WORDS AS BUILDING BLOCKS OF LANGUAGE

WORDS AS BUILDING BLOCKS OF LANGUAGE

Word is a fundamental building block of any language. These are used in different parts of a sentence. Word‟s part in a sentence or speech is not inherent in the word itself – it comes from the way the word is used in the sentence. It is thus an important part of the skill set of the communicators.
Words can be placed in any part of the sentence or speech. It is decided by the way it is going to be used i.e., whether as a noun, a verb, an adjective etc. Important types of words have been detailed in the following paragraphs:

(1) Nouns

Noun is a Latin word and its literal meaning is „name‟ – it is the naming ability of words. We need to name:
 A person
 A place
 A thing
 An idea
Types of nouns are:

(i) Proper nouns

These are names of specific persons, place or entity. First alphabet of these nouns is always in capital e.g., Anil, Agra etc

(ii) Common nouns

These are names of generic category like „boy‟, „boss‟, „brother‟ etc. Here first alphabet is not a capital. A quick test is that if noun can be modified quickly by adding an adjective, it must be a common noun! For example, a good boy, a nice boss, the older brother etc

(2) Verbs

Verb is a word used to express action or to describe a state of being. Verbs are of two types:

(i) Action verbs

They express action e.g.,
 Sheena smiled
 Ruchi replied etc

(ii) Linking verbs

They describe the subject e.g.,
 Food was tasty
 Book became the best seller
 Movie got a very good response

Tenses of verbs

All verbs have tenses. Two importance aspects of tense are:
(i) All verbs have three tense forms:
 Present e.g., „is”
 Past e.g., „was‟
 Future e.g., „will / shall‟

(ii) All verbs have four conjugation forms:

Present                       Past                      Participle                      Continuous

Write                         Wrote                     Written                          Writing
Speak                         Spoke                     Spoken                          Speaking