How To Classify Words Into Parts Of Speech

It is too easy to misunderstand the nature of a word in a sentence. This confusion arises due to the versatility of certain words; they have the ability of being polymorphic. In simple terms, a word under the same form can act differently. Let’s see some concrete examples:

1) Using words which are most commonly tagged as verbs, into nouns

=> Words like drink, look, smoke, wash, swim, drive, try, ..etc - generally used as verbs
 We can use them as nouns just by preceding them with ‘have a‘ as you can see below:
- have a drink
- have a smoke
- {.. try the rest for yourself ..}

2) Using words which are most commonly tagged as nouns, into verbs

=> Words like shoulder, head, finger, eye, elbow, hand, ..etc - generally used as nouns
We can use them as verbs as shown below:
- shoulder our responsibilities
- head towards the dressing room
- finger an object
- eye a girl
- elbow someone else aside
- hand him a glassful of water

What Can We Conclude?

It is wise to classify words, into parts of speech, according to the work they do instead according to their general form. That is, words should be grouped based on their function in a sentence.

Another Interesting Example

=> With the word ‘fast‘
a) I need a very fast connection
b) Michael Phelps swims very fast
c) These people are going to fast for one month; during that time they won’t eat anything
d) At the end of their one month fast, they will have normal meals.

Short Exercises For You - The Reader!

1) In the above example, give the form or class of the word ‘fast‘ in each sentence
2) Make sentences with the words ‘spring‘ and ‘watch‘ to show the possible forms they might take
=> Use the comment form below to show your answers..

Previously:
=> The Eight Classes Grouping All Words In The English Language