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The 8 Parts of Speech | Chart, Definition & Examples

A part of speech (also called a word class ) is a category that describes the role a word plays in a sentence. Understanding the different parts of speech can help you analyze how words function in a sentence and improve your writing.

The parts of speech are classified differently in different grammars, but most traditional grammars list eight parts of speech in English: nouns , pronouns , verbs , adjectives , adverbs , prepositions , conjunctions , and interjections . Some modern grammars add others, such as determiners and articles .

Many words can function as different parts of speech depending on how they are used. For example, “laugh” can be a noun (e.g., “I like your laugh”) or a verb (e.g., “don’t laugh”).

Table of contents

• Prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Interjections

Other parts of speech

Interesting language articles, frequently asked questions.

A noun is a word that refers to a person, concept, place, or thing. Nouns can act as the subject of a sentence (i.e., the person or thing performing the action) or as the object of a verb (i.e., the person or thing affected by the action).

There are numerous types of nouns, including common nouns (used to refer to nonspecific people, concepts, places, or things), proper nouns (used to refer to specific people, concepts, places, or things), and collective nouns (used to refer to a group of people or things).

Ella lives in France .

Other types of nouns include countable and uncountable nouns , concrete nouns , abstract nouns , and gerunds .

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A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. Pronouns typically refer back to an antecedent (a previously mentioned noun) and must demonstrate correct pronoun-antecedent agreement . Like nouns, pronouns can refer to people, places, concepts, and things.

There are numerous types of pronouns, including personal pronouns (used in place of the proper name of a person), demonstrative pronouns (used to refer to specific things and indicate their relative position), and interrogative pronouns (used to introduce questions about things, people, and ownership).

That is a horrible painting!

A verb is a word that describes an action (e.g., “jump”), occurrence (e.g., “become”), or state of being (e.g., “exist”). Verbs indicate what the subject of a sentence is doing. Every complete sentence must contain at least one verb.

Verbs can change form depending on subject (e.g., first person singular), tense (e.g., simple past), mood (e.g., interrogative), and voice (e.g., passive voice ).

Regular verbs are verbs whose simple past and past participle are formed by adding“-ed” to the end of the word (or “-d” if the word already ends in “e”). Irregular verbs are verbs whose simple past and past participles are formed in some other way.

“I’ve already checked twice.”

“I heard that you used to sing .”

Other types of verbs include auxiliary verbs , linking verbs , modal verbs , and phrasal verbs .

An adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can be attributive , appearing before a noun (e.g., “a red hat”), or predicative , appearing after a noun with the use of a linking verb like “to be” (e.g., “the hat is red ”).

Adjectives can also have a comparative function. Comparative adjectives compare two or more things. Superlative adjectives describe something as having the most or least of a specific characteristic.

Other types of adjectives include coordinate adjectives , participial adjectives , and denominal adjectives .

An adverb is a word that can modify a verb, adjective, adverb, or sentence. Adverbs are often formed by adding “-ly” to the end of an adjective (e.g., “slow” becomes “slowly”), although not all adverbs have this ending, and not all words with this ending are adverbs.

There are numerous types of adverbs, including adverbs of manner (used to describe how something occurs), adverbs of degree (used to indicate extent or degree), and adverbs of place (used to describe the location of an action or event).

Talia writes quite quickly.

Other types of adverbs include adverbs of frequency , adverbs of purpose , focusing adverbs , and adverbial phrases .

A preposition is a word (e.g., “at”) or phrase (e.g., “on top of”) used to show the relationship between the different parts of a sentence. Prepositions can be used to indicate aspects such as time , place , and direction .

I left the cup on the kitchen counter.

A conjunction is a word used to connect different parts of a sentence (e.g., words, phrases, or clauses).

The main types of conjunctions are coordinating conjunctions (used to connect items that are grammatically equal), subordinating conjunctions (used to introduce a dependent clause), and correlative conjunctions (used in pairs to join grammatically equal parts of a sentence).

You can choose what movie we watch because I chose the last time.

An interjection is a word or phrase used to express a feeling, give a command, or greet someone. Interjections are a grammatically independent part of speech, so they can often be excluded from a sentence without affecting the meaning.

Types of interjections include volitive interjections (used to make a demand or request), emotive interjections (used to express a feeling or reaction), cognitive interjections (used to indicate thoughts), and greetings and parting words (used at the beginning and end of a conversation).

Ouch ! I hurt my arm.

I’m, um , not sure.

The traditional classification of English words into eight parts of speech is by no means the only one or the objective truth. Grammarians have often divided them into more or fewer classes. Other commonly mentioned parts of speech include determiners and articles.

• Determiners

A determiner is a word that describes a noun by indicating quantity, possession, or relative position.

Common types of determiners include demonstrative determiners (used to indicate the relative position of a noun), possessive determiners (used to describe ownership), and quantifiers (used to indicate the quantity of a noun).

My brother is selling his old car.

Other types of determiners include distributive determiners , determiners of difference , and numbers .

An article is a word that modifies a noun by indicating whether it is specific or general.

• The definite article the is used to refer to a specific version of a noun. The can be used with all countable and uncountable nouns (e.g., “the door,” “the energy,” “the mountains”).
• The indefinite articles a and an refer to general or unspecific nouns. The indefinite articles can only be used with singular countable nouns (e.g., “a poster,” “an engine”).

There’s a concert this weekend.

If you want to know more about nouns , pronouns , verbs , and other parts of speech, make sure to check out some of our language articles with explanations and examples.

Nouns & pronouns

• Common nouns
• Proper nouns
• Collective nouns
• Personal pronouns
• Uncountable and countable nouns
• Verb tenses
• Phrasal verbs
• Types of verbs
• Active vs passive voice
• Subject-verb agreement

A is an indefinite article (along with an ). While articles can be classed as their own part of speech, they’re also considered a type of determiner .

The indefinite articles are used to introduce nonspecific countable nouns (e.g., “a dog,” “an island”).

In is primarily classed as a preposition, but it can be classed as various other parts of speech, depending on how it is used:

• Preposition (e.g., “ in the field”)
• Noun (e.g., “I have an in with that company”)
• Adjective (e.g., “Tim is part of the in crowd”)
• Adverb (e.g., “Will you be in this evening?”)

As a part of speech, and is classed as a conjunction . Specifically, it’s a coordinating conjunction .

And can be used to connect grammatically equal parts of a sentence, such as two nouns (e.g., “a cup and plate”), or two adjectives (e.g., “strong and smart”). And can also be used to connect phrases and clauses.

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The 8 Parts Of Speech In English

There are eight major  parts of speech .

• Nouns  name persons, places, things, ideas, or qualities, e.g., Franklin, boy, Yangtze River, shoreline, Bible, desk, fear, happiness.
• Pronouns  usually substitute for nouns and function as nouns, e.g., I, you, he, she, it, we, they, myself, this, that, who, which, everyone.
• Verbs  express actions, occurrences, or states of being, e.g., be, become, bunt, inflate, run.
• Adjectives  describe or modify nouns or pronouns, e.g., gentle, helpful, small.
• Adverbs  describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, e.g., almost, gently, helpfully, someday.
• Prepositions  relate nouns or pronouns to other words in a sentence, e.g., about, at, down, for, of, with.
• Conjunctions  link words, clauses, and phrases. There are coordinating conjunctions that link words, clauses, or phrases of equal importance, and there are subordinating conjunctions that introduce subordinate clauses and link them to main clauses.
• Interjections  express feeling or command attention, either alone or in a sentence, e.g., darn, hey, oh, wow.

Some words ( adjectives ,  adverbs ,  interjections ,  nouns ,  verbs ) are productive classes allowing new members; others, with functional rather than lexical meaning ( articles ,  conjunctions ,  prepositions ) are nonproductive and have a limited number of members.

Some grammarians consider  articles ,  quantifiers , and  numerals  to also be parts of speech.

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General Education

If you’re trying to learn the grammatical rules of English, you’ve probably been asked to learn the parts of speech. But what are parts of speech and how many are there? How do you know which words are classified in each part of speech?

The answers to these questions can be a bit complicated—English is a difficult language to learn and understand. Don’t fret, though! We’re going to answer each of these questions for you with a full guide to the parts of speech that explains the following:

• What the parts of speech are, including a comprehensive parts of speech list
• Parts of speech definitions for the individual parts of speech. (If you’re looking for information on a specific part of speech, you can search for it by pressing Command + F, then typing in the part of speech you’re interested in.) 
• Parts of speech examples
• A ten question quiz covering parts of speech definitions and parts of speech examples

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s begin!

Feature Image: (Gavina S / Wikimedia Commons)

What Are Parts of Speech? 

