Types of word – Pronouns, adverbs, prepositions

The following three types of words are often introduced after students have an initial grasp of the language, and when they can already form basic sentences.

Pronouns

Pronouns are words that are used in place of nouns. These words act like nouns and refer to something that was already identified during the conversation. Some of the most useful types of pronoun are personal pronouns, which are used in place of people or things.

Examples include:

I/we/you/she/he/it/they

These words allow us to speak more freely, without needing to keep repeating a noun that has already been identified.

For example, instead of saying:  “Jack was hungry, so Jack opened Jack’s backpack and took out a sandwich”

We can say:  “Jack was hungry, so he opened his backpack and took out a sandwich”.

Depending on their native language, gender pronouns may be difficult for some students to learn, as many languages do not have gender-specific ways to refer to others. An example of this can be seen with Mandarin, where the words ‘he’, ‘she’, and ‘it’ all use the same word ‘tā’. The written forms use different characters (‘他’, ‘她’, ‘它’) but the pronunciation and structure of the words stay the same.

To counter this, it can help to use plenty of context when introducing how these words change in English. You can first introduce the concept of ‘he’ and ‘she’ with visual aids showing boys and girls doing different activities. As they grasp this concept, you can add additional people to the diagrams to introduce ‘they’, and build on from here with a range of different scenarios to show personal possession such as with ‘his’, ‘her’, and ‘their’. 

Prepositions

Prepositions express relationships between other words. They can exist as single words, or as prepositional phrases which contain several words together.

Here are some examples:

In, on, under, behind, in front of.

Prepositions are a great stepping stone to take students from simple sentences, to more complex and useful ones. One way to demonstrate and teach them can be through using classroom objects and asking where certain objects are located in relation to others. You can also add an active element by having students move around the classroom and describe where they are standing by using these prepositions.

Adverbs

An adverb is a more advanced part of speech that changes a verb or adjective with reference to place, time, manner or degree.

Examples of adverbs:

Very, thoroughly (degree)
Here, there (place)
Badly, wonderfully (manner)
Later, earlier, yesterday, tomorrow (time)

Adverbs are often introduced after students have an understanding of basic grammar, and a good amount of vocabulary to work with. One approach to start introducing adverbs can be to discuss activities, using how, when and where to get your students to describe the actions in further detail. By doing this, you can lead the students into using sentences that need adverbs, and can prompt them with the correct words when they get stuck.