Definition and Examples of Function Words in English

In English grammar, a function word is a  word that expresses a grammatical or structural relationship with other words in a sentence. In contrast to a content word, a function word has little or no meaningful content. Nonetheless, as Ammon Shea points out, the fact that a word does not have a readily identifiable meaning does not mean that it serves no purpose. Function words are also known as: structure wordsgrammatical wordsgrammatical functorsgrammatical morphemesfunction morphemesform wordsempty words According to James Pennebaker, function words account for less than one-tenth of 1 percent of your vocabulary but  make up  almost 60 percent of the words you use. Content Words vs. Function Words Function words include determiners,  conjunctions, prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, modals, qualifiers, and question words. Content words are words with specific meanings, such as nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and main verbs (those without helping verbs.) In the sentence, The sly brown fox jumped gracefully over the lazy dog and cat, the content words are: fox, dog,  and cat (nouns)sly, brown, and lazy (adjectives)gracefully (adverb)jumped (main verb) Function words include: the (determiner)over (preposition)and (conjunction) Even though the function words dont have concrete meanings, sentences would make a lot less sense without them. Determiners Determiners are words such as articles (the, a), possessive pronouns (their, your), quantifiers (much), demonstratives (that, those), and numbers. They function as adjectives to modify nouns and go in front of a noun to show the reader whether the noun is specific or general, such as in that  coat (specific) vs. a coat (general).   Articles: a, an, theDemonstratives:  that, this, those, thesePossessive pronouns: my, your, their, our, ours, whose, his, hers, its, which  Quantifiers: some, both, most, many, a few, a lot of, any, much, a little, enough, several, none, all Conjunctions Conjunctions connect parts of a sentence, such as items in a list, two separate sentences, or clauses and phrases to a sentence. In the previous sentence, the conjunctions are or and and. Conjunctions: and, but, for, yet, neither, or, so, when, although, however, as, because, before   Prepositions Prepositions begin prepositional phrases, which contain nouns and other modifiers. Prepositions function to give more information about nouns. In the phrase the river that flows through the woods. The prepositional phrase is through the woods, and the preposition is through. Prepositions: in, of, between, on, with, by, at, without, through, over, across, around, into, within Pronouns Pronouns are words that stand in for nouns. Their antecedent needs to be clear, or your reader will be confused. Take Its so difficult as an example. Without context, the reader has no idea what it refers to. In context, Oh my gosh, this grammar lesson, he said. Its so difficult, the reader easily knows that it refers to the lesson, which is its noun antecedent. Pronouns: she, they, he, it, him, her, you, me, anybody, somebody, someone, anyone Auxiliary Verbs Auxiliary verbs are also called helping verbs. They pair with a main verb to change tense, such as when you want to express something in present continuous tense (I am walking), past perfect tense (I had walked), or future tense (I am going to walk there).   Auxiliary verbs: be, is, am, are, have, has, do, does, did, get, got, was, were Modals Modal verbs express condition or possibility. Its not certain that something is going to happen, but it might. For example, in If I could have gone with you, I would have, modal verbs include could and would. Modals: may, might, can, could, will, would, shall, should Qualifiers Qualifiers function like adverbs and show the degree of an adjective or verb, but they have no real meaning themselves. In the sample sentence, I thought that somewhat new dish was pretty darn delicious, the qualifiers are somewhat and pretty. Qualifiers:  very, really, quite, somewhat, rather, too, pretty (much) Question Words Its easy to guess what function that question words have in English. Besides forming questions, they can also appear in statements, such as in I dont know how  in the world that happened, where the question word is how. Question words: how, where, what, when, why, who Sources Shea, Ammon Shea. Bad English. TarcherPerigee, 2014, New York.Pennebaker, James. The Secret Life of Pronouns. Bloomsbury Press, 2011, New York.