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WORD CLASSES II
Word classes fall into two main groups: major (or open) classes and minor (or closed) classes. The three English
minor word classes are prepositions, conjunctions and determiners.
1. Prepositions and conjunctions
Prepositions are word expressing a relationship of meaning between one word, in example a verb, a noun, a pronoun
or an adjective, to another word in the sentence. The word following the preposition is called the object of the
preposition. Prepositions normally show how two words in a sentence are related in space such as in, at, on, above,
over or time such as after and before. There are also multi-word prepositions such as near to, in front of and out of.
Most prepositions express more than one relationship.
A word can belong to different word classes, for example after can be used as a preposition when it is followed by a
noun or a pronoun or as an adverb. Normally prepositions come before their object. Spoken English often places a
preposition at the end of the sentence, in this position it is called a dangling preposition.
Conjunctions are words joining words, phrases and clauses. There are two types of conjunctions: coordinators (or
coordinate conjunctions) and subordinators (or subordinating conjunctions).
The main coordinators are and, which expresses the meaning of addition, but and yet which indicate contrast, and or
that denotes alternative. They can also be reinforced with additional words, for example either… or, not only… but
also, both… and.
Subordinators link a clause to the main (or independent) part of the sentence as in We went for a walk when it stopped
raining by the time conjunction when. Some pedagogic grammars call subordinating conjunctions linking words.
2. Determiners
Determiners are words that can be used before a noun to form a noun phrase. They express quantity, possession, and
definiteness. The main determiners are the, a/an, this/that/these/those, which/whose/what, some, any, much, many, (a)
little, (a) few, all, every, each, both, either, neither, enough, no, more, most, my/your/his/her/its/our/their. Determiners
can sometimes be preceded by words called pre-determiners.
3. Translation problems
Among the determiners that often pose problems in translation there is the definite article. It occurs more frequently in
Italian than in English because it is not only used before a noun when we speak about a particular person, animal,
place, object, event or idea, but it is also used when we talk in general about somebody or something. English tends to
omit the definite article.
Similarly to Italian, English uses the definite article to talk about something in general. As for the names of
geographical places and places of cultural interest, English, like Italian, uses the definite article for example: the
Mississippi river, The Mediterranean, the North Pole, the Suez canal, the Canaries, the Prado Museum…
Unlike Italian, English does not normally use the definite article with the names of the following places: continents,
countries, states and counties, lakes, individual mountains and churches named after saints + the possessive ‘s.
Finally, whereas English uses possessive determiners to talk about specific objects for example parts of the body or
items of clothing, Italian prefers the definite article.
The Italian preference for the definite article versus the possessive determiner can be noticed in business
correspondence where this tendency contributes to creating an impersonal style that raises the level of formality of his
particular register.
With regard to prepositions, the mismatch between English and Italian often consists in using different prepositions to
express the same relationship of meaning or in using a preposition in one language and no preposition in the other. For