The parts of speech definitions in English can vary, but here’s a widely accepted one: a part of speech is a category of words that serve a similar grammatical purpose in sentences.  

To make that definition even simpler, a part of speech is just a category for similar types of words . All of the types of words included under a single part of speech function in similar ways when they’re used properly in sentences.

In the English language, it’s commonly accepted that there are 8 parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, interjections, and prepositions. Each of these categories plays a different role in communicating meaning in the English language. Each of the eight parts of speech—which we might also call the “main classes” of speech—also have subclasses. In other words, we can think of each of the eight parts of speech as being general categories for different types within their part of speech . There are different types of nouns, different types of verbs, different types of adjectives, adverbs, pronouns...you get the idea. 

And that’s an overview of what a part of speech is! Next, we’ll explain each of the 8 parts of speech—definitions and examples included for each category. 

There are tons of nouns in this picture. Can you find them all? 

Nouns are a class of words that refer, generally, to people and living creatures, objects, events, ideas, states of being, places, and actions. You’ve probably heard English nouns referred to as “persons, places, or things.” That definition is a little simplistic, though—while nouns do include people, places, and things, “things” is kind of a vague term. I t’s important to recognize that “things” can include physical things—like objects or belongings—and nonphysical, abstract things—like ideas, states of existence, and actions. 

Since there are many different types of nouns, we’ll include several examples of nouns used in a sentence while we break down the subclasses of nouns next!

Subclasses of Nouns, Including Examples

As an open class of words, the category of “nouns” has a lot of subclasses. The most common and important subclasses of nouns are common nouns, proper nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns, and count and mass nouns. Let’s break down each of these subclasses!

Common Nouns and Proper Nouns

Common nouns are generic nouns—they don’t name specific items. They refer to people (the man, the woman), living creatures (cat, bird), objects (pen, computer, car), events (party, work), ideas (culture, freedom), states of being (beauty, integrity), and places (home, neighborhood, country) in a general way. 

Proper nouns are sort of the counterpart to common nouns. Proper nouns refer to specific people, places, events, or ideas. Names are the most obvious example of proper nouns, like in these two examples: 

Common noun: What state are you from?

Proper noun: I’m from Arizona .

Whereas “state” is a common noun, Arizona is a proper noun since it refers to a specific state. Whereas “the election” is a common noun, “Election Day” is a proper noun. Another way to pick out proper nouns: the first letter is often capitalized. If you’d capitalize the word in a sentence, it’s almost always a proper noun. 

Concrete Nouns and Abstract Nouns

Concrete nouns are nouns that can be identified through the five senses. Concrete nouns include people, living creatures, objects, and places, since these things can be sensed in the physical world. In contrast to concrete nouns, abstract nouns are nouns that identify ideas, qualities, concepts, experiences, or states of being. Abstract nouns cannot be detected by the five senses. Here’s an example of concrete and abstract nouns used in a sentence: 

Concrete noun: Could you please fix the weedeater and mow the lawn ?

Abstract noun: Aliyah was delighted to have the freedom to enjoy the art show in peace .

See the difference? A weedeater and the lawn are physical objects or things, and freedom and peace are not physical objects, though they’re “things” people experience! Despite those differences, they all count as nouns. 

Collective Nouns, Count Nouns, and Mass Nouns

Nouns are often categorized based on number and amount. Collective nouns are nouns that refer to a group of something—often groups of people or a type of animal. Team , crowd , and herd are all examples of collective nouns. 

Count nouns are nouns that can appear in the singular or plural form, can be modified by numbers, and can be described by quantifying determiners (e.g. many, most, more, several). For example, “bug” is a count noun. It can occur in singular form if you say, “There is a bug in the kitchen,” but it can also occur in the plural form if you say, “There are many bugs in the kitchen.” (In the case of the latter, you’d call an exterminator...which is an example of a common noun!) Any noun that can accurately occur in one of these singular or plural forms is a count noun. 

Mass nouns are another type of noun that involve numbers and amount. Mass nouns are nouns that usually can’t be pluralized, counted, or quantified and still make sense grammatically. “Charisma” is an example of a mass noun (and an abstract noun!). For example, you could say, “They’ve got charisma, ” which doesn’t imply a specific amount. You couldn’t say, “They’ve got six charismas, ” or, “They’ve got several charismas .” It just doesn’t make sense! 

Verbs are all about action...just like these runners. 

A verb is a part of speech that, when used in a sentence, communicates an action, an occurrence, or a state of being . In sentences, verbs are the most important part of the predicate, which explains or describes what the subject of the sentence is doing or how they are being. And, guess what? All sentences contain verbs!

There are many words in the English language that are classified as verbs. A few common verbs include the words run, sing, cook, talk, and clean. These words are all verbs because they communicate an action performed by a living being. We’ll look at more specific examples of verbs as we discuss the subclasses of verbs next!

Subclasses of Verbs, Including Examples

Like nouns, verbs have several subclasses. The subclasses of verbs include copular or linking verbs, intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, and ditransitive or double transitive verbs. Let’s dive into these subclasses of verbs!

Copular or Linking Verbs

Copular verbs, or linking verbs, are verbs that link a subject with its complement in a sentence. The most familiar linking verb is probably be. Here’s a list of other common copular verbs in English: act, be, become, feel, grow, seem, smell, and taste. 

So how do copular verbs work? Well, in a sentence, if we said, “Michi is ,” and left it at that, it wouldn’t make any sense. “Michi,” the subject, needs to be connected to a complement by the copular verb “is.” Instead, we could say, “Michi is leaving.” In that instance, is links the subject of the sentence to its complement. 

Transitive Verbs, Intransitive Verbs, and Ditransitive Verbs

Transitive verbs are verbs that affect or act upon an object. When unattached to an object in a sentence, a transitive verb does not make sense. Here’s an example of a transitive verb attached to (and appearing before) an object in a sentence: 

Please take the clothes to the dry cleaners.

In this example, “take” is a transitive verb because it requires an object—”the clothes”—to make sense. “The clothes” are the objects being taken. “Please take” wouldn’t make sense by itself, would it? That’s because the transitive verb “take,” like all transitive verbs, transfers its action onto another being or object. 

Conversely, intransitive verbs don’t require an object to act upon in order to make sense in a sentence. These verbs make sense all on their own! For instance, “They ran ,” “We arrived ,” and, “The car stopped ” are all examples of sentences that contain intransitive verbs. 

Finally, ditransitive verbs, or double transitive verbs, are a bit more complicated. Ditransitive verbs are verbs that are followed by two objects in a sentence . One of the objects has the action of the ditransitive verb done to it, and the other object has the action of the ditransitive verb directed towards it. Here’s an example of what that means in a sentence: 

I cooked Nathan a meal.

In this example, “cooked” is a ditransitive verb because it modifies two objects: Nathan and meal . The meal has the action of “cooked” done to it, and “Nathan” has the action of the verb directed towards him. 

Adjectives are descriptors that help us better understand a sentence. A common adjective type is color.

#3: Adjectives

Here’s the simplest definition of adjectives: adjectives are words that describe other words . Specifically, adjectives modify nouns and noun phrases. In sentences, adjectives appear before nouns and pronouns (they have to appear before the words they describe!). 

Adjectives give more detail to nouns and pronouns by describing how a noun looks, smells, tastes, sounds, or feels, or its state of being or existence. . For example, you could say, “The girl rode her bike.” That sentence doesn’t have any adjectives in it, but you could add an adjective before both of the nouns in the sentence—”girl” and “bike”—to give more detail to the sentence. It might read like this: “The young girl rode her red bike.”   You can pick out adjectives in a sentence by asking the following questions: 

• Which one? 
• What kind? 
• How many? 
• Whose’s? 

We’ll look at more examples of adjectives as we explore the subclasses of adjectives next!

Subclasses of Adjectives, Including Examples

Subclasses of adjectives include adjective phrases, comparative adjectives, superlative adjectives, and determiners (which include articles, possessive adjectives, and demonstratives). 

Adjective Phrases

An adjective phrase is a group of words that describe a noun or noun phrase in a sentence. Adjective phrases can appear before the noun or noun phrase in a sentence, like in this example: 

The extremely fragile vase somehow did not break during the move.

In this case, extremely fragile describes the vase. On the other hand, adjective phrases can appear after the noun or noun phrase in a sentence as well: 

The museum was somewhat boring. 

Again, the phrase somewhat boring describes the museum. The takeaway is this: adjective phrases describe the subject of a sentence with greater detail than an individual adjective. 

Comparative Adjectives and Superlative Adjectives

Comparative adjectives are used in sentences where two nouns are compared. They function to compare the differences between the two nouns that they modify. In sentences, comparative adjectives often appear in this pattern and typically end with -er. If we were to describe how comparative adjectives function as a formula, it might look something like this: 

Noun (subject) + verb + comparative adjective + than + noun (object).

