect/to be avoided?
I don't know if there are any patterns/rules for "grammatical don'ts" that pertain to Parts of Speech.
For the sake of clarity, I refer to things such as:
1) Noun Noun Noun
2) Verb Noun Adverb
3) ...
-2
votes
2answers
424 views
Grammar of 'over' in 'The accident was already over when we arrived' [closed]
What is the grammar of the word 'over' in the example:'The accident was already over when we arrived'
I know it means finished and I think it's an adjective but didn't find the same meaning in the ...
3
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1answer
955 views
Grammar of “married” in “getting married”
What is the grammar of the word married in this sentence?
They are getting married in April.
3
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2answers
416 views
Correct usage of “in that”
I've heard in that used as a synonym for because, but I don't think that this is semantically correct in all cases.
That car is nice, in that it is blue.
This sentence generally makes sense to ...
1
vote
1answer
426 views
Usage of “than”
Buying on margin means borrowing money from a broker to buy more securities than can be purchased with one's own money alone.
I was wondering if than in the above example is a conjunction or ...
13
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2answers
728 views
Is it true that a word ending in -y is more likely to be an adjective than a noun?
Claim: a word ending in -y is most likely not a noun but an adjective.
Don't have my tagged corpus handy to check. Anyone have the stats on Parts-Of-Speech of words ending in y and assuming they ...
9
votes
1answer
327 views
What is the word for using one part of speech where another would be more grammatical?
There's a Greek word that means using the wrong part of speech somewhere in a sentence, as in:
I don't know the who or the how or the when.
Where "who", "how", and "when" are being used for ...
0
votes
2answers
4k views
What part of speech is 'there' in this sentence?
What part of speech is there in the sentence "There is a book on the table?"
Also, while typing it out, another question pops up vis-a-vis punctuation. In my complete first sentence above, I ended it ...
0
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2answers
203 views
Question regarding “does”/“do”
What rule of grammar does this sentence break? (I mean the "does" part of the following sentence)
What does the status indicators mean?
Also, why does english.stackexchange.com have a code ...
3
votes
4answers
503 views
Is there a term for the part of a sentence that is in the form “Customers who …” or “Products that …”?
For the purpose of building a dynamic user interface within an software application I wish to separate parts of a set of phrases which would be in the form of the examples below.
Examples:
...
8
votes
2answers
718 views
Do all words have a part of speech?
Do all words have a part of speech? The closest counterexample I can think of is yes. The dictionary says its supposed to be an adverb but it doesn't really strike me as something that modifies a ...
0
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4answers
202 views
Is “predicable” a noun or an adjective?
Is it "the policy is a predicable" or "the policy is predicable"?
5
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2answers
1k views
The grammatical function of “How”
What is the grammatical function of "how" in this sentence:
He told us how to do it.
0
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2answers
7k views
“As of late” or “as of lately”?
The title pretty much summarizes my question. For example, in the following sentence
She has developed an accent while living overseas, which as of late(ly) became more pronounced.
I usually ...
4
votes
3answers
13k views
Part of speech of “very,” “extremely,” “really,” and “quite”
While working on developing the lexicon in one of my constructed languages, I encountered a slight difficulty in using standard classifications for words like very, extremely, really, and quite.
To ...
3
votes
2answers
788 views
To use “test” as an adjectival noun, is the proper form “test” or “testing”?
When I write a document, I am confused when to use test or testing in my document. For example, which one makes a better statement below?
A test engineer vs A testing engineer
software test tool vs ...
4
votes
2answers
419 views
How to categorize “grrrr”, “errhh”, “argh”,..?
What are these called in English?
Are they same thing as "Gosh" or "Gee"?
Maybe sounds of emotional changes?
4
votes
1answer
286 views
Is “it is a fun game” correct?
"It is a lot of fun," sounds correct, but not, "it is a fun game."
Isn't fun a noun? Then why is it used as an adjective?
I have heard this usage even by literary giants, so this cannot be a common ...
3
votes
1answer
645 views
What is the defiant “HMPH!” sound called?
What's the name of the sound a child makes after an angry, declarative and usually defiant statement.
Parent:
John, you can't take a cookie out of the cookie jar.
Child:
Yes, I can! HMPH!
2
votes
2answers
1k views
What part of speech is the “be + verb” here? What tense are these sentences in?
I shall have him be killed.
She is to be stoned for adultery.
