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  • Hi. James from engVid.

  • I would like to talk about something that will help you understand English,

  • and it's two things.

  • Number one are parts of speech.

  • What are the parts of speech and how do you use them?

  • The second is called syntax, which is a very complicated word for word order.

  • Where do you put the words in a sentence?

  • In some languages they have a different word order, some languages it doesn't really matter,

  • but what my job today is, is to show you where the words go and:

  • What do they basically mean-okay-in the parts of speech?

  • As E said: "Words. Where do they go?"

  • Now, if you're new to English or even if you're an intermediate student, sometimes this causes

  • you problems. Right?

  • You've heard the terms: "preposition", "determiner", "syntax", and you're like: "Oh, it's so complicated."

  • Today's lesson will be simple.

  • You can go over this again and again.

  • It will help you understand and use English better.

  • So I'm going to start off with the most basic part of parts of speech, and I want to start

  • with the things part.

  • Things.

  • Not actions, but things.

  • I am a person.

  • My watch is a thing.

  • Okay?

  • An animal, a cat or a dog, or an apple, these are things.

  • We call these things nouns, because nouns name people - Hi, I'm James;

  • places - Toronto, Ontario; things - my watch; animals - a cat, meow; and food - an apple.

  • Okay? These are nouns.

  • Example: boy, dog, apple. Okay?

  • Nouns name these things.

  • But sometimes you don't want to keep using the same noun again and again.

  • "James ate the apple and James walked his dog as James talked to his friend, Oliver,

  • and then James..."

  • It gets what we call repetitive and boring, and it also makes the sentences go really slow.

  • And sometimes we want to use the noun in a different way.

  • So in this case we introduce what's called pronouns.

  • Pronouns can replace nouns in a sentence.

  • So now you could say something like this: "James ate the apple and he walked his dog."

  • Instead of: "James ate the apple and James walked his dog", we can use a pronoun to replace

  • it and make it simpler.

  • We still know we're talking about James.

  • Now, we talked about word order or syntax.

  • Let me explain this.

  • In order to use a pronoun first you must use the noun.

  • Okay?

  • You introduce the noun and then you can replace it with a pronoun.

  • That's why you see number one then number two.

  • You cannot just start with a pronoun.

  • If I started a sentence at the beginning: "He went to the store."

  • The very first thing you will say to me is: "Who's he?"

  • I go: "Oh, James went to the store and he bought the apples there."

  • And you go: "Oh, now I know who he is."

  • So, pronouns kind of number two because you have to actually introduce first with a noun,

  • then you can replace it with a pronoun.

  • Now, we have several types of pronouns.

  • I'm just going to go over and show you a couple of them so you get an idea.

  • Pronouns include: "I", "we", which are subject pronouns.

  • Object pronouns when we're talking about something that's not us, but something on the other

  • side that receives action, as a subject pronoun I do things.

  • I run.

  • Right?

  • We eat dinner.

  • We're talking to them.

  • Now, when we say "them", you go: "What?"

  • Well, they are receiving it and we call those object pronouns.

  • Okay?

  • So the most basic ones are subject and object pronouns.

  • One is doing something, one is receiving.

  • There are reflexive pronouns, like: "himself" where somebody is talking about themselves.

  • "He built the house himself."

  • So he's talking about him as an object, but reflecting it back to himself.

  • We call it reflexive pronoun.

  • Okay?

  • There are others, but I'm not going to get into them right now because I want to keep

  • this simple just so you know what the parts of speech are, and you can always come to

  • engVid to come and see other lessons in which we go deeply into

  • reflexive pronouns, object and subject pronouns.

  • Okay? Cool.

  • So we talked about how pronouns can replace nouns, and we're good with that.

  • Yeah?

  • So let's go to stage number three, because once you've replaced them, how do you know

  • the difference between them?

  • Apple, apple.

  • I don't know.

  • That's when we have adjectives.

  • Adjectives.

  • The word itself can be broken into two parts: "ject" and "ad".

  • But remember...

  • Do you remember when I said subject and object, and I gave you the example?

  • I said, for instance: "I" is a subject pronoun.