Here’s an example of how a comparative adjective would work in that type of sentence: 

The horse was faster than the dog.

The adjective faster compares the speed of the horse to the speed of the dog. Other common comparative adjectives include words that compare distance ( higher, lower, farther ), age ( younger, older ), size and dimensions ( bigger, smaller, wider, taller, shorter ), and quality or feeling ( better, cleaner, happier, angrier ). 

Superlative adjectives are adjectives that describe the extremes of a quality that applies to a subject being compared to a group of objects . Put more simply, superlative adjectives help show how extreme something is. In sentences, superlative adjectives usually appear in this structure and end in -est : 

Noun (subject) + verb + the + superlative adjective + noun (object).

Here’s an example of a superlative adjective that appears in that type of sentence: 

Their story was the funniest story. 

In this example, the subject— story —is being compared to a group of objects—other stories. The superlative adjective “funniest” implies that this particular story is the funniest out of all the stories ever, period. Other common superlative adjectives are best, worst, craziest, and happiest... though there are many more than that! 

It’s also important to know that you can often omit the object from the end of the sentence when using superlative adjectives, like this: “Their story was the funniest.” We still know that “their story” is being compared to other stories without the object at the end of the sentence.

Determiners

The last subclass of adjectives we want to look at are determiners. Determiners are words that determine what kind of reference a noun or noun phrase makes. These words are placed in front of nouns to make it clear what the noun is referring to. Determiners are an example of a part of speech subclass that contains a lot of subclasses of its own. Here is a list of the different types of determiners: 

• Definite article: the
• Indefinite articles : a, an 
• Demonstratives: this, that, these, those
• Pronouns and possessive determiners: my, your, his, her, its, our, their
• Quantifiers : a little, a few, many, much, most, some, any, enough
• Numbers: one, twenty, fifty
• Distributives: all, both, half, either, neither, each, every
• Difference words : other, another
• Pre-determiners: such, what, rather, quite

Here are some examples of how determiners can be used in sentences: 

Definite article: Get in the car.  

Demonstrative: Could you hand me that magazine?  

Possessive determiner: Please put away your clothes. 

Distributive: He ate all of the pie. 

Though some of the words above might not seem descriptive, they actually do describe the specificity and definiteness, relationship, and quantity or amount of a noun or noun phrase. For example, the definite article “the” (a type of determiner) indicates that a noun refers to a specific thing or entity. The indefinite article “an,” on the other hand, indicates that a noun refers to a nonspecific entity. 

One quick note, since English is always more complicated than it seems: while articles are most commonly classified as adjectives, they can also function as adverbs in specific situations, too. Not only that, some people are taught that determiners are their own part of speech...which means that some people are taught there are 9 parts of speech instead of 8! 

It can be a little confusing, which is why we have a whole article explaining how articles function as a part of speech to help clear things up . 

Adverbs can be used to answer questions like "when?" and "how long?"

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives (including determiners), clauses, prepositions, and sentences. Adverbs typically answer the questions how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent? In answering these questions, adverbs function to express frequency, degree, manner, time, place, and level of certainty . Adverbs can answer these questions in the form of single words, or in the form of adverbial phrases or adverbial clauses. 

Adverbs are commonly known for being words that end in -ly, but there’s actually a bit more to adverbs than that, which we’ll dive into while we look at the subclasses of adverbs!

Subclasses Of Adverbs, Including Examples

There are many types of adverbs, but the main subclasses we’ll look at are conjunctive adverbs, and adverbs of place, time, manner, degree, and frequency. 

Conjunctive Adverbs

Conjunctive adverbs look like coordinating conjunctions (which we’ll talk about later!), but they are actually their own category: conjunctive adverbs are words that connect independent clauses into a single sentence . These adverbs appear after a semicolon and before a comma in sentences, like in these two examples: 

She was exhausted; nevertheless , she went for a five mile run. 

They didn’t call; instead , they texted.  

Though conjunctive adverbs are frequently used to create shorter sentences using a semicolon and comma, they can also appear at the beginning of sentences, like this: 

He chopped the vegetables. Meanwhile, I boiled the pasta.  

One thing to keep in mind is that conjunctive adverbs come with a comma. When you use them, be sure to include a comma afterward! 

There are a lot of conjunctive adverbs, but some common ones include also, anyway, besides, finally, further, however, indeed, instead, meanwhile, nevertheless, next, nonetheless, now, otherwise, similarly, then, therefore, and thus.  

Adverbs of Place, Time, Manner, Degree, and Frequency

There are also adverbs of place, time, manner, degree, and frequency. Each of these types of adverbs express a different kind of meaning. 

Adverbs of place express where an action is done or where an event occurs. These are used after the verb, direct object, or at the end of a sentence. A sentence like “She walked outside to watch the sunset” uses outside as an adverb of place. 

Adverbs of time explain when something happens. These adverbs are used at the beginning or at the end of sentences. In a sentence like “The game should be over soon,” soon functions as an adverb of time. 

Adverbs of manner describe the way in which something is done or how something happens. These are the adverbs that usually end in the familiar -ly.  If we were to write “She quickly finished her homework,” quickly is an adverb of manner. 

Adverbs of degree tell us the extent to which something happens or occurs. If we were to say “The play was quite interesting,” quite tells us the extent of how interesting the play was. Thus, quite is an adverb of degree.  

Finally, adverbs of frequency express how often something happens . In a sentence like “They never know what to do with themselves,” never is an adverb of frequency. 

Five subclasses of adverbs is a lot, so we’ve organized the words that fall under each category in a nifty table for you here: 

It’s important to know about these subclasses of adverbs because many of them don’t follow the old adage that adverbs end in -ly. 

Here's a helpful list of pronouns. (Attanata / Flickr )

#5: Pronouns

Pronouns are words that can be substituted for a noun or noun phrase in a sentence . Pronouns function to make sentences less clunky by allowing people to avoid repeating nouns over and over. For example, if you were telling someone a story about your friend Destiny, you wouldn’t keep repeating their name over and over again every time you referred to them. Instead, you’d use a pronoun—like they or them—to refer to Destiny throughout the story. 

Pronouns are typically short words, often only two or three letters long. The most familiar pronouns in the English language are they, she, and he. But these aren’t the only pronouns. There are many more pronouns in English that fall under different subclasses!

Subclasses of Pronouns, Including Examples

There are many subclasses of pronouns, but the most commonly used subclasses are personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, and interrogative pronouns. 

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are probably the most familiar type of pronoun. Personal pronouns include I, me, you, she, her, him, he, we, us, they, and them. These are called personal pronouns because they refer to a person! Personal pronouns can replace specific nouns in sentences, like a person’s name, or refer to specific groups of people, like in these examples: 

Did you see Gia pole vault at the track meet? Her form was incredible!

The Cycling Club is meeting up at six. They said they would be at the park. 

In both of the examples above, a pronoun stands in for a proper noun to avoid repetitiveness. Her replaces Gia in the first example, and they replaces the Cycling Club in the second example. 

(It’s also worth noting that personal pronouns are one of the easiest ways to determine what point of view a writer is using.) 

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns are used to indicate that something belongs to or is the possession of someone. The possessive pronouns fall into two categories: limiting and absolute. In a sentence, absolute possessive pronouns can be substituted for the thing that belongs to a person, and limiting pronouns cannot. 

The limiting pronouns are my, your, its, his, her, our, their, and whose, and the absolute pronouns are mine, yours, his, hers, ours, and theirs . Here are examples of a limiting possessive pronoun and absolute possessive pronoun used in a sentence: 

Limiting possessive pronoun: Juan is fixing his car. 

In the example above, the car belongs to Juan, and his is the limiting possessive pronoun that shows the car belongs to Juan. Now, here’s an example of an absolute pronoun in a sentence: 

Absolute possessive pronoun: Did you buy your tickets ? We already bought ours . 

In this example, the tickets belong to whoever we is, and in the second sentence, ours is the absolute possessive pronoun standing in for the thing that “we” possess—the tickets. 

Demonstrative Pronouns, Interrogative Pronouns, and Indefinite Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns include the words that, this, these, and those. These pronouns stand in for a noun or noun phrase that has already been mentioned in a sentence or conversation. This and these are typically used to refer to objects or entities that are nearby distance-wise, and that and those usually refer to objects or entities that are farther away. Here’s an example of a demonstrative pronoun used in a sentence: 

The books are stacked up in the garage. Can you put those away? 

