God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day. Genesis 1:31

In the beginning God spoke the subject and the verb

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<Source: FreeBibleimages :: Creation Days :: Pictures showing the stages of God’s creation (Genesis 1:1-25)>

Let’s say we fully understand the structure of English sentences. Then, knowing just the words would mean we can express ourselves in English and understand both spoken and written language without difficulty. However, memorizing all those words is not easy, likely because there needed to be a vast number of words to account for every creation. Moreover, considering each language assigns different names to the same object, can you imagine how many words exist worldwide?

Although different organizations provide varying figures, it’s estimated that there are around 7,000 languages spoken across our planet. Some worry about half of these languages disappearing, but from a learner’s perspective, the concern might be how many words one needs to learn, given each language has its own names for objects.

Counting the number of words recorded in a dictionary is possible, but estimating the total number of words in a language is challenging due to differing definitions of what constitutes a word. If we base it on the number of words listed in dictionaries, one might argue that Korean has the most words. The Urimal Saem dictionary, for example, contains over 1 million words. However, an objective look at the Oxford Dictionary shows that both Korean and English have about 600,000 words listed, which is an impressively large number.

List of dictionaries by number of words – Wikipedia

This is a list of dictionaries considered authoritative or complete by approximate number of total words, or headwords, included. Figures do not take account of entries with senses for different word classes (such as noun and adjective) and homographs. Although it is possible to count the number of entries in a dictionary, it is not possible to count the number of words in a language.[1][2] In compiling a dictionary, a lexicographer decides whether the evidence of use is sufficient to justify an entry in the dictionary. This decision is not the same as determining whether the word exists.[citation needed]

How do we manage to learn all these characters? But there’s no need to worry too much. Most words are combinations of basic characters created earlier. For instance, Chinese characters are fundamentally made up of about 214 radicals, and the ancestors of English had around 900. Words in current use have emerged from combinations of these or from adopting foreign words. A more significant concern is that the methods for combining these words vary by language.

Parts of Speech:

Regardless of the country, all sentences are formed by combining words. However, not all words serve the same function. To express the myriad phenomena occurring in the world and the infinite thoughts of humans, a variety of word types is necessary. This is where understanding parts of speech comes in. If the words constructing English sentences are considered components, then parts of speech are the types of these components.

There are eight types of components in English sentences, known as the eight parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. Fortunately, these components are not vastly different from those in Korean.

If we had to choose the two most crucial components among the eight parts of speech, they would be nouns and verbs. A sentence can be formed with just a noun to express a name and a verb for an action. The subject is a noun or something that has been turned into a noun. With just these two, basic expressions are possible: God created.

The next necessary components are adjectives and adverbs because adjectives modify nouns and adverbs assist verbs. Thus, nouns and verbs form the skeleton, while adjectives and adverbs add the flesh. But remember, the basic structure of a sentence, no matter what, is ‘noun(subject) + verb.’

With these components, a sentence can be formed. Simply start with the subject (S) + verb (V) as per English’s first principle, and follow English’s second principle to sequentially explain any questions. But why is understanding parts of speech necessary? Because there’s one more task. If we organize the first two principles into a mathematical formula for easy understanding, it looks like this:

S + V + (Who + What) + [Where + Why + How + When]

Can you see how this formula has been broken down similarly to factoring in math? There’s a very important reason for grouping it this way. The formula is broken down by the type of component, and each set of brackets restricts what can fit inside. The first set of brackets ( ) is reserved for nouns.

Sometimes, adjectives known as complements can enter, but it’s assumed there’s a noun omitted behind this complement adjective since adjectives exist to modify nouns. Therefore, it’s said that adjectives can also enter the noun-only zone due to the omitted noun. The second set of brackets [ ] is exclusively for adverbs.

If a different part of speech wants to enter a zone it’s not typically allowed in, it must disguise itself as another part of speech. Although this disguise makes English complicated, knowing the principles discussed makes the rules of the English game significantly simpler. This can be visually represented as follows: