Introduction

English is the most widespread language in the world and is more widely spoken and

written than any other language. It began as a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-

Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the

influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria. Following the economic, political,

military, scientific, cultural, and colonial influence of Great Britain and the United Kingdom

from the 18th century, via the British Empire, and of the United States since the mid-20th

century. Nowadays, it is important to learn English because it prepares and allows the students to

accommodate in the real world. As we all know, English contains part of speech and tenses;

tenses such as simple past tense, simple present tense and future tense, to allow a person to create

a sentence.

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Part of Speech

Part of speech is a traditional term for the categories into which words are classified according to

their functions in sentences. In other words, every single word can be categorized into one of

eight word groups, or parts of speech. Part of speech contains:

1. Nouns

A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, idea, or quality:

Robert Frost wrote poems. Ann lives in Boston.Work brings satisfaction. People like admiration.

A noun is used as the subject, as any kind of object, and as the predicate nominative (noun complement).

The man walked down the street. (Man is the subject, and street is the object of the preposition down.)

The cow is a domestic animal. (Cow is the subject, and animal is the predicate nominative.)

Nouns answer these questions: Who? What?

2. Pronouns

A pronoun is a word used to take the place of a noun. A pronoun is used as a noun.

Through use of pronouns, one may avoid repeating name words:

Mary has lost her book. The box has lost its handle. Ruth saw the boys and talked to them.

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3. Verbs

A verb is a word used to express action, being, or state of being:

Jose painted a picture. The law still exists. That woman is a banker.

A verb may be composed of several words (the main verb preceded by one or moreauxiliary or helping verbs), called a verb phrase:

This book should have been sent to the storeroom.

4. Adjectives

An adjective is used to modify a noun or a pronoun. An adjective may be a single word, a phrase, or a clause:

We saw beautiful valleys and rugged mountains. (single words)The rug on the floor is blue. (adjective phrase)The man who spoke is a teacher. (adjective clause)

Adjectives answer these questions: What kind? Which one(s)? How many (or how much)? Whose?

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5. Adverbs

An adverb is used to modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. In some cases adverbs may modify other parts of speech – a preposition or a conjunction – or other sentence elements – a verbal or occasionally a substantive:

She sings beautifully. (beautifully modifies the verb sings.)He is a very great orator. (very modifies the adjective great.)She smiled rather sadly. (rather modifies the adverb sadly).By working faithfully, she won success. (faithfully modifies the gerund working.)The little boy, smiling happily, ran to meet his father. (happily modifies theparticiple smiling.)She has learned to write clearly. (clearly modifies the infinitive to write.)He was almost under the tree. (almost modifies the preposition under.)She came just before I left. (Just modifies the conjunction before.)Nearly all of them were lost. (nearly modifies the indefinite pronoun all.)The newly rich were not invited. (Newly modifies the noun equivalent rich.)

An adverb may be a single word, a phrase, or a clause:He crept stealthily. (single words)The stranger came into the room. (adverbial phrase)Robert left when I came. (adverbial clause)

Adverbs answer these questions: How? When? Where? Why? Under what condition? To what extent or degree?

6. Prepositions

A preposition shows the relations between its object and some other word in the sentence:

We walked through the woods. (through shows the nature of the relations betweenwoods, its object, and walked, the verb.)

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7. Conjunctions

A conjunction connects words or groups of words:

Bob and Linda are here. (and connects the two subjects, Bob and Linda.)She came, but she did not stay. (but connects the two independent clauses, shecame and she did not stay.)

In form a conjunction may be a single word or a group of words:

She came while you were away. (a single word connecting clauses)The teachers as well as the students had a good time. (a group of words used as aconjunction)

Although conjunctions have many classifications, it is sufficient for our purpose to note only three general classes: coordinating, subordinating, and correlative. (relative adverbs used as conjunctions are also called conjunctive adverbs or adverbial conjunctions.)

A coordinating conjunction connects two words, two phrases, or two clauses or equal rank:

Paula and Carl are here. (and connects two nouns)She liked to read but not to write (not writing). (but connects two infinitives.)

The coordinating conjunctions in most general use include and, but, for, or, nor, so, and yet.

The conjunctive adverbs, such as however, then, therefore , and thus, also connect independent clauses.A subordinating conjunction connects two clauses of unequal rank; that is, it joins a dependent (subordinate) clause to the independent clause on which it depends:

I was here before you came.

Some of the subordinating conjunctions are as, as if, because, before, if, since, that, till, unless, when, where, and whether. The relative pronouns who, whom, whose, which, what, and that also serve as subordinating conjunctions.

Conjunctions that are used in pairs are called correlative conjunctions and include both – and, either – or, neither – nor, and not only – but also.

Neither John nor I will be able to come.

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8. Interjections

An interjection is a familiar word that has no grammatical relation to the rest of thesentence and that commands attention or expresses strong feeling: ah, gosh, hurrah, oh, ouch, shh, whew, etc.