The books have already been mentioned, and those is the demonstrative pronoun that stands in to refer to them in the second sentence above. The use of those indicates that the books aren’t nearby—they’re out in the garage. Here’s another example: 

Do you need shoes? Here...you can borrow these. 

In this sentence, these refers to the noun shoes. Using the word these tells readers that the shoes are nearby...maybe even on the speaker’s feet! 

Indefinite pronouns are used when it isn’t necessary to identify a specific person or thing . The indefinite pronouns are one, other, none, some, anybody, everybody, and no one. Here’s one example of an indefinite pronoun used in a sentence: 

Promise you can keep a secret? 

Of course. I won’t tell anyone. 

In this example, the person speaking in the second two sentences isn’t referring to any particular people who they won’t tell the secret to. They’re saying that, in general, they won’t tell anyone . That doesn’t specify a specific number, type, or category of people who they won’t tell the secret to, which is what makes the pronoun indefinite. 

Finally, interrogative pronouns are used in questions, and these pronouns include who, what, which, and whose. These pronouns are simply used to gather information about specific nouns—persons, places, and ideas. Let’s look at two examples of interrogative pronouns used in sentences: 

Do you remember which glass was mine? 

What time are they arriving? 

In the first glass, the speaker wants to know more about which glass belongs to whom. In the second sentence, the speaker is asking for more clarity about a specific time. 

Conjunctions hook phrases and clauses together so they fit like pieces of a puzzle.

#6: Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that are used to connect words, phrases, clauses, and sentences in the English language. This function allows conjunctions to connect actions, ideas, and thoughts as well. Conjunctions are also used to make lists within sentences. (Conjunctions are also probably the most famous part of speech, since they were immortalized in the famous “Conjunction Junction” song from Schoolhouse Rock .) 

You’re probably familiar with and, but, and or as conjunctions, but let’s look into some subclasses of conjunctions so you can learn about the array of conjunctions that are out there!

Subclasses of Conjunctions, Including Examples

Coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions are three subclasses of conjunctions. Each of these types of conjunctions functions in a different way in sentences!

Coordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions are probably the most familiar type of conjunction. These conjunctions include the words for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so (people often recommend using the acronym FANBOYS to remember the seven coordinating conjunctions!). 

Coordinating conjunctions are responsible for connecting two independent clauses in sentences, but can also be used to connect two words in a sentence. Here are two examples of coordinating conjunctions that connect two independent clauses in a sentence: 

He wanted to go to the movies, but he couldn’t find his car keys. 

They put on sunscreen, and they went to the beach. 

Next, here are two examples of coordinating conjunctions that connect two words: 

Would you like to cook or order in for dinner? 

The storm was loud yet refreshing. 

The two examples above show that coordinating conjunctions can connect different types of words as well. In the first example, the coordinating conjunction “or” connects two verbs; in the second example, the coordinating conjunction “yet” connects two adjectives. 

But wait! Why does the first set of sentences have commas while the second set of sentences doesn’t? When using a coordinating conjunction, put a comma before the conjunction when it’s connecting two complete sentences . Otherwise, there’s no comma necessary. 

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions are used to link an independent clause to a dependent clause in a sentence. This type of conjunction always appears at the beginning of a dependent clause, which means that subordinating conjunctions can appear at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle of a sentence following an independent clause. (If you’re unsure about what independent and dependent clauses are, be sure to check out our guide to compound sentences.) 

Here is an example of a subordinating conjunction that appears at the beginning of a sentence: 

Because we were hungry, we ordered way too much food. 

Now, here’s an example of a subordinating conjunction that appears in the middle of a sentence, following an independent clause and a comma: 

Rakim was scared after the power went out. 

See? In the example above, the subordinating conjunction after connects the independent clause Rakim was scared to the dependent clause after the power went out. Subordinating conjunctions include (but are not limited to!) the following words: after, as, because, before, even though, one, since, unless, until, whenever, and while. 

Correlative Conjunctions

Finally, correlative conjunctions are conjunctions that come in pairs, like both/and, either/or, and neither/nor. The two correlative conjunctions that come in a pair must appear in different parts of a sentence to make sense— they correlate the meaning in one part of the sentence with the meaning in another part of the sentence . Makes sense, right? 

Here are two examples of correlative conjunctions used in a sentence: 

We’re either going to the Farmer’s Market or the Natural Grocer’s for our shopping today. 

They’re going to have to get dog treats for both Piper and Fudge. 

Other pairs of correlative conjunctions include as many/as, not/but, not only/but also, rather/than, such/that, and whether/or. 

Interjections are single words that express emotions that end in an exclamation point. Cool!

#7: Interjections 

Interjections are words that often appear at the beginning of sentences or between sentences to express emotions or sentiments such as excitement, surprise, joy, disgust, anger, or even pain. Commonly used interjections include wow!, yikes!, ouch!, or ugh! One clue that an interjection is being used is when an exclamation point appears after a single word (but interjections don’t have to be followed by an exclamation point). And, since interjections usually express emotion or feeling, they’re often referred to as being exclamatory. Wow! 

Interjections don’t come together with other parts of speech to form bigger grammatical units, like phrases or clauses. There also aren’t strict rules about where interjections should appear in relation to other sentences . While it’s common for interjections to appear before sentences that describe an action or event that the interjection helps explain, interjections can appear after sentences that contain the action they’re describing as well. 

Subclasses of Interjections, Including Examples

There are two main subclasses of interjections: primary interjections and secondary interjections. Let’s take a look at these two types of interjections!

Primary Interjections  

Primary interjections are single words, like oh!, wow!, or ouch! that don’t enter into the actual structure of a sentence but add to the meaning of a sentence. Here’s an example of how a primary interjection can be used before a sentence to add to the meaning of the sentence that follows it: 

Ouch ! I just burned myself on that pan!

While someone who hears, I just burned myself on that pan might assume that the person who said that is now in pain, the interjection Ouch! makes it clear that burning oneself on the pan definitely was painful. 

Secondary Interjections

Secondary interjections are words that have other meanings but have evolved to be used like interjections in the English language and are often exclamatory. Secondary interjections can be mixed with greetings, oaths, or swear words. In many cases, the use of secondary interjections negates the original meaning of the word that is being used as an interjection. Let’s look at a couple of examples of secondary interjections here: 

Well , look what the cat dragged in!

Heck, I’d help if I could, but I’ve got to get to work. 

You probably know that the words well and heck weren’t originally used as interjections in the English language. Well originally meant that something was done in a good or satisfactory way, or that a person was in good health. Over time and through repeated usage, it’s come to be used as a way to express emotion, such as surprise, anger, relief, or resignation, like in the example above. 

This is a handy list of common prepositional phrases. (attanatta / Flickr) 

#8: Prepositions

The last part of speech we’re going to define is the preposition. Prepositions are words that are used to connect other words in a sentence—typically nouns and verbs—and show the relationship between those words. Prepositions convey concepts such as comparison, position, place, direction, movement, time, possession, and how an action is completed. 

Subclasses of Prepositions, Including Examples

The subclasses of prepositions are simple prepositions, double prepositions, participle prepositions, and prepositional phrases. 

Simple Prepositions

Simple prepositions appear before and between nouns, adjectives, or adverbs in sentences to convey relationships between people, living creatures, things, or places . Here are a couple of examples of simple prepositions used in sentences: 

I’ll order more ink before we run out. 

Your phone was beside your wallet. 

In the first example, the preposition before appears between the noun ink and the personal pronoun we to convey a relationship. In the second example, the preposition beside appears between the verb was and the possessive pronoun your.

In both examples, though, the prepositions help us understand how elements in the sentence are related to one another. In the first sentence, we know that the speaker currently has ink but needs more before it’s gone. In the second sentence, the preposition beside helps us understand how the wallet and the phone are positioned relative to one another! 

Double Prepositions

Double prepositions are exactly what they sound like: two prepositions joined together into one unit to connect phrases, nouns, and pronouns with other words in a sentence. Common examples of double prepositions include outside of, because of, according to, next to, across from, and on top of. Here is an example of a double preposition in a sentence: 

I thought you were sitting across from me. 

You see? Across and from both function as prepositions individually. When combined together in a sentence, they create a double preposition. (Also note that the prepositions help us understand how two people— you and I— are positioned with one another through spacial relationship.)  

Prepositional Phrases

Finally, prepositional phrases are groups of words that include a preposition and a noun or pronoun. Typically, the noun or pronoun that appears after the preposition in a prepositional phrase is called the object of the preposition. The object always appears at the end of the prepositional phrase. Additionally, prepositional phrases never include a verb or a subject. Here are two examples of prepositional phrases: 

The cat sat under the chair . 

In the example above, “under” is the preposition, and “the chair” is the noun, which functions as the object of the preposition. Here’s one more example: 

We walked through the overgrown field . 

