Adverbs, Conjunctions And Preposition

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs or the entire clause or sentence. The position of the adverb in a sentence depends on what the speaker wants to emphasize. Examples of adverbs are: now, tomorrow, today, often, never, always, there, here, joyfully, smartly and beautifully.

Adverbs as Modifiers of Verbs

Examples

1. Johnson came here.
2. Roseline ate her food hurriedly.
3. The teacher taught us yesterday.
4. I take my drug regularly.

The words in italics above are adverbs and each of them modifies the verb in their respective sentences.

Adverbs as Modifiers of adjectives.

1. The man is relatively young.
2. The story is very interesting.

Here, relatively modifies the adjective ‘young’, while very modifies the adjective ‘interesting’.

Adverbs as Modifiers of another Adverb:

1. He walked very slowly.
2. They performed averagely well.

Adverb as Modifiers of Clauses:

1. He passed the examination; meanwhile he is already in a university.
2. Finally, he passed the examination.

PREPOSITIONS

Careful investigations have revealed the fact that nothing exists alone. So, prepositions are functional words which express the relationship between two entities in a sentence. Prepositions are words that are used to connect nominal elements of a sentence and specify a particular relationship between them.

Examples are the following: in, under, between, by, with, on, below, etc. These are used in the sentences below:

1. The money is in his pocket.
2. The car is under the shade.
3. The fruits are shared between the two girls.

Besides, the relationship that these prepositions express may be pointing to place, time, instrument and cause.

Examples:

1. There is water in the bottle. (place)
2. The bottle is on the table. (place)
3. The teacher bit Johnson with care. (instrument)

Types of Prepositions

There are two types viz:

1. Simple prepositions: These are simple-word prepositions such as in, at, beside, on, behind, into, against, outside, from, for, of, through, above, over, across, etc.

      Some of these are used in sentences below:

1. He came from London.
2. The book is on the table.
3. The boy walked across the road.
4. Complex prepositions: A complex preposition is made up of a simple preposition followed by a noun and then followed by another simple preposition. Examples: in compliance with, in view of, in addition to, by means of, as a result of, with regard to, etc. Some other kinds of complex prepositions are made up of an adverb or a conjunction followed by a simple preposition e.g. but for, except for, due to, because of, according to, as regards etc.

CONJUNCTIONS

Conjunction is a word that joins words, phrases, clauses, and sentences together. Examples: and, but, until, because, after, when, either… or, neither… nor, both, although, despite.

Types of Conjunctions

Conjunctions could be categorized into three: coordinating, subordinating and correlative.

Coordinating conjunctions: These are used to join or connect words, phrases or clauses that belong to the same grammatical class. Coordinators do join two or more nouns, verbs, or adjectives or clauses that have the same status. Examples: but, for, or, and etc.

1. Johnson and Fredrick are friends.
2. I went there and got what I wanted.
3. He worked hard but could not win the competition.
4. Come inside but don’t sit down.
5. I want to see the programme director or his assistant.

Subordinating conjunctions: These are used to introduce subordinate or dependent clauses and connect them to the main clauses to form complex sentences. Examples: because, that, what, how, which, whose, if, wherever, etc.

1. You can go wherever you want to go.
2. I will give you the money, if you work for it.
3. I what to have what you wish to give me.
4. A thief entered the house because nobody was in.
5. They were talking when I entered.

 Correlative conjunctions: The correlative conjunctions usually have two parts.

EITHER… OR

Either Ade or Jumoke must come.

You can take either meat or fish.

NEITHER… NOR

Neither Ade nor Jumoke is here.

The baby neither ate nor slept.

NOT ONLY… BUT ALSO

The baby can not only talk but also sing.

He did not only pass his examination but also won an award.

BOTH… AND

Both the boy and his mother came.

I saw both the man and his wife.

EVALUATION: Identify the grammatical names of the underlined word in the following sentences.

1. The children played happily.
2. He will sit between you and me.
3. This letter was written by him.
4. The woodcutter looked at the gold axe but refused to take it.
5. I was caned because I came late.

ASSIGNMENT: Make adverbs from the following adjectives and use each adverb to make sentence.

1. Quick   
2. Slow
3. Sorrowful
4. Bright
5. Quiet
6. Clever
7. Sudden
8. Bad.

The words that go with verbs are called adverbs. Some tell how an action is done, e.g

The old man walked slowly along a street.

The woodcutter sat sorrowfully by the side of the river.

These adverbs are called adverbs of manner.

Notice1-Adverbs are often formed by adding ‘ly’ to an adjective, e.g.

The boy is a quick runner. (adjective)

The boy runs quickly.(adverb)

The bird sang a merry song.(adjective)

The bird sang merrily.(adverb)

But there are some adverbs that are not formed like this,

This is a fast train.(adjective)

It goes very fast.(adverb)

Note 2:- Adverbs are generally put after the verb they go with; adjectives are generally put before the noun they go with.

An adverb goes with a verb to tell how, when or where an action takes place.

PREPOSITION

Preposition comes from a Latin word meaning placed before. ‘Pre’ means ‘before’ and ‘position’ means ‘place’. So, a word placed before a noun or pronoun to show what one person or thing has to do with another person or thing is called a preposition e.g. to, by, at, in, from, with, for etc.

The noun or pronoun before which a preposition stands is known as its object. Here are some more examples:

Preposition Noun (or pronoun)

In             your  pocket

Over            the          wall

Through      the         window

To                               him

Towards  the            door

These phrases often do the work of an adverb, i.e. they tell how, when or where an action was done. We call them adverb phrases, e.g.

The soldier fought with great bravery.

She sat in the corner.

At other times they do the work of an adjective, that is, they tell more about a noun. These phrases are called adjective phrases. Here are some examples;

A boy with a dirty face opened the door.

The picture on the wall shows the National Theatre.

Sometimes the same phrase may be an adverb phrase or an adjective phrase. It depends on the work it is doing.

Examples

1. The view through the open window is very pretty.
2. The bird flew through the open window.

Note: After a preposition the pronoun in the phrase is always in the objective case, e.g

1. He came with them.
2. He will sit between you and John.

CONJUNCTIONS

Conjunctions are words that join together words, phrases or sentences. Conjunction comes from a Latin word meaning joined e.g. and, but, or, unless, because, until, although etc.

Examples

1. The woodcutter looked at the gold axe but refused to take it.
2. We you have the gold axe or will you have the silver axe?

EVALUATION: Join the following sentences by using the conjunctions, and, unless, because, but, or.

1. I have a pencil. I have a pen.
2. I have a blue bag. She has a red bag.
3. We won’t leave your house. We are paid.
4. Ibeji screamed. Ibeji was wounded.
5. She sent for them. They did not come.

ASSIGNMENT: Use the following prepositions in sentences: on, to, by, of, in, from, after, for, under, with.

ASPECT: Comprehension

TOPIC: COMING HOME

CONTENT

EVALUATION: Intensive English for JSS1; Ex.14.2.2; pages 135-137.

ASSIGNMENT: Intensive English for JSS1; Ex.14.2.3, 14.3.4; page 137,141.