Just look at the set of words given below and pic the odd one.

India,Srilanka,Pakistan,Orange

Here one can easily pic orange as the odd one,its because of the categorization of the words,all except orange are names of different countries.Similarly the parts of speech are categories used to organize or classify words according to their usage.We use parts of speech as a way to make it easier to talk about language.

Now consider the sentence “A man surreptitiously entered the room”.Even if the word “surreptitiously” is alien to you,if you are familiar with Parts of Speech(POS) you can simply make out that it is an adverb.Similarly when we look into dictionary we can find the POS of the word with its meaning.

The eight PARTS OF SPEECH used to describe English words are

1)Nouns

2)Pronouns

3)Adjectives

4)Verbs

5)Adverbs

6)Prepositions

7)Conjunctions

8)Interjunctions

NOUNS

A noun is often defined as a word which names a person, place or thing.Examples:-boy,girl,India,Gandhiji,Ganga,Thames,movie,Newdelhi.Nouns can be classified into 2 mainly

a) PROPER NOUNS

These are usually names and start with capital letters even in the middle of sentences.Like name of a person,place etc

b)COMMON NOUNS

Can be name of objects(concrete noun),quality,feelings,ideas(abstract nouns),or group names like pride,clan,herd etc(collective nouns).

PRONOUNS

a) Personal Pronouns

I,You,He,She,It,They,We

b) Possessive Pronouns

my,mine,us,our,ours,them,their,your,yours

c) Emphatic Pronouns

myself,ourself,herself,himself

d) Demonstrative Pronouns

this,that,these,those

e) Relative Pronouns

which,who

ADJECTIVES

Adjectives describes a noun or a pronoun.It has different degrees of comparison.

Always use “THE” before a superlative degree.

Eg:- Good teacher, better teacher, best teacher

VERBS

Actions, state of an object.Verbs have VOICE.

ACTIVE VOICE & PASSIVE VOICE.In an active voice subject is the doer of the action.

Verbs can be TRANSITIVE & INTRANSITIVE.

TRANSITIVE verbs has objects.

Eg:-He writes essays.

Whereas INTRANSITIVE verbs don’t have objects

Eg:- Birds fly.

SUBJECT – Is the doer of the action.

OBJECT- Is the receiver.

ADVERBS

An adverb is usually defined as a word that gives more information about a verb, an adjective or another adverb.Adverbs are of different types,

Adverbs

of TIME,tells us WHEN E.g:- always late.

of MANNER E.g:-Smith runs fast.Here fast is the adverb

of FREQUENCY,tells HOW OFTEN

of PLACE,

of REASON.

PREPOSITION

Show relationship between nouns,pronouns.The relationships include direction, place, time, cause, manner and amount.

Eg:- He went to the store.Here “to” gives direction

Other prepositions are by,with,in,on,under,between etc

CONJUNCTION

A conjunction is a word that connects other words or groups of words.Conjunctions are mainly 3 types.

Coordinating conjunctions are conjunctions which connect two equal parts of a sentence.Most common ones are AND,OR,BUT,SO.

Subordinating conjunctions connect two parts of a sentence that are not equal.

ALTHOUGH,INSPITE OF,WHILE,WHEN,IF,SINCE etc are a few examples

Correlative conjunctions are pairs of conjunctions that work together.Common ones are

both..and,either..or,neither..nor,not only..but also etc

INTER JUNCTIONS

These are words that show strong feelings,these are very scarcely used from a grammarian point of view.

E.g:-wow,alas

Here i would like to share a few things about RC(reading comprehensions).Every B-school entrance exams have VERBAL sections.And every verbal ability exam will surely constitute a RC portion,which most students consider as a difficult one.But it actually is not very tough provided you do  some preparations.Firstly you need to do one thing start reading articles,magazines,newpapers,books etc.This should go in parallel with the preparations.So first approach to an RC is reading. By reading i meant two things mainly to perceive & comprehend. Perceiving means just going through the passage ,just seeing the words.Comprehension means you need to understand the essence of  it.

There are certain simple things we need to be taken care of while attempting an RC.Increase your reading speed.The average reading speed of a literate person is expected to be 250 words a minute.But for effective time management in a  CAT  exam or in any other competitive exams,we need a reading speed of  atleast 450 words/minute.But we must comprehend also as much as 450 words/minute.First i will start with techniques to enhance your  reading speed.

• Reduce Regression

Regression means going back to a previously read sentence.Reducing regression will increase your reading speed considerably.

• Avoid lipping

Usually speaking needs more effort and time than mentally reciting something.So if you use your lips then it will take more of your time.So better learn to read in your mind without moving your lips.

• Framing  the text

This technique will help you to concentrate more on your passage.This can be done using two methods,first method is  underlying hand motion in which your finger tip follows every word you read.Secondly vertical hand motion where your both hand will follow a sentence from both sides of the paper.This 2 method will help you to concentrate more.

Now another important things you should keep in mind                                                                                        SQ3R-SURVEY,QUESTION,READ,REVIEW,RESTATE.

SURVEY means go through the passage in 2 or 3 seconds,just to induce a curiosity in ourselves which will surely enhance your reading speed.QUESTIONS also will do the same job for you.Three R’s will help you understand the essence of the essay.

Now things you should remember in the second phase of the reading(comprehend).

• Skim keywords

This will help you in your second reading where by just looking at keywords you will get some idea.Thus sparing time.And this method of checking keywords only is called scanning.

• Visualize & Mind Map

By visualizing your essay you wil have a small idea where your particular keyword in placed.So that while reading the questions it will be easy for you to find respective portions of the passage.

Try sticking to all these things and i am sure you can gain some advantage.And keep reading to enhance your vocabulary and taste in the language.Time is very precious in these type of exams.