Now, this example demonstrates one more thing you need to know about prepositional phrases: they can include an adjective before the object. In this example, “through” is the preposition, and “field” is the object. “Overgrown” is an adjective that modifies “the field,” and it’s quite common for adjectives to appear in prepositional phrases like the one above. 

While that might sound confusing, don’t worry: the key is identifying the preposition in the first place! Once you can find the preposition, you can start looking at the words around it to see if it forms a compound preposition, a double preposition of a prepositional phrase. 

10 Question Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Parts of Speech Definitions and Examples

Since we’ve covered a lot of material about the 8 parts of speech with examples ( a lot of them!), we want to give you an opportunity to review and see what you’ve learned! While it might seem easier to just use a parts of speech finder instead of learning all this stuff, our parts of speech quiz can help you continue building your knowledge of the 8 parts of speech and master each one. 

Are you ready? Here we go:  

1) What are the 8 parts of speech? 

a) Noun, article, adverb, antecedent, verb, adjective, conjunction, interjection b) Noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, determiner, clause, adjective, preposition c) Noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, conjunction, interjection, preposition

2) Which parts of speech have subclasses?

a) Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs b) Nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, and prepositions c) All of them! There are many types of words within each part of speech.

3) What is the difference between common nouns and proper nouns?

a) Common nouns don’t refer to specific people, places, or entities, but proper nouns do refer to specific people, places, or entities.  b) Common nouns refer to regular, everyday people, places, or entities, but proper nouns refer to famous people, places, or entities.  c) Common nouns refer to physical entities, like people, places, and objects, but proper nouns refer to nonphysical entities, like feelings, ideas, and experiences.

4) In which of the following sentences is the emboldened word a verb?

a) He was frightened by the horror film .   b) He adjusted his expectations after the first plan fell through.  c) She walked briskly to get there on time.

5) Which of the following is a correct definition of adjectives, and what other part of speech do adjectives modify?

a) Adjectives are describing words, and they modify nouns and noun phrases.  b) Adjectives are describing words, and they modify verbs and adverbs.  c) Adjectives are describing words, and they modify nouns, verbs, and adverbs.

6) Which of the following describes the function of adverbs in sentences?

a) Adverbs express frequency, degree, manner, time, place, and level of certainty. b) Adverbs express an action performed by a subject.  c) Adverbs describe nouns and noun phrases.

7) Which of the following answers contains a list of personal pronouns?

a) This, that, these, those b) I, you, me, we, he, she, him, her, they, them c) Who, what, which, whose

8) Where do interjections typically appear in a sentence?

a) Interjections can appear at the beginning of or in between sentences. b) Interjections appear at the end of sentences.  c) Interjections appear in prepositional phrases.

9) Which of the following sentences contains a prepositional phrase?

a) The dog happily wagged his tail.  b) The cow jumped over the moon.  c) She glared, angry that he forgot the flowers.

10) Which of the following is an accurate definition of a “part of speech”?

a) A category of words that serve a similar grammatical purpose in sentences. b) A category of words that are of similar length and spelling. c) A category of words that mean the same thing.

So, how did you do? If you got 1C, 2C, 3A, 4B, 5A, 6A, 7B, 8A, 9B, and 10A, you came out on top! There’s a lot to remember where the parts of speech are concerned, and if you’re looking for more practice like our quiz, try looking around for parts of speech games or parts of speech worksheets online!

What’s Next?

You might be brushing up on your grammar so you can ace the verbal portions of the SAT or ACT. Be sure you check out our guides to the grammar you need to know before you tackle those tests! Here’s our expert guide to the grammar rules you need to know for the SAT , and this article teaches you the 14 grammar rules you’ll definitely see on the ACT.

When you have a good handle on parts of speech, it can make writing essays tons easier. Learn how knowing parts of speech can help you get a perfect 12 on the ACT Essay (or an 8/8/8 on the SAT Essay ).

While we’re on the topic of grammar: keep in mind that knowing grammar rules is only part of the battle when it comes to the verbal and written portions of the SAT and ACT. Having a good vocabulary is also important to making the perfect score ! Here are 262 vocabulary words you need to know before you tackle your standardized tests.

Ashley Sufflé Robinson has a Ph.D. in 19th Century English Literature. As a content writer for PrepScholar, Ashley is passionate about giving college-bound students the in-depth information they need to get into the school of their dreams.

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• English Grammar
• Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech - Definition, 8 Types and Examples

In the English language , every word is called a part of speech. The role a word plays in a sentence denotes what part of speech it belongs to. Explore the definition of parts of speech, the different parts of speech and examples in this article.

Table of Contents

Parts of speech definition, different parts of speech with examples.

• Sentences Examples for the 8 Parts of Speech

A Small Exercise to Check Your Understanding of Parts of Speech

Frequently asked questions on parts of speech, what is a part of speech.

Parts of speech are among the first grammar topics we learn when we are in school or when we start our English language learning process. Parts of speech can be defined as words that perform different roles in a sentence. Some parts of speech can perform the functions of other parts of speech too.

• The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary defines parts of speech as “one of the classes into which words are divided according to their grammar, such as noun, verb, adjective, etc.”
• The Cambridge Dictionary also gives a similar definition – “One of the grammatical groups into which words are divided, such as noun, verb, and adjective”.

Parts of speech include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

8 Parts of Speech Definitions and Examples:

1. Nouns are words that are used to name people, places, animals, ideas and things. Nouns can be classified into two main categories: Common nouns and Proper nouns . Common nouns are generic like ball, car, stick, etc., and proper nouns are more specific like Charles, The White House, The Sun, etc.

Examples of nouns used in sentences:

• She bought a pair of shoes . (thing)
• I have a pet. (animal)
• Is this your book ? (object)
• Many people have a fear of darkness . (ideas/abstract nouns)
• He is my brother . (person)
• This is my school . (place)

Also, explore Singular Nouns and Plural Nouns .

2. Pronouns are words that are used to substitute a noun in a sentence. There are different types of pronouns. Some of them are reflexive pronouns, possessive pronouns , relative pronouns and indefinite pronouns . I, he, she, it, them, his, yours, anyone, nobody, who, etc., are some of the pronouns.

Examples of pronouns used in sentences:

• I reached home at six in the evening. (1st person singular pronoun)
• Did someone see a red bag on the counter? (Indefinite pronoun)
• Is this the boy who won the first prize? (Relative pronoun)
• That is my mom. (Possessive pronoun)
• I hurt myself yesterday when we were playing cricket. (Reflexive pronoun)

3. Verbs are words that denote an action that is being performed by the noun or the subject in a sentence. They are also called action words. Some examples of verbs are read, sit, run, pick, garnish, come, pitch, etc.

Examples of verbs used in sentences:

• She plays cricket every day.
• Darshana and Arul are going to the movies.
• My friends visited me last week.
• Did you have your breakfast?
• My name is Meenakshi Kishore.

4. Adverbs are words that are used to provide more information about verbs, adjectives and other adverbs used in a sentence. There are five main types of adverbs namely, adverbs of manner , adverbs of degree , adverbs of frequency , adverbs of time and adverbs of place . Some examples of adverbs are today, quickly, randomly, early, 10 a.m. etc.

Examples of adverbs used in sentences:

• Did you come here to buy an umbrella? (Adverb of place)
• I did not go to school yesterday as I was sick. (Adverb of time)
• Savio reads the newspaper everyday . (Adverb of frequency)
• Can you please come quickly ? (Adverb of manner)
• Tony was so sleepy that he could hardly keep his eyes open during the meeting. (Adverb of degree)

5. Adjectives are words that are used to describe or provide more information about the noun or the subject in a sentence. Some examples of adjectives include good, ugly, quick, beautiful, late, etc.

Examples of adjectives used in sentences:

• The place we visited yesterday was serene .
• Did you see how big that dog was?
• The weather is pleasant today.
• The red dress you wore on your birthday was lovely.
• My brother had only one chapati for breakfast.

6. Prepositions are words that are used to link one part of the sentence to another. Prepositions show the position of the object or subject in a sentence. Some examples of prepositions are in, out, besides, in front of, below, opposite, etc.

Examples of prepositions used in sentences:

• The teacher asked the students to draw lines on the paper so that they could write in straight lines.
• The child hid his birthday presents under his bed.
• Mom asked me to go to the store near my school.
• The thieves jumped over the wall and escaped before we could reach home.

7. Conjunctions are a part of speech that is used to connect two different parts of a sentence, phrases and clauses . Some examples of conjunctions are and, or, for, yet, although, because, not only, etc.