What are the constructions be +verb called, grammatically? I feel like the above sentences are very adjectival in nature, more ...
4
votes
5answers
933 views
Can someone help me diagram this sentence?
I'm trying to do a sentence/phrase analysis of the following sentence. I just can't figure out, what would “No matter the season” be (Adv. of ...) in terms of sentence elements.
And the next question ...
2
votes
2answers
180 views
What's the grammatical function of “not” and “to” in this sentence?
What's the grammatical function of not and to in this sentence?
It is legitimate for Slovenia not to allow the merger.
How do I analyse the verb phrase? Allow is the headword, but what are not ...
4
votes
1answer
7k views
Is “is” an auxiliary verb? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Is "is" an auxiliary verb?
My Mum's bag is blue.
Is is an auxillary verb in that sentence? If not, what part of speech is it?
1
vote
4answers
881 views
What part of speech is “turn” in the phrase “it's my turn”? What's its origin?
Hey! It's my turn!
This is a very acceptable usage of the word turn. It seems to me that in this sentence, turn is a noun, because it's something that I own. Now, I could be really wrong ...
12
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4answers
1k views
Is “so” a pronoun?
Reminded by What is the grammatical function of so in this sentence, something that has always bothered me is that the word "so" can be used as a pronoun:
It looks like rain
Responding with:
...
4
votes
3answers
555 views
Can adjectives always be used as nouns when they denote a plural and are preceded by the definite article?
An adjective appears to be used as a noun when denoting an animate plural and preceded by the definite article:
'The successful are those who strive.'
'The foolish are those who ...
8
votes
4answers
940 views
More on 'who should she see': what part of speech is 'should' in this phrase?
Prompted by What does 'should' mean in this sentence?, instead of asking what it means, I'm interested in what part of speech it is.
The sentence is:
She walked through the forest, and who should ...
26
votes
6answers
1k views
What is the lexical class of the word 'worth' when used in a sentence like “Is this apple worth $3?”
The question "Not worth the paper it's printed on" - wrong meaning? got me thinking about what part of speech, or lexical class, the word 'worth' takes?
A comment in "Is it worth ...
3
votes
3answers
356 views
What part of speech is “chiropractic”?
"Chiropractic" sounds like an adjective because of the "ic", but the title "Doctor of Chiropractic" seems like a noun.
Am I just confused?
4
votes
3answers
3k views
Is “architect” a verb and a noun?
I hear the word architect used as a verb in the technical field and now more often in other industries and groups, for example:
We need to architect a better solution to the problem.
I am ...
4
votes
2answers
260 views
What is the word “who”?
Is the word "who" an adverb? If not, what is it? If it is an adverb, what type of adverb is it?
6
votes
2answers
284 views
How did 'mad' come to be a determiner?
There's a group of words — I think they're called determiners — used to indicate number in some way... like many, few, most, etc. During a linguistics class my professor said this was a closed group ...
6
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3answers
304 views
The verb form of “Is entered in the race”
[I'm not much of an expert in English usage, just an armchair boffin, so I hope I'm not out of line asking what may be a dumb question, to the regulars here...]
I am trying to figure out the form of ...
2
votes
3answers
526 views
They call me “Tater Salad.” What is the part of speech of “Tater Salad”?
What is the part of speech of "Tater Salad" in the sentence 'They call me "Tater Salad."'?
What about "crazy" in "They call me crazy."?
For that matter, is "me" the object of the verb "call" in both ...
3
votes
1answer
359 views
Are both the “special” and the “needs” in “special needs” adjectives?
In the sentence, "she is a special needs child" (referring to someone with a disability), what parts of speech are the words "special needs"? Are both adjectives on their own, or do they only form an ...
3
votes
4answers
547 views
Using 'stuck' as a verb
The visual studio kept stucking under RDP yesterday
Should 'stuck' become a present tense verb? It seems like "getting stuck" is too long for the modern world where it happens much more ...
13
votes
4answers
3k views
What part of speech is “on” in “on fire”?
A while ago, there was an answer on Jeopardy! along the following lines:
In the sentence he was on fire, the word on is this part of speech.
The judges ruled that it was a preposition. But I ...
11
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4answers
449 views
“Employee” in the phrase “employee ID” is a determiner, not an adjective—right?
I am a software developer with a bit of a linguistic slant. We were recently given some training on how to name database fields and were told to avoid adjectives in names.
Then we were given an ...
