Module 1

Module 1: Basic Elements 基本元素

1.1 Parts of Speech 詞類

Day 1: Eight Parts of Speech 八大詞類

Q: How many types of English words do we have?

英語中有多少類的字呢?

A: There are EIGHT parts of Speech!

一共有八大類!

l Different kinds of words are called PARTS OF SPEECH.

不同類的字，叫 “詞類”。

l There are eight Parts of Speech:

“詞類”共分八種。

TYPES OF PARTS OF SPEECH

1. NOUNS 名詞

Names of people, animals, places and things

用來表示人、物或地方的名稱

e.g. Mary, lion, rose, Hong Kong, book

2. PRONOUNS 代名詞

Words to represent nouns

代名詞用來代替名詞

e.g. she, it, they, him

3. VERBS 動詞

Words that show actions

動詞用來表示動作

e.g. jump, play, sing

4. ADJECTIVES 形容詞

Words to describe nouns or pronouns

形容詞用來增強或形容名詞或代名詞

e.g. beautiful, happy

Articles 冠詞: words to be put in front of nouns.

l There are only three of them: a, an, the.

l They are put into the category of adjectives.

冠詞也是一種形容詞

5. ADVERBS 副詞

Words to describe verbs, adjectives or other adverbs

副詞用來增強或形容動詞、形容詞和其他副詞

e.g. very, extremely, quickly

6. CONJUNCTIONS 連接詞

Words to join sentences

連接詞用來聯合字與字, 或句與句

e.g. and, however

7. PREPOSITIONS 前置詞/介詞

Words to show relationships between words in the sentences

介詞用來表示一個人或一件物與另一個人或另一件物件之間的關係

e.g. on, at, about.

8. INTERJECTIONS 感嘆詞

Words to express strong feelings

感嘆詞用來表示心中強烈的情感

e.g. oh, ah, okay.

These eight Parts of Speech have their own usual positions in a sentence.

這八大詞類在大部份情況下, 在句子中都各自有固定的位置。

Let’s see this with an example:

Oh! Susan bought that beautiful dress quickly as she was afraid it would be bought by somebody .

分析Analysis:

Parts of Speech	Words
Nouns	Susan, dress
Pronouns	that, she (Susan), it (dress), somebody
Verbs	bought, was, would be bought
Adjectives	beautiful (to describe ‘dress’), afraid (to describe ‘Susan’)
Adverbs	quickly (to describe bought)
Conjunctions	as (to link the sentence ‘Susan bought that beautiful dress quickly’ and the sentence ‘She was afraid it would be bought by somebody.’)
Prepositions	by (somebody)
Interjections	Oh (expressing the writer’s strong feelings about what Susan did.)

Of course we do not need to use all 8 parts of speech when we write! We usually use only some parts of speech when we write our sentences. Let’s do some exercises to see if you can distinguish these eight parts of speech!

當然，不是每一個句子都會用上所有詞類(八類)；正如在戲劇裡, 不是所有演員都在每一幕出現。在一般情況下,我們只需要用其中幾種就可以了。現在就試試做練習吧!