Examples of conjunctions used in sentences:

• Meera and Jasmine had come to my birthday party.
• Jane did not go to work as she was sick.
• Unless you work hard, you cannot score good marks.
• I have not finished my project,  yet I went out with my friends.

8. Interjections are words that are used to convey strong emotions or feelings. Some examples of interjections are oh, wow, alas, yippee, etc. It is always followed by an exclamation mark.

Examples of interjections used in sentences:

• Wow ! What a wonderful work of art.
• Alas ! That is really sad.
• Yippee ! We won the match.

Sentence Examples for the 8 Parts of Speech

• Noun – Tom lives in New York .
• Pronoun – Did she find the book she was looking for?
• Verb – I reached home.
• Adverb – The tea is too hot.
• Adjective – The movie was amazing .
• Preposition – The candle was kept under the table.
• Conjunction – I was at home all day, but I am feeling very tired.
• Interjection – Oh ! I forgot to turn off the stove.

Let us find out if you have understood the different parts of speech and their functions. Try identifying which part of speech the highlighted words belong to.

• My brother came home  late .
• I am a good girl.
• This is the book I  was looking for.
• Whoa ! This is amazing .
• The climate  in  Kodaikanal is very pleasant.
• Can you please pick up Dan and me on  your way home?

Now, let us see if you got it right. Check your answers.

• My – Pronoun, Home – Noun, Late – Adverb
• Am – Verb, Good – Adjective
• I – Pronoun, Was looking – Verb
• Whoa – Interjection, Amazing – Adjective
• Climate – Noun, In – Preposition, Kodaikanal – Noun, Very – Adverb
• And – Conjunction, On – Preposition, Your – Pronoun

What are parts of speech?

The term ‘parts of speech’ refers to words that perform different functions in a sentence  in order to give the sentence a proper meaning and structure.

How many parts of speech are there?

There are 8 parts of speech in total.

What are the 8 parts of speech?

Nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections are the 8 parts of speech.

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Applied Grammar by Gail Brubaker

Understanding the 8 Parts of Speech: Definitions and Examples

Are you trying to master the grammatical rules of English? If so, understanding the 8 parts of speech is crucial. But what exactly are the parts of speech? How many are there? And how do you know which words fall into each category? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. In this comprehensive guide, we will break down the definitions and examples of the 8 parts of speech, making it easier for you to navigate the intricacies of the English language.

English can be a challenging language to learn, but by understanding the parts of speech, you’ll gain a solid foundation for constructing sentences with clarity and precision. Whether you’re a student, a writer, or simply someone looking to improve your language skills, this article will provide you with a clear understanding of each part of speech. So, let’s immerse and explore the definitions and examples of the 8 parts of speech, empowering you to communicate effectively and confidently in English.

Key Takeaways

• Understanding the 8 parts of speech is crucial for mastering English grammar.
• The 8 parts of speech are: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.
• Nouns represent people, places, things, or ideas.
• Pronouns replace nouns to avoid repetition.
• Verbs describe actions or states of being.
• Adjectives provide additional details about nouns.
• Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
• Prepositions show relationships between words in a sentence.
• Conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses together.
• Interjections express strong emotions or surprise.

What Are Parts of Speech?

When it comes to understanding the intricacies of English grammar, learning the different parts of speech is crucial. But what exactly are parts of speech? How many are there? And how do you determine which words belong to each part of speech? In this comprehensive guide, we’ll provide clear definitions and examples for each part of speech, helping you navigate the complexities of the English language.

Nouns are words that represent people, places, things, or ideas. They can be common or proper, singular or plural. Examples of nouns include “dog,” “New York City,” and “love.”

Pronouns are words used in place of nouns to avoid repetition. They can refer to individuals or groups. Examples of pronouns include “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.”

Verbs are action words that describe what a subject does or the state of being. They can be in different tenses and forms. Examples of verbs include “run,” “jump,” and “is.”

Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns, giving more details or information about them. They can describe qualities, size, shape, color, and more. Examples of adjectives include “beautiful,” “large,” and “blue.”

Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, providing information on how, when, where, or to what extent. They often end in “-ly.” Examples of adverbs include “quickly,” “happily,” and “very.”

Prepositions

Prepositions show a relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. They indicate position, direction, time, or manner. Examples of prepositions include “in,” “on,” “at,” and “from.”

Conjunctions

Conjunctions join words, phrases, or clauses together. They can be coordinating or subordinating. Examples of conjunctions include “and,” “but,” “or,” and “because.”

Interjections

Interjections are short exclamations used to express emotions or surprise. They are often followed by exclamation marks. Examples of interjections include “Wow,” “Yay,” and “Ouch!”

Parts of Speech

Understanding the different parts of speech is crucial for building a strong foundation in English grammar. Each part of speech plays a unique role in the construction of sentences, providing clarity and meaning to our language. In this section, we will explore the definitions and examples of the eight parts of speech: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.

A noun is a word that identifies a person, place, thing, or idea. It can refer to both concrete objects, such as “book” or “dog,” and abstract concepts, such as “love” or “happiness.” Nouns are often referred to as “persons, places, or things,” but it is essential to recognize that they encompass much more than that. Here are some examples of nouns used in sentences:

• The cat is sleeping on the couch.
• I love to read a good book .
• She has a beautiful voice .

Pronouns are words that are used to replace nouns in a sentence. They help avoid repetitive use of nouns and add fluency to our language. Personal pronouns, such as “he,” “she,” or “they,” refer to specific individuals or groups of people. Here are some examples of pronouns used in sentences:

• She is going to the store.
• We had an amazing time at the party.
• Please give me the book.

Verbs are action words that express an action, occurrence, or state of being. They are the backbone of a sentence and provide information about what is happening. Verbs can be either transitive or intransitive, depending on whether they require an object to complete their meaning. Here are some examples of verbs used in sentences:

• The dog ran in the park.
• I love to swim in the ocean.
• They are studying for the exam.

Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns. They provide additional information about the nouns they accompany, such as their size, color, or quality. Adjectives help make our language more vivid and expressive. Here are some examples of adjectives used in sentences:

• She has a beautiful smile.
• The blue sky is clear today.
• He is a talented musician.

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They provide information about how, when, where, or to what extent an action is performed. Adverbs enhance the meaning of a sentence and add precision to our language. Here are some examples of adverbs used in sentences:

• He quickly finished his assignments.
• She sings beautifully .
• They went outside to play.

Preposition

Prepositions are words that indicate the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. They often express location, direction, time, or manner. Prepositions are essential for understanding spatial and temporal relationships. Here are some examples of prepositions used in sentences:

• The cat is under the table.
• We walked through the park.
• The book is on the shelf.

Conjunction

Conjunctions are words that connect words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence. They help establish relationships between different parts of a sentence, coordinating or subordinating their meaning. Conjunctions are essential for creating complex sentences. Here are some examples of conjunctions used in sentences:

• I will go to the store, but I need to buy milk.
• Because it was raining, we stayed indoors.
• He likes both chocolate and vanilla ice cream.

Interjection

Interjections are words or phrases used to convey strong emotions or reactions. They are often standalone expressions and can add emphasis or express surprise, joy, or frustration. Interjections bring life and emotion to our language. Here are some examples of interjections used in sentences:

• Wow , that’s an impressive performance!
• Ouch , that hurt!
• Alas , I lost my wallet.

Understanding and mastering the eight parts of speech will greatly enhance your language skills and enable you to effectively communicate in English. From nouns that identify people and things to verbs that express actions, each part of speech contributes to the overall structure and meaning of a sentence. Keep practicing and exploring the various functions of these parts of speech to become a confident English speaker and writer.

Examples of Each Part of Speech

Nouns play a crucial role in sentence construction as they represent people, places, things, or ideas. Here are some examples of nouns:

Pronouns, on the other hand, replace nouns to avoid repetition. Here are a few examples for better understanding:

• If you leave now, only James and I will remain behind.
• Their feet ached more than ours .

Verbs express actions, feelings, or states of being. Check out these verb examples:

• We sang songs , danced all night , and by the morning had fallen in love .
• Can you bring me something from the kitchen?

Adjectives add descriptions to nouns. Here are a few examples:

• The tall building stood out in the city skyline.

Adverbs add meaning to verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Take a look at these examples:

• The car drove quickly down the street.
• She performed very well in the competition.

Prepositions express the relationship between nouns, pronouns, and other words. Here are some examples:

• The book is on the table.
• The cat jumped over the fence.

Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence. Check out these examples:

• He likes tea and coffee.
• She is tired, but she is determined to finish the project.

Interjections convey strong emotions or sudden reactions. Here are a few examples:

• Wow , what a beautiful sunset!
• Oh no , I forgot to bring my umbrella.

