Understanding and Teaching the Pronunciation of English.pdf

Function words

Words that have grammatical meaning rather than lexical meaning, such as
prepositions, articles, pronouns, and conjunctions. They don’t have much meaning in
themselves; instead, they show the relationship between other words. The chart below
shows which kinds of words are considered function words.

FUNCTION WORDSFUNCTION WORDS

Category Examples

Articles a, an, the

Auxiliary verbs does, did, has, had, am, is, can

Personal pronouns I, you, he, she, me, him, her

Possessive adjectives my, your, his, her, its, their

Demonstrative adjectives this, that, these, those

Prepositions in, on, under, with, to, in, for

Conjunctions and, or, but, so, because, before, while

Relative pronouns which, who, whom, whose, that

Related Glossary Terms

Index
Section 5 - The Vowels of American English
Section 5 - The Vowels of American English
Section 9 - Rhythm
Section 9 - Rhythm
Section 9 - Rhythm
Section 9 - Rhythm
Section 10 - Thought Groups and Prominence
Section 10 - Thought Groups and Prominence
Section 10 - Thought Groups and Prominence

Content words

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