Page 27 - اللغة الإنجليزية - قسم الإرشاد السياحى- الترم الأول

English for Guidance by Prof. Adel AlSheikh

Content and function words

Function words carry only grammatical meaning such as:
articles (a, an, the),
prepositions (in, on, at etc.),
auxiliaries (are, was, do… etc.),
quantifiers (some, any, all… etc.),
pronouns (he, we, this etc.),
conjunctions (and, or, but, although… etc).

Function words help us connect important information. They are essential for
understanding, but they add little meaning beyond defining the relationship
between two words. The number of function words is limited (about 176
words). Since they represent between 40% to 60% of the total number of
words of most English sentences, they should be mastered.

Content words, on the other hand, carry real meaning such as:
nouns (Susan, chair, computer… etc.),
verbs (hit, swim, eat… etc.),
adverbs (wrongly, frequently, generally… etc.)
adjectives (beautiful, green, fantastic… etc.).

EXERCISE
I Underline the Function words in the sentences below:

1. Is it really going to rain tomorrow?

2. I have ordered the salmon and mashed potatoes.

3. Her brother is a really big fan of German rap.

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