Remember, understanding the different parts of speech and their functions is crucial in constructing meaningful sentences. Keep practicing and exploring the various examples to strengthen your language skills.

Now that you have a clear understanding of the eight parts of speech in English grammar, you are equipped with the knowledge to construct sentences with precision and clarity. By mastering the definitions and examples of nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections, you can effectively communicate in English.

Each part of speech serves a unique purpose in sentence construction, providing meaning and structure to our language. Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas, while pronouns replace nouns to avoid repetition. Verbs express actions or states of being, while adjectives and adverbs provide descriptions and modify other words. Prepositions indicate relationships between words, conjunctions connect words or phrases, and interjections express strong emotions.

By practicing and exploring the functions of these parts of speech, you will become a confident English speaker and writer. Remember to apply this knowledge in your daily conversations and written communication to enhance your language skills.

Continue to refine your understanding and usage of the eight parts of speech, and watch as your language abilities flourish.

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Understanding the Parts of Speech in English

Yes, the parts of speech in English are extensive and complex. But we’ve made it easy for you to start learning them by gathering the most basic and essential information in this easy-to-follow and comprehensive guide.

Parts of Speech: Quick Summary

Parts of speech assign words to different categories. There are eight different types in English. Keep in mind that a word can belong to more than one part of speech.

Learn About:

• Parts of Speech
• Prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Interjections

Using the Parts of Speech Correctly In Your Writing

Knowing the parts of speech is vital when learning a new language.

When it comes to learning a new language, there are several components you should understand to truly get a grasp of the language and speak it fluently.

It’s not enough to become an expert in just one area. For instance, you can learn and memorize all the intricate grammar rules, but if you don’t practice speaking or writing colloquially, you will find it challenging to use that language in real time.

Conversely, if you don’t spend time trying to learn the rules and technicalities of a language, you’ll also find yourself struggling to use it correctly.

Think of it this way: Language is a tasty, colorful, and nutritious salad. If you fill your bowl with nothing but lettuce, your fluency will be bland, boring, and tasteless. But if you spend time cultivating other ingredients for your salad—like style, word choice, and vocabulary— then it will become a wholesome meal you can share with others.

In this blog post, we’re going to cover one of the many ingredients you’ll need to build a nourishing salad of the English language—the parts of speech.

Let’s get choppin’!

What Are the Parts of Speech in English?

The parts of speech refer to categories to which a word belongs. In English, there are eight of them : verbs , nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Many English words fall into more than one part of speech category. Take the word light as an example. It can function as a verb, noun, or adjective.

Verb: Can you please light the candles?

Noun: The room was filled with a dim, warm light .

Adjective: She wore a light jacket in the cool weather.

The parts of speech in English are extensive. There’s a lot to cover in each category—much more than we can in this blog post. The information below is simply a brief overview of the basics of the parts of speech. Nevertheless, the concise explanations and accompanying example sentences will help you gain an understanding of how to use them correctly.

What Are Verbs?

Verbs are the most essential parts of speech because they move the meaning of sentences along.

A verb can show actions of the body and mind ( jump and think ), occurrences ( happen or occur ), and states of being ( be and exist ). Put differently, verbs breathe life into sentences by describing actions or indicating existence. These parts of speech can also change form to express time , person , number , voice , and mood .

There are several verb categories. A few of them are:

• Regular and irregular verbs
• Transitive and intransitive verbs
• Auxiliary verbs

A few examples of verbs include sing (an irregular action verb), have (which can be a main verb or auxiliary verb), be , which is a state of being verb, and would (another auxiliary verb).

My little sister loves to sing .

I have a dog and her name is Sweet Pea.

I will be there at 5 P.M.

I would like to travel the world someday.

Again, these are just the very basics of English verbs. There’s a lot more that you should learn to be well-versed in this part of speech, but the information above is a good place to start.

What Are Nouns?

Nouns refer to people ( John and child ), places ( store and Italy ), things ( firetruck and pen ), and ideas or concepts ( love and balance ). There are also many categories within nouns. For example, proper nouns name a specific person, place, thing, or idea. These types of nouns are always capitalized.

Olivia is turning five in a few days.

My dream is to visit Tokyo .

The Supreme Court is the highest court in the United States.

Some argue that Buddhism is a way of life, not a religion.

On the other hand, common nouns are not specific to any particular entity and are used to refer to any member of a general category.

My teacher is the smartest, most caring person I know!

I love roaming around a city I’ve never been to before.

This is my favorite book , which was recommended to me by my father.

There’s nothing more important to me than love .

Nouns can be either singular or plural. Singular nouns refer to a single entity, while plural nouns refer to multiple entities.

Can you move that chair out of the way, please? (Singular)

Can you move those chairs out of the way, please? (Plural)

While many plural nouns are formed by adding an “–s” or “–es,” others have irregular plural forms, meaning they don’t follow the typical pattern.

There was one woman waiting in line.

There were several women waiting in line.

Nouns can also be countable or uncountable . Those that are countable refer to nouns that can be counted as individual units. For example, there can be one book, two books, three books, or more. Uncountable nouns cannot be counted as individual units. Take the word water as an example. You could say I drank some water, but it would be incorrect to say I drank waters. Instead, you would say something like I drank several bottles of water.

What Are Pronouns?

A pronoun is a word that can take the place of other nouns or noun phrases. Pronouns serve the purpose of referring to nouns without having to repeat the word each time. A word (or group of words) that a pronoun refers to is called the antecedent .

Jessica went to the store, and she bought some blueberries.

In the sentence above, Jessica is the antecedent, and she is the referring pronoun. Here’s the same sentence without the proper use of a pronoun:

Jessica went to the store, and Jessica bought some blueberries.

Do you see how the use of a pronoun improves the sentence by avoiding repetitiveness?

Like all the other parts of speech we have covered, pronouns also have various categories.

Personal pronouns replace specific people or things: I, me, you, he, she, him, her, it, we, us, they, them.

When I saw them at the airport, I waved my hands up in the air so they could see me .

Possessive pronouns indicate ownership : mine, ours, yours, his, hers, theirs, whose.

I think that phone is hers .

Reflexive pronouns refer to the subject of a sentence or clause. They are used when the subject and the object of a sentence refer to the same person or thing: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves.

The iguanas sunned themselves on the roof of my car.

Intensive pronouns have the same form as reflexive pronouns and are used to emphasize or intensify the subject of a sentence.

I will take care of this situation myself .

Indefinite pronouns do not refer to specific individuals or objects but rather to a general or unspecified person, thing, or group. Some examples include someone, everybody, anything, nobody, each, something, and all.

Everybody enjoyed the party. Someone even said it was the best party they had ever attended.

Demonstrative pronouns are used to identify or point to specific pronouns: this, that, these, those.

Can you pick up those pens off the floor?

Interrogative pronouns are used to ask questions and seek information: who, whom, whose, which, what.

Who can help move these heavy boxes?

Relative pronouns connect a clause or a phrase to a noun or pronoun: who, whom, whose, which, that, what, whoever, whichever, whatever.

Christina, who is the hiring manager, is the person whom you should get in touch with.

Reciprocal pronouns are used to refer to individual parts of a plural antecedent. They indicate a mutual or reciprocal relationship between two or more people or things: each other or one another.

The cousins always giggle and share secrets with one another .  

What Are Adjectives?

Adjectives modify nouns or pronouns, usually by describing, identifying, or quantifying them. They play a vital role in adding detail, precision, and imagery to English, allowing us to depict and differentiate the qualities of people, objects, places, and ideas.

The blue house sticks out compared to the other neutral-colored ones. (Describes)

That house is pretty, but I don’t like the color. (Identifies)

There were several houses I liked, but the blue one was unique. (Quantifies)

We should note that identifying or quantifying adjectives are also referred to as determiners. Additionally, articles ( a, an, the ) and numerals ( four or third ) are also used to quantify and identify adjectives.

Descriptive adjectives have other forms (known as comparative and superlative adjectives ) that allow for comparisons. For example, the comparative of the word small is smaller, while the superlative is smallest.

Proper adjectives (which are derived from proper nouns) describe specific nouns. They usually retain the same spelling or are slightly modified, but they’re always capitalized. For example, the proper noun France can be turned into the proper adjective French.

What Are Adverbs?

Adverbs are words that modify or describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, or entire clauses. Although many adverbs end in “–ly,” not all of them do. Also, some words that end in “–ly” are adjectives, not adverbs ( lovely ).

She dances beautifully .

In the sentence above, beautifully modifies the verb dances.

We visited an extremely tall building.

Here, the adverb extremely modifies the adjective tall.

He had to run very quickly to not miss the train.

The adverb very modifies the adverb quickly.