  • Right?

  • Subject, yeah, I'm good at this.

  • I'm going to do this really well.

  • And I said: "them" is an object pronoun.

  • Right?

  • You'll notice "ject" is in both parts.

  • When you look at an adjective, "ad" means to put on, you add, like two plus two is four,

  • four plus four is eight.

  • So an adjective you add to a pronoun or a noun to describe them.

  • So if you look here, "ject".

  • Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns.

  • Now, remember we talked about syntax?

  • Well, syntax, remember the word order?

  • Where would you find an adjective?

  • Well, in some places it's reversed.

  • If you speak Spanish, for instance, you would say: "gato negro", which in translation for

  • English is cat's black.

  • And for me who speak English or a person who speaks English, that doesn't make sense to

  • me because we say black cat.

  • So, word order can vary depending on the language you speak.

  • We usually put pronouns before...

  • Sorry, adjectives before our pronouns and our nouns so we can describe them.

  • And in two seconds I'm going to give you some ways in which we describe things, and we have

  • a word order for that.

  • Okay?

  • And I'll have to explain something on that.

  • So, where will you find an adjective?

  • Before you find your nouns or pronouns.

  • They will help you describe your subjects or objects.

  • Okay? The things that are doing something.

  • Now, we have eight types of adjectives. All right?

  • And we have a special order we put it in.

  • Now, depending on your language, this order may exist.

  • You may have a different order or you may have no order which means you can put any

  • of these things in any order you like.

  • You can put...

  • Not... Well, maybe with the exception of numbers, but the colour can come first, where it comes

  • from, it can come first.

  • Quality can come first.

  • It depends on your culture, your language, your country.

  • English, however, the order I put it in - one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight,

  • that's the order we want it in.

  • Okay?

  • If you change it, it actually gets really confusing.

  • So, what are these eight?

  • Well, why don't we take a look?

  • Quantity, it's a number.

  • Now, I put "a number", not because I said a number, but "a" refers to...

  • Or "a" refers to articles.

  • The chair, a chair.

  • Okay?

  • In this case "a" means one, so that's why I put "a number".

  • Funny guy, I know.

  • Number can be any other number; five, 10, 1,000, 1 million, a billion.

  • This usually comes first to indicate how many things we're talking about.

  • Okay? So you need a number.

  • Five chairs, okay, we're talking about five so I have to look for five chairs.

  • Not chair, yellow, five.

  • I'm like: "Is that the name, yellow five? I'm confused."

  • The next thing we talk about, quality.

  • Is it good, is it bad?

  • Is it exceptional?

  • Right? Or is it insignificant?

  • That's a big word for meaning not important.

  • Okay?

  • So we go from quality to...

  • Sorry, quantity to quality.

  • Then we talk about the size of it.

  • Right?

  • There were five big, black, cats.

  • So, five big, is it big, is it small?

  • Age.

  • How old is it?

  • Is it new?

  • Is it old?

  • Is it young?

  • All right?

  • Shape.

  • Is it round?

  • Is it a square or a triangle?

  • What's the shape of it?

  • Oblong.

  • Yeah, that's... Don't. I don't even know. I do.

  • It's long and kind of circular, but yeah.

  • Oblong.

  • Colour, what is the colour?

  • Yellow, black, green, red. Red.

  • What's the colour?

  • Origin.

  • Some of you go: "Origin. Wolverine origin."

  • No.

  • Origin means: Where did it come from?

  • Was it made in Italy?

  • Was it made in China?

  • China.

  • Sorry.

  • It's my favourite impersonation of somebody, he goes: "China. I love China. China's good."

  • [Laughs] Anyway, was it made in China?

  • And what is the material?

  • Is it cotton?

  • This is made of cotton.

  • Is it made of beads, so glass?

  • Is it made of metal?

  • I mean, you might not be able to see this, but metal.

  • What is it made of?

  • Okay?

  • That is the order that we follow when we describe things.

  • And I have an example that I've been hiding from you that we're going to talk about to

  • show you exactly what I mean.

  • So, Mr. E and I wanted to buy some couches, and Mr. E was very specific on the kind of

  • couch he wanted, so he gave me a list.

