Okay…so you’ve been learning these word types for years, literally since primary school! But…most of us can never seem to remember them!
Firstly, It can be difficult because they all seem to have strange names that can be hard to remember. Secondly, it can also be difficult because our brains can struggle to understand WHY we even need to know this.
BRAIN SNACK: Our brains only tend to remember things we either find interesting or assign importance to.
If you needed to remember this in order to stay alive…I can guarantee you, you’d probably remember it! Lucky for you, that’s not the case! However, if you struggle to remember this, ask yourself: do I really understand the importance of it? Do I understand how it is are going to help improve my grades? Do I understand why my grades are going to help me in life?
Here’s the lowdown.
Why you need to know about Word Types
You need to know about word types for analysis. Analysis is essentially picking out individual features from the quotes in your essays and it is worth nearly 50% of your mark! This could be words, phrases, devices, sentence types or punctuation. This is important because it allows you to explain how the writer is creating the meaning not just what the meaning is. Why has the writer chosen to use that word rather than a different one?
Of course, when we’re talking about individual words in the quote we can just say ‘the word’. But…it’s much more impressive if you can actually name the word! Also…if you name the word…GET IT RIGHT! You don’t to call something a noun, if it’s actually a verb!!!
Checkout my free eBook – Essay Templates here to see how you can add language analysis into your work!
Here are the main ones you need to know!
1. Nouns
Firstly, let’s look at nouns. Nouns are naming words. They are people, places, things. Think: days of the week, months, countries, cities, objects, people, places.
The best way to remember this is to think ‘Noun’ starts with an ‘N’ and ‘Naming word’ also starts with an ‘N’.
WATCH OUT: Nouns also include the names of our emotions such as love, hate, anger and even abstract concepts such as war, peace and equality.
2. Verbs
Next, we have verbs. Verbs are DOING WORDS. Bringing back memories from primary school?
These are your action words: running, walking, jumping, dancing.
However, they can also refer to actions that don’t require any movement at all such as thinking, hating, enjoying, watching.
3. Adjectives
Next on the list is adjectives. This word has the word ‘ad’ inside it. THAT’S A BIG CLUE! It’s going to ‘add’ something to one of the word types we’ve already looked at!
Adjectives ‘add’ meaning to nouns. They describe nouns! This could be colour, shape, size, age, material, opinion.
Examples
Here are some examples:
“The red bus.”
“The old house.”
“The Spanish plate.”
“The beautiful dress.“
4. Adverbs
Nearly there…the next one is adverbs. Oooh! Again…we have that word ‘ad’ and we also have the word ‘verb’. Hmmmmm…what could this mean?
Yes…you got it. You’re adding something to a verb. You’re adding description. Adverbs describe verbs! They also usually end in ‘ly’ (although there are some exceptions).
Examples
Here are some examples:
“She ran quickly.“
“They opened the door quietly.“
“He approached the house tentatively.“
A Word of Caution
Most adverbs you find are going to describe verbs. However, they can also perform some magic tricks and sometimes you might find them describing adjectives or even other adverbs. Let’s look at some examples.
“It was extremely bright.“
Here we can see that the adverb ‘extremely’ is describing the adjective ‘bright’. It tells us how bright it was.
“They worked incredibly quickly.“
Here the main adverb is quickly. However, we also have another adverb ‘incredibly’ which serves to tell us how quickly.
5. Pronouns
And…finally…last but not least, we have pronouns! Here we have the word ‘pro’ and the word ‘noun’. Hmmmm….what could this mean?
You’re getting good at this now!
Pronouns are ‘pro’ nouns, they are super nouns, special nouns! They are super and special because they replace nouns which allows us to avoid repeating ourselves!
Examples
For example, without pronouns we would have to say:
“The girl walked to the shop and the girl looked round the shop. Eventually, the girl found what the girl was looking for and the girl returned home.“
VERY BORING!
Instead we can use the pronoun ‘she’ to replace the noun ‘girl’!
“The girl walked to the shop and she looked round the shop. Eventually, she found what she was looking for and she returned home.“
Doesn’t that sound better?
Your main pronouns are: she, he, it, they, them, we, I.
And…there we have it. Those are the main word types you need to know, the building blocks as it were. Of course, there are many more but if you can master these ones first, you’ve made huge progress towards improving your grades. When you’re ready for the next level, check out my blog post on sophisticated and complex word types. This is where it gets really interesting and you can start to tap into those top grades! Now you’re ready to put it into practise! Check out my post about how to write a description here!