ES5000 Chap.3 Word Forms and Word Functions
Word Forms and Word Functions
The first grammar topic, and why it comes first
Week 3 opens the grammar strand with words and word forms. The handout starts from a simple observation: whenever you write, you choose which word best expresses an idea, and three things decide the choice. The first is meaning. The second is form, such as effective or effectively. The third is function, the job the word does in its clause.
The handout adds that form and function, more than meaning, decide whether a sentence is grammatical.
Four forms and five functions
The handout works with four common forms: noun, verb, adjective and adverb. Its functions are subject, object, predicate, attributive and adverbial.
The connection between the two lists is fixed by three rules: only nouns, noun phrases or pronouns can be subjects and objects; only adjectives describe a subject or object; and adverbs describe only verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. Most word-form errors break one of these rules, as when an adjective is placed where the sentence needs a noun.
Suffixes as clues
The handout lists common suffixes by form.
Endings such as -ment, -ness, -tion and -ity mark nouns; -ate, -en, -ify and -ize mark verbs; many endings, including -ous, -ful, -ive and -able, mark adjectives; and -ly usually marks an adverb, although it also forms adjectives such as friendly.
Suffixes help you move between members of a family once you know which form you need.
From exercises to the quiz
The exercises climb in difficulty: label words by form, correct one wrong form per sentence, correct errors that are underlined in a paragraph, and finally find errors in a paragraph where nothing is marked. The first online grammar quiz follows the same logic under time pressure.
Its page states ten questions and a ten-minute limit, and each question underlines four items, one of which must be changed.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Meaning, form and function as the three choices behind a word
- 02
Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs defined by what they do
- 03
Subject, object, predicate, attributive and adverbial functions
- 04
Three rules connecting forms to functions
- 05
Suffixes that signal each form, and their exceptions
- 06
Error identification under the quiz's time limit
Worked example · free
Correcting a paragraph with unmarked word-form errors
- 2Locate each word whose form does not fit its slot.
- 3Name the slot and the form it requires.
- 3Write the corrected paragraph.
Key terms
- Word Form
- The grammatical category of a word, such as noun, verb, adjective or adverb, often signalled by its ending.
- Word Function
- The job a word does in its clause, such as subject, object, predicate, attributive or adverbial.
- Suffix
- An ending added to a word to change its form or meaning, such as -tion turning a verb into a noun.
- Predicate
- The verb part of a clause, showing the action or state of the subject.
- Attributive
- A word, usually an adjective, that describes a quality of the subject or the object.
- Adverbial
- A word or phrase that adds information about how, when, where or how often an action happens.
Word Forms and Word Functions FAQ
What is the difference between word form and word function?
Form is what kind of word it is, such as a noun or an adverb. Function is what it does in a particular sentence, such as acting as the subject. The rules connect them: a subject must be a noun or pronoun, and a word describing a verb must be an adverb.
How can I tell an adverb from an adjective that ends in -ly?
Look at what the word describes. Friendly and lonely describe people or things, so they are adjectives. Quickly and legibly describe actions, so they are adverbs. The suffix is a clue, but the slot in the sentence decides.
How should I approach an error-identification question?
Work out what each underlined item is doing in the sentence before judging it. Most wrong options are a correct word in the wrong form, so ask whether each slot needs a noun, verb, adjective or adverb, and the item that fails that test is the answer.
Why do some nouns and verbs look identical?
English has pairs that share a spelling and differ only in stress, such as a record and to record. In writing they look the same, so the only way to tell them apart is the job the word does in the sentence.
Assessment move
Keep a list of every word-form error from your quizzes and drafts, with the slot it sat in. After three weeks you will see which slot you misjudge most, and that is the one to check first in every draft.
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