  • And from that list I was able to get him exactly what he wanted.

  • And how was I able to do that? Well, I followed the word order chart.

  • So let's go take a look at what Mr. E wanted.

  • So, Mr. E wanted some couches, and I said to him:

  • "Hey. I got your couches.

  • I bought five nice, big, old, long, blue, Italian leather...

  • Well, chairs. Couch."

  • Sorry.

  • And Mr. E said: "Fantastic!

  • Because if you had bought me nice, old, big, long, five, blue Italian couches,

  • I would be confused and return it."

  • I said: "No, Mr. E, because I know how we're supposed to order adjectives in English.

  • So I followed your instructions by following the word order, these five...

  • Sorry, eight positions order, and I made sure I put the adjectives before the noun so I

  • would get the exact right thing you wanted."

  • Okay?

  • So this is the first part of this lesson because I want to talk about now that you are a person,

  • place, or thing, you got to do things.

  • Right? Like right now I'm talking which is a verb, which we're going to go to in a second and

  • talk about verbs and how they work.

  • Are you ready?

  • [Snaps]

  • Okay.

  • Well, we talked about nouns, pronouns, adjectives, how they work together.

  • Remember a pronoun can replace a noun, the order that they come.

  • Right? Or they come in.

  • And now I want to talk about actions because a noun or a thing that doesn't do anything

  • is rather boring.

  • Right?

  • Wouldn't you say?

  • And what do we mean by actions?

  • Well, right now I'm talking.

  • My mouth is moving, I'm talking, but I'm also looking at you.

  • I'm breathing.

  • Okay?

  • So let's go to the board and look at this funny word we call verbs and how they work.

  • Well, with verbs we have...

  • Well, they do actions.

  • We take a pronoun or a noun and they act.

  • They can sleep...

  • Did I just press "eat" and "sleep"?

  • [Laughs] They could eat, sleep, and work.

  • Okay?

  • So that's what a noun can do.

  • And we talked about, you know, subjects and objects pronouns.

  • The subject pronoun does it to an object pronoun.

  • Okay?

  • One of these actions.

  • So: "I eat an apple".

  • "I" am the subject, "eating an apple", object.

  • Cool?

  • So we put this word here, the verb to tell you how the two things are working together.

  • Here's a funny one, verbs are a state of being.

  • Huh?

  • Being what?

  • Well, exists.

  • Like right now I exist.

  • If I stop being...

  • I disappear.

  • So being means you are there, you exist, you're real, you can be touched.

  • But it's not just that.

  • Sometimes I'm happy, and sometimes I'm sad, and sometimes I'm sick, and sometimes I'm healthy.

  • You'll notice how we use the verb "to be" to talk about those things.

  • "I am", "she is", "they are". Okay?

  • And we can use that, this verb "to be" with an adjective and it tells us how something

  • is right now.

  • Like, right now it is hot in here. Hot.

  • That's the state of the situation or how things are right now.

  • And right now I'm a little sick.

  • James is sick.

  • That's my state of being.

  • And I'm very happy when Mr. E comes to my house.

  • Right?

  • You didn't see him, but I mentioned him in every video.

  • So I'm happy.

  • That's a state, or how I am or how I'm feeling.

  • My emotions.

  • You are happy, sad, upset, exuberant, which means very happy.

  • Okay?

  • So this is what verbs do.

  • They can tell us the action, one noun is doing to the other noun.

  • In that case we talk about subject and object pronouns.

  • Right?

  • But we can also talk about how things are.

  • The world is good, how it is.

  • Cool?

  • Let's move down from verbs to adverbs.

  • Do you remember when we talked about adjectives and we said: "ad" to "ject" and that was because

  • you have subject and object?

  • Well, we have the same thing here, we add to verbs, which means we give more of a description

  • of what the word was doing.

  • It's one thing to run, then to run quickly, that's different.

  • It's not the same.

  • Or run...

  • Doo-doo-doo-doo, doo-doo-doo, bionic man style, slowly, but really quickly.

  • Okay?

  • So adverbs describe the action of verbs, but hold, wait.

