Parts of speech are like Legos. Instead of being made into houses or spaceships, they’re the building blocks we use to form written and spoken language.
Every word you speak or write is a part of speech. In the English language, there are 8 parts of speech: nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and adjectives. These parts of speech represent categories of words according to their grammatical function.
Having a basic understanding of the parts of speech in the English language gives you a specific terminology and classification system to talk about language. It can help you correctly punctuate a sentence, capitalize the right words, and even understand how to form a complete sentence to avoid grammatical errors.
Part Of Speech | Function | Example Vocabulary |
---|---|---|
A noun | is a person or thing. | Birthday, cake, Paris, flat, and Jane. |
A pronoun | is a noun substitute. | I, you, she, her, him, some, and them. |
An adjective | describes the noun in a sentence. | Happy, small, cozy, hungry, and warm. |
Still with us? Now, we will break each category down and give some examples.
Nouns are words that name a person, place, thing, or idea. Examples of nouns are Sam, England, dog, and safety. Nouns can be further classified into specific types of nouns, such as proper nouns, common nouns, and abstract nouns.
Proper nouns name a specific person, place, or thing and always start with a capital letter.
Some examples are;
Common nouns don’t name a specific person, place, or thing and don’t start with a capital letter unless they are placed at the beginning of a sentence.
Some examples are;
Abstract nouns, as opposed to concrete nouns that identify material things, are words that express a characteristic or idea.
Some examples are;
Possessive nouns are nouns that possess something and usually have ‘s or simply ‘ at the end. When the noun is singular, we add an ‘s. When the noun is plural, we add an apostrophe.
Here are examples of possessive nouns;
Their parents’ have two dogs.
Nouns can be singular or plural. In some cases, you simply add an -s to make a noun plural. Other times, it’s a bit trickier, such as with words that end in -y. When plural, the -y ending becomes -ies.
Here are examples of making -y words into the plural form;
There are some nouns we can count and others we cannot. Countable nouns can be counted, such as;
These can be singular or plural.
Mass nouns, or uncountable nouns, can’t be counted and don’t have a plural form. Air, water, and hair are mass nouns. Of course, we can still count them in units, such as;
However, we can’t pluralize them using different conjunctions.
A noun phrase is two or more words that function as a noun in a sentence. It also includes modifiers that can come before or after the noun.
Here are examples of noun phrases;
Collective nouns refer to a group or collection of things, people, or animals. Such as;
If you want to know where to find nouns in a sentence, look for the subject or direct objects, and they will stand right out. For example;
(Mary = Subject, chocolate cake, and ice cream = direct objects.)
This is an easy way to identify nouns in a sentence.
Pronouns are words used in the place of a noun or noun phrase.
For example;
Pronouns can be further classified into different types of pronouns, such as personal pronouns, reflexive pronouns, and possessive pronouns.
Some examples of personal pronouns are I, me, he, him, they, and them.
Here are examples of personal pronouns in sentences;
Some examples of reflexive pronouns are myself, yourself, herself, and itself.
Here are examples of reflexive pronouns in sentences;
Reflexive pronouns can also be used for emphasis, as in this sentence: Joe himself baked the cake.
Some examples of possessive pronouns are my, mine, your, yours, his, hers, its, ours, and theirs. We use these words when we want to express possession. Such as;
Mine, yours, and his are examples of the independent form of possessive pronouns, and when showing possession, these pronouns never need an apostrophe.
Adjectives are words that describe nouns or pronouns. They make the meaning more definite. When we want to talk about what kind of a house we have, we can use adjectives to describe it, such as big, red, or lovely.
We can use adjectives to precede the word it modifies, like this;
Or we can use adjectives following the word they modify, like this;
There are many types of adjectives, one being possessive. The seven possessive adjectives are my, your, his, her, its, our, and their. These words modify a noun or pronoun and show possession. Such as;
These words make it clear to who the person, animal, thing, or idea belongs.
Verbs are words that express an action or a state of being. All verbs help to make a complete statement. Action verbs express a physical action, for example;
Other verbs express a mental action, for example;
These can also be called lexical verbs.
Sometimes lexical verbs need the help of another type of verb. That’s where helping verbs, or auxiliary verbs, come into action; they help to make a statement or express an action.
Examples of auxiliary verbs are am, are, is, has, can, may, will be, and might have.
When we use more than one verb when writing or speaking to express an action or state of being, it’s called a verbal phrase and is made up of the main verb, or lexical verb, and one or more, auxiliary verbs.
Some examples of verbal phrases:
Here are examples of verbal phrases used in a sentence:
I might have missed out this time, but I certainly won’t next time.
Adverbs are used to describe an adjective, verb, or even another adverb. They can express how something is done, as in splendidly or poorly.
Here are some examples of adverbs in use:
The adverb extremely modifies the adjective fast, expressing just how rapid the runner was.
The adverb hardly modifies the verb see, expressing how much is visible, which in this case is not much at all.
The adverb surprisingly modifies another adverb poorly, expressing the surprise at how badly the car has been cleaned.
They are used to show relationships between words, such as nouns or pronouns, with other words in the sentence. They can indicate spatial or time relationships. Some common prepositions are about, at, before, behind, but, in, off, on, to, and with.
Here are some examples of common prepositions in sentences:
Prepositions are followed by objects of prepositions, a noun, or a noun phrase that follows to give it meaning.
Groups of words can also act as prepositions together, such as in spite of.
In spite of all the traffic, we arrived just on time.
Conjunctions link words or groups of words together. We often use them to create complex sentences. There are three types of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions, correlative conjunctions, and subordinating conjunctions.
Examples of coordinating conjunctions are and, but, or, nor, for, so, and yet. Such as;
Correlative conjunctions are used in pairs. Some examples are;
Here is an example of the conjunctions above in use:
We use subordinating conjunctions to begin subordinate clauses or sentences.
Some examples of common subordinating conjunctions are after, before, then, when, provided, unless, so that, and while. Such as;
The party was better than he had imagined.
There are three articles in the English language: a, an, and the. Articles can indicate whether a specific identity is known or not.
A and an are called indefinite articles and refer to a general group. Such as;
The is a definite article and refers to a specific thing or person. Such as;
It’s important to get these right to know if we’re talking about a specific item, person, or thing in general.
Some sources consider articles to be an adjective and not a separate part of speech in itself. Other sources believe the numeral (five, ten, twenty) to be a part of speech.
There is also a category called interjection. Darn! What’s that? Yes, Darn! is an interjection, which is a word that expresses emotion and has no grammatical connection to other words in the sentence. Ah! Oh boy! Now that is interesting.
For example, the word these can be used as both an adjective and a pronoun. Such as;
(These is used as an adjective modifying the word cookies.)
(These is used as a pronoun taking the place of the previously mentioned noun cookies.)
Once you get the hang of it, identifying the various parts of speech in a sentence will be second nature, like riding a bike. And just think, it can help you craft stronger sentences.
Be sure to try our word tools. You can generate words by part of speech, starting letter, length, etc., and start improving your knowledge of the English language word by word.