Lesson: Parts of Speech - The Basics

Comment on Parts of Speech - The Basics

Excellent video. just one question- shouldn't it be 'the dog sleeps besides the bed' rather than 'the dog sleeps beside the bed'. Thanks
gmat-admin's picture

You're thinking of a different usage.
"besides" = "in addition to" - Besides being a nice guy, Joe is also smart.
"beside" = "next to" - Joe set his cup beside the plate.
Since the dog is sleeping next to the bed, we use "beside"

abbamir's picture

besides and beside have different meanings. Beside is the location of an item, but besides is usually used when you list items.

nice video, ok I am thinking in the adverb section - very quiet audience and more carefully - here both carefully and quiet are an adverb to the words door and audience respectively and "very" & "more" are an adverb to them. right?
gmat-admin's picture

You're referring to the examples at 7:30 in the video.

"quiet" is an adjective that tells us more about the AUDIENCE (What kind of audience? A quiet one). Here, the word "very" tells us more about the adjective "quiet" (How quiet? Very quiet.). Since "very" modifies an adjective, "very" is an adverb.

"carefully" is an adverb that tells us more about the manner in which Francine should CLOSE the door (how should she close it? Carefully). So, the word "more" tells us more about the adverb "carefully" (How carefully? More carefully). Since "more" modifies an adverb, "more" is an adverb.

How do you decide the gender while rephrasing a sentence with pronouns(3:40) ?
gmat-admin's picture

Great question!! Not to worry; the GMAT will never expect you to know a person's gender based on his/her name.

00:27 isn’t “Work” a verb? Also I’m not sure wether “era” is a noun.
gmat-admin's picture

WORK can function as a noun and/or a verb.
- Many people WORK (verb) in an office.
- Joe enjoys hard WORK (noun).

ERA is definitely a noun.
- We live in an ERA of limitless wealth.

Does that help?

Cheers,
Brent

Thanks for your quick & helpful responses.

If a linking verb connects noun to additional information, is linking verb the same as a preposition?
gmat-admin's picture

A linking verb is still a verb, but I see your point.
A linking verb connects a noun and some description (adjective) of that noun.
Likewise, a preposition connects a noun and more information (adjective) about that noun.

Is it safe to say that adjectives modify only nouns and adverbs modify everything else but noun?
gmat-admin's picture

Yes, that's a safe summary.

Hi Brent,

Please could you help confirm if my understanding of parts of speech in the below clauses is correct:

1. While depressed property values can hurt some large investors
DEPRESSED is the adjective and PROPERTY VALUES is the noun
Am I correct here or is PROPERTY an adjective as well?

2. The sentence correction modules are quite easy
is SENTENCE CORRECTION here an adjective or is it a noun? It answers what kind of modules so is it an adjective? Or it's the name given to the modules so is it a noun.

Sometimes it gets a bit confusing to differentiate nouns and adjectives. Please let me know if there's a clear-cut rule for this.

Please help. Many thanks.
gmat-admin's picture

1. While depressed property values can hurt some large investors...
VALUES is a noun.
PROPERTY is an adjective that modifies VALUES (Q: What kind of values? A: Property values)
DEPRESSED is also an adjective that modifies VALUES.

2. The sentence correction modules are quite easy
You're correct; SENTENCE CORRECTION is an adjective that modifies MODULES.

When it comes to determining whether a word is an adjective or noun, we might ask "Is this word representing a thing/object or is it telling us more about a thing or object?" Also, in most cases, adjectives appear before the nouns they are modifying.

I hope that helps.

Cheers,
Brent

Thanks for your response.

So does sentence and correction modify modules like cumulative adjectives. Because if they are adjectives don’t they together modify modules likes sentence-correction modules.

And property could be a thing like a physical thing. So why can’t it be a noun? And don’t participles ending in ed ing modify the noun closest to it in this case property.

Please help. Thanks a lot.



gmat-admin's picture

Answer to your first question: In the case of sentence correction modules, SENTENCE CORRECTION is functioning as a name in the same way that PYTHAGOREAN is the name of the theorem in "Pythagorean theorem"

Answer to your second question: In the English language, tons of words can have more than one function.
For example, BOOK can be a:
- noun (Joe read a BOOK)
- verb (Joe will BOOK an appointment)
- adjective (Joe wrote on the BOOK cover)

Another example is EXIT
- noun (Joe missed his EXIT)
- verb (Joe will EXIT the room)
- adjective (Joe didn't see the EXIT sign)

Similarly, PROPERTY can have more than one function.
- noun (Joe surveyed his PROPERTY)
- adjective (Joe works as a PROPERTY manager)

Cheers,
Brent

Thanks a lot!

I could not understand the second example in prepositions .pls cam you explain me?
gmat-admin's picture

Prepositions can be tricky at first.

If it helps, here's an alternative definition I found:
"A preposition is a word used to link nouns, pronouns, or phrases to other words within a sentence. They act to connect the people, objects, time and locations of a sentence. Prepositions are usually short words, and they are normally placed directly in front of nouns."

Here's a link to the 50 most frequent prepositions in English: https://www.talkenglish.com/vocabulary/top-50-prepositions.aspx

Does that help?

Everyone likes ted’s apple pie. In this sentence there are two adjectives and one of them is ted’s pie and you said it happens to be ted’s pie. Is it answering the question which pie- ted’s pie?
gmat-admin's picture

The sentence: Everyone likes Ted’s apple pie.

The two adjectives here are TED'S and APPLE.
Notice that if we eliminate those two words, we still have a logical sentence: Everyone likes pie.

TED'S and APPLE both provide additional information about PIE. In other words, TED'S and APPLE both modify PIE
Q: What kind of pie? A: Apple pie.
Q: Whose pie? A: Ted's pie.

Later in the Sentence Correction module, there are four more videos about modifiers.
I think they'll help you better understand the function of adjectives and adverbs.

https://gmatclub.com/forum/unable-to-build-nests-or-care-for-their-young-a-female-cowbird-lays-u-242639.html

In option C, does "including" refer to eggs or to "the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year" since that's the closest noun and everything after that is a preposition.

As is "Including" a conjunction here?
gmat-admin's picture

Question link: https://gmatclub.com/forum/unable-to-build-nests-or-care-for-their-young...

Original sentence: Unable to build nests or care for their young, a female cowbird lays up to 40 eggs a year in the nests of other birds, including warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes.

Here, INCLUDING is a preposition, which means the prepositional phrase "including warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes" modifies BIRDS.

Q: What kind of birds?
A: Birds that include warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes.

(C) Unable to build nests or care for their young, female cowbirds use the nests of other birds to lay up to 40 eggs a year, including those of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes.

In this case, it's unclear (thus wrong) what the prepositional phrase "INCLUDING those of warblers, vireos, flycatchers, and thrushes" is modifying. Also, what does THOSE refer to?

Hey Brent
Hope you are well.

In the example 'The dog sleeps beside the bed.'@ 8:10 min, can 'beside the bed' be the adverb modifying 'sleep'?
gmat-admin's picture

That's correct; BESIDE THE BED modifies the verb SLEEP.
To be more precise, BESIDE THE BED is a prepositional phrase (since BESIDE is a preposition) that modifies the verb SLEEP.

Got it. Thanks :)

Office Hours

On December 20, 2023, Brent will stop offering office hours. 

Change Playback Speed

You have the option of watching the videos at various speeds (25% faster, 50% faster, etc). To change the playback speed, click the settings icon on the right side of the video status bar.

Have a question about this video?

Post your question in the Comment section below, and a GMAT expert will answer it as fast as humanly possible.

Free “Question of the Day” emails!