  • Unlike an adjective that just describes the pronouns, adverbs describe verbs. Okay.

  • Adverbs, okay.

  • And adjectives?

  • This adverb is very, very busy.

  • It's got a lot of work to do and it's going to be my job to show you how it does that work.

  • An adverb is interesting because it adds information to how things are done.

  • In doing that, first of all we should talk about its position.

  • Generally, adverbs are found after the verb, but before the adjective it modifies.

  • So let's do one at a time.

  • Do you remember I was running and I said I'm running slowly, or I'm running quickly, quick, quick, quick, quickly?

  • In this case I ran, I want to know what the noun or pronoun is doing, and then how it ran.

  • So in this case, ran quickly.

  • Okay? Notice it follows after the verbs.

  • This is generally true.

  • Okay?

  • So: "I ran quickly to my house."

  • Now I talked about adjectives.

  • And I don't want it to get too complicated, but I'll show you here:

  • "That watch is so expensive."

  • Hmm?

  • Well, that watch is the subject we're talking about and we're saying it is expensive.

  • If I get rid of "so"...

  • Remember we talked about stative verbs?

  • We're saying the watch is expensive. Right?

  • But how expensive is it?

  • I don't know.

  • It's so expensive, which means very expensive.

  • So we actually use an adverb to describe to tell us the degree or amount of expensiveness.

  • It's very expensive, that means a lot of expense.

  • You need a lot of money to get that watch.

  • So adverbs help by noticing it's still following the rule, following the verb, but it helps

  • to give more information about the adjective which is telling us about the watch.

  • So adverbs are really cool because they make everything better.

  • Cool. You like that?

  • Me too.

  • But what I want to let you know is there's something else about adverbs.

  • There's not just one type of adverb.

  • Unh-unh-unh-unh.

  • There are four.

  • Now, let's take a quick look at what the four are.

  • The types of adverbs we can talk about, number one, we can talk about adverb of manner.

  • Please, thank you.

  • That's so kind of you, and you're welcome.

  • No, I'm not talking about adverbs being polite and nice.

  • What I'm saying is when we say adverb of manner it is how something happens.

  • Some things happen slowly, some things happen very quick.

  • They happen very quick or fast.

  • Right?

  • So in this case when we say: "How did it happen?

  • Slowly?

  • Quickly?"

  • Both how it happens over time. Right?

  • Adverbs of time.

  • This is when something happened.

  • Hmm?

  • Well, it happened yesterday, or today, or tomorrow.

  • These are adverbs because they're going to tell you when it happened in time.

  • Or it could happen all day.

  • It rained all day.

  • Right? Rained, and notice it follows after the verb, all day.

  • Adverbs of place tell us where it happened.

  • CityGG... [Laughs] CityTV, everywhere.

  • Where did it happen, here, there, or everywhere?

  • And finally, adverbs of degree, that one I was talking about over here was: "so", "very", and "too".

  • People often get confused with "so" and "too", and we actually have a lesson on that on engVid.

  • Please check it out.

  • I think I've done one and two other teachers.

  • They're quite enjoyable.

  • You'll like them.

  • But "so", "very", "too" tell us how much.

  • Was it small or really, really big?

  • In this case, "so" means very or a lot.

  • "Very" means very, but "too" is usually negative or a bad thing, and it means more than I like

  • or more than I want.

  • So when we use adverbs of degree we can talk about:

  • "It was too hot yesterday so I didn't go out of my house.

  • Too hot for me.", "It was very hot" means a high temperature, a lot of temperature.

  • Or: "It was so hot", I found it to be a lot.

  • Cool?

  • Now, we've talked about adverbs, the types of adverbs, where they work

  • or how they follow with verbs, and I'm going to ask you:

  • Did you understand this lesson? If so, go do the quiz at engVid.

  • But before I go I want to say

  • thanks a lot for watching one again, and go to www.engvid.com.

  • And don't forget to subscribe by either pressing a button, pressing your screen, or doing whatever

  • you do these days.

  • All right?

  • Thanks a lot.

  • See you soon.

Hi. James from engVid.

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