Note that an interjection is not the same thing as an exclamation. An exclamation is anoutburst—an emphatic statement, not a part of speech. Though in fact an exclamation may consist of or contain an interjection, there’s no necessary tie between the two. “O Henrietta Tittle, your hair is like peanut brittle” contains an interjection (the poetical “O”), but it isn’t an exclamation; drop dead! Is an exclamation, but it contains only an imperative verb and an adjective.

Strong interjections are followed by an exclamation point. When used in sentences, mildinterjections are set off by commas.

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English Tenses

Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at, during, or over which a

state or action denoted by a verb occurs. It is divided into three groups which are:

1. Present tenses

Present continuous

Present simple

Present perfect

Present perfect continuous

2. Past tenses

Past continuous

Past perfect

Past perfect continuous

Past simple

3. Future tenses

Future simple

Future continuous

Future perfect

Future perfect continuous

The basic tenses are the simple present tense, simple past tense, and simple future tense.

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Simple Present Tense

The Present Simple is the most basic and common tense in the English language. It is also an

interesting tense because it can express both the present and the future.

The simple present tense is used when:

the action is general

the action happens all the time, or habitually, in the past, present and future

the action is not only happening now

the statement is always true

John drives a taxi.

Past present future

It is John's job to drive a taxi. He does it every day. Past, present and future.

Other examples:

I live in New York.

The Moon goes round the Earth.

John drives a taxi.

He does not drive a bus.

We meet every Thursday.

We do not work at night.

Do you play football?

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With the verb ‘to be’, the simple present tense can also be used for situations that are not

general. The simple present tense can be used to talk about now. Examples shown below are

examples of the verb "to be" in the simple present tense - some of them are general, some of

them are now:

Am I right?Tara is not at home.

You are happy.

past present future

The situation is now.

 

I am not fat.Why are you so beautiful?

Ram is tall.

past present future

The situation is general. Past, present and future.

 

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Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense is sometimes called the preterite tense. Several tenses can be used to talk

about the past, but the simple past tense is the one we use most often. The actions can be short or

long. There can also be a few actions happening one after another.

The simple past tense is used when:

the event is in the past

the event is completely finished

we say (or understand) the time and/or place of the event

We use the simple past tense to talk about an action or a situation - an event - in the past. The

event can be short or long.

Here are some short events with the simple past tense:

The car exploded at 9.30am yesterday.She went to the door.

We did not hear the telephone.Did you see that car?

past present future

 

The action is in the past.    

Here are some long events with the simple past tense:

I lived in Bangkok for 10 years.The Jurassic period lasted about 62 million years.

We did not sing at the concert.Did you watch TV last night?

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past present future

 

The action is in the past.    

It does not matter how long ago the event is: it can be a few minutes or seconds in the past, or

millions of years in the past. Also it does not matter how long the event is. It can be a few

milliseconds (car explosion) or millions of years (Jurassic period).

In general, if the time or place of the event is mentioned, the simple past tense must be in use;

the present perfect cannot be used.

Here are some examples:

I lived in that house when I was young.

He didn't like the movie.

What did you eat for dinner?

John drove to London on Monday.

Mary did not go to work yesterday.

Did you play tennis last week?

I was at work yesterday.

We were not late (for the train).

Were you angry?

Usually when we tell a story, we usually use the simple past tense. We may use the past

continuous tense to "set the scene", but we almost always use the simple past tense for the action.

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Simple Future Tense

Among all future tenses, the Future Simple is the most common. It is used in many situations

such as when making promises or predictions. The simple future tense is often called will,

because we make the simple future tense with the modal auxiliary will.

The simple future tense is used when there is no plan or decision to do something before a person

speaks. The decision is made spontaneously at the time of speaking. For example:

Hold on. I'll get a pen.

We will see what we can do to help you.

Maybe we'll stay in and watch television tonight.

In these examples, the subject had no firm plan before speaking. The decision is made at the

time of speaking.

The simple future tense is often used with the verb to think before it:

I think I'll go to the gym tomorrow.

I think I will have a holiday next year.

I don't think I'll buy that car.

The simple future tense is also often used to make a prediction about the future. Again, there is

no firm plan. The subject is saying what he or she thinks will happen. For example:

It will rain tomorrow.

People won't go to Jupiter before the 22nd century.

Who do you think will get the job?

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When the main verb is be, the simple future tense can be used even if there is a firm plan or

decision before speaking. For example:

I'll be in London tomorrow.

I'm going shopping. I won't be very long.

Will you be at work tomorrow?

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Conclusion

As a conclusion, part of speech and tenses are essential when we are speaking, writing

and learning English. Part of speech is used to arrange the words in our sentences and teaches us

about nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

On the other hand, tenses allow us to speak according to the time and event that we want to

mention whether it is in the past, present or future.

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References

http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/partsspeechterm.htm

http://www.usp.edu/writing/handouts/ps/PS02-TheEightPartsOfSpeech.pdf

http://www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com/tenses/present_simple

http://www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com/tenses/past_simple

http://www.englishtenseswithcartoons.com/tenses/future_simple

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present.htm

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_past.htm

http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_future.htm

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