English Language Study Notes

1. The Foundation: Letters & Sounds

English utilizes 26 letters to represent its sounds. It is important to distinguish between “letters” and “alphabets.”

• Letters: The individual symbols (A, B, C…).
• Alphabets (वर्णमाला): The collection of these letters in a specific sequence (A to Z).

Total: 44 Sounds in English

Special Case: Semi-Vowels (W, Y)

These are “Glide Sounds” that can behave like either a vowel or a consonant depending on their position.

Letter	Vowel Sound (Example)	Consonant Sound (Example)
Y	Sky (Follows a consonant)	Yes
W	Cow (Sounds like ‘ow’)	Wait

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2. Parts of Speech

Words are categorized based on their syntactic function—the role they play in a sentence.

Part of Speech	Definition & Function
Noun	Names a person, place, thing, or idea.
Pronoun	Used in place of a noun to avoid repetition.
Adjective	Modifies or describes the qualities of a noun or pronoun.
Verb	Expresses an action, an occurrence, or a state of being.
Adverb	Modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb (How, when, where, to what extent).
Preposition	Placed before a noun/pronoun to show relationship (Direction, Time, Place).
Conjunction	Connects words, phrases, or clauses.
Interjection	Expresses strong feeling or sudden emotion.

Note: In modern linguistics, Determiners (which includes articles like A, An, The) are often considered as 9th part of speech.

Adjective vs. Determiner

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3. Applied Example

Breakdown of a complex sentence by its grammatical components:

• Wow! — Interjection
• He — Pronoun
• and — Conjunction
• the — Determiner (Article)
• small — Adjective
• dog — Noun
• quickly — Adverb
• ran — Verb
• into — Preposition
• that — Determiner
• house — Noun