Interestingly , the experiment yielded unexpected results that left us baffled.

In this example, the word interestingly modifies the independent clause that comprises the rest of the sentence (which is why they’re called sentence adverbs ).

Like adjectives, adverbs can also have other forms when making comparisons. For example:

strongly, more strongly, most strongly, less strongly, least strongly

What Are Prepositions?

Prepositions provide context and establish relationships between nouns, pronouns, and other words in a sentence. They indicate time, location, direction, manner, and other vital information. Prepositions can fall into several subcategories. For instance, on can indicate physical location, but it can also be used to express time.

Place the bouquet of roses on the table.

We will meet on Monday.

There are many prepositions. A few examples include: about, above, across, after, before, behind, beneath, beside, during, except, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, off, onto, past, regarding, since, through, toward, under, until, with, without.

Prepositions can contain more than one word, like according to and with regard to.

What Are Conjunctions?

Conjunctions are words that join words, phrases, or clauses together within a sentence and provide information about the relationship between those words. There are different types of conjunctions.

Coordinating conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses of equal importance: and, but, for, not, or, so, yet.

I like to sing, and she likes to dance.

Correlative conjunctions come in pairs and join balanced elements of a sentence: both…and, just as…so, not only…but also, either…or, neither…nor, whether…or.

You can either come with us and have fun, or stay at home and be bored.

Subordinating conjunctions connect dependent clauses to independent clauses. A few examples include: after, although, even though, since, unless, until, when , and while.

They had a great time on their stroll, even though it started raining and they got soaked.

Conjunctive adverbs are adverbs that function as conjunctions, connecting independent clauses or sentences. Examples of conjunctive adverbs are also, anyway, besides, however, meanwhile, nevertheless, otherwise, similarly, and therefore .

I really wanted to go to the party. However , I was feeling sick and decided to stay in.

I really wanted to go to the party; however , I was feeling sick and decided to stay in.

What Are Interjections?

Interjections are words that express strong emotions, sudden reactions, or exclamations. This part of speech is usually a standalone word or phrase, but even when it is  part of a sentence, it does not relate grammatically to the rest of .

There are several interjections. Examples include: ahh, alas, bravo, eww, hello, please, thanks, and oops.

Ahh ! I couldn’t believe what was happening.

When it comes to improving your writing skills, understanding the parts of speech is as important as adding other ingredients besides lettuce to a salad.

The information provided above is indeed extensive, but it’s critical to learn if you want to write effectively and confidently. LanguageTool—a multilingual writing assistant—makes comprehending the parts of speech easy by detecting errors as you write.

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Eight Parts of Speech | Definition, Rules & Examples

Joy Oettel earned her bachelor's degree in English from Auburn University and her master's degree in Education from the University of Montevallo. She taught high school English for 11 years and has written lessons for online learning for 3 years.

Joshua holds a master's degree in Latin and has taught a variety of Classical literature and language courses.

Amy has taught and tutored college-level English; she has a master's degree from Colorado State University in rhetoric and composition.

Table of Contents

Parts of speech defined, the eight parts of speech: examples and rules, words with more than one part of speech, lesson summary, identifying parts of speech.

In each of these activities, you will be asked to identify a specific part of speech to work on developing your grammar skills. To help you get started, examine the example below. In this example, the student has correctly identified the sentence's nouns and then explained why these words are nouns:

• In the autumn , birds start to migrate south.
• "Autumn" is a noun because it designates a thing; further, it is an abstract noun as it represents a concept, not a physical object. "Birds" is a plural, concrete noun because birds are things that we can see and hear.

Find the Nouns

In the sentence below, underline each noun. Then, describe why these words are nouns. (Hint: nouns are often preceded by articles like "the" and "a." Also, remember to look for pronouns!)

• The school was empty because it was summer vacation.

Find the Verbs

In the sentence below, underline each verb; remember to underline the entire verb phrase (i.e. all helping verbs in addition to the main verb). Then, describe why these are verbs and try your hand at identifying the tense (past, present, or future).

• I cannot go to work tomorrow because I am feeling sick.

Find the Adjectives

In the sentence below, underline each adjective. Then, describe why these words are adjectives. (Hint: remember that adjectives usually come before the nouns they describe.)

• The big, red barn had long been next to the old, stumpy chestnut tree.

Find the Adverbs

In the sentence below, underline each adverb. Then, describe why these words are adverbs. (Hint: remember that adverbs describe verbs, specifying how, why, when, where, for how long, or under what circumstances something happened. Adverbs do not always appear right next to the verb!)

• The snow started quickly and came down heavily; my father noted that tomorrow we would all have to shovel.

Find the Prepositions

In the sentence below, underline each preposition. Then, describe why these words are prepositions.

• My cat hid under the table with my dog.

All words fit into specific categories called parts of speech. Each part of speech performs a specific job within a sentence and language as a whole. Identifying a word's part of speech allows readers and writers to understand how words function and create meaning within a sentence.

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• 3:06 Adjective
• 3:30 Adverb
• 4:06 Preposition
• 4:55 Conjunction

There are eight different parts of speech. Think of them as team members, each working together by fulfilling specific tasks to develop coherent sentences. The eight parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions , conjunctions, and interjections . Each part of speech is explained with examples below.

A noun is a word that names a person, place, concept, or thing. Examples of nouns are the words teacher , New York , mathematics , and trumpet .

There are several types of nouns, including concrete , abstract , common , and proper .

Concrete nouns name objects that be experienced by the five senses, meaning they can be seen, smelled, heard, tasted, or felt.

Example: The noun ice cream is concrete because it can be seen, tasted, smelled, and felt.

Abstract nouns name ideas or concepts that aren't tangible.

Example: The noun democracy is abstract because it is an idea that can be understood, but not experienced by one of the five senses.

Common nouns refer to an unspecific, generic type of person, place, or thing. Common nouns are not capitalized.

Example: The woman travelled by train.

In this sentence, woman is a common noun because the identify of the woman is unknown. The sentence refers to a woman, but doesn't name her.

Proper nouns name specific people, places, or things and always begin with a capital letter.

Examples: Eleanor Roosevelt , California , and The Metropolitan Museum of Art are all proper nouns because they name a specific person, place, or thing.

Pronouns are words used to substitute or take the place of specific nouns. Pronouns allow speakers and writers to avoid repeating the names of specific nouns. This makes language more concise and efficient as long as the noun being replaced by the pronoun is clearly understood.

Example: Henry is an avid and accomplished hiker. He has even hiked the entire Appalachian Trail. However his favorite hike is the one he takes through his backyard garden each morning.

In this example, the pronouns he and his replace the proper noun Henry .

A verb describes what nouns are doing or their state of being.

Verbs that express the actions that something is doing are called action verbs .

Examples: jump , spin , speak , hit .

Verbs that relate a state of being or feeling are called nonaction verbs . These types of verbs don't involve any visible movement.

Example: am , feel, is , has .

Adjectives are used to describe or modify nouns and pronouns. They can describe the way something looks, feels, tastes, or sounds.

Example: My chocolate birthday cake was fluffy , sweet , and delicious .

The words in bold are adjectives that describe the cake.

Adverbs are also parts of speech that describe or modify, but instead of describing nouns and pronouns, they describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

Example: Victoria always remembers to make her bed in the morning.

In this sentence, always describes how often Victoria remembers. Remembers is a verb, so always is acting as an adverb.

Example: Lionel quickly realized his mistake.

In this sentence the adverb quickly describes the verb realized.

Example: Antonio is a highly capable worker.

In this sentence, the adverb highly modifies the adjective capable by identifying to what degree Antonio is capable.

Preposition

Prepositions are words that show relationships between words in a sentence. They explain how nouns or pronouns in a sentence are related in time, location, space, or direction.

Example: Jamie and Ryan decided to see the movie before eating dinner.

The preposition before shows the time relationship between the nouns movie and dinner. The movie came before dinner.

Example: She finally found the library books underneath the bed.

The preposition underneath describes the location of the library books.

Conjunction

Conjunctions make it possible to form complex sentences because they join words, phrases, and clauses. They are often short words that join longer components of a sentence .

Examples: and, or, but

Example sentence: I like to eat spinach and tomatoes, but I absolutely hate asparagus.

The conjunction and joins the nouns spinach and tomatoes. The conjunction but joins two independent clauses to make a more complex sentence.

Interjection

Interjections are words used to express emotions such as surprise, relief, happiness, or disgust. Could stand alone or be part of a sentence. If they are included in a sentence, they are separated by a comma.

Example: Ouch ! That wasp stung me!

Example: Wow , I didn't expect him to bring me such an expensive gift!

Sometimes the same word can take on more than one part of speech and be used in different ways. A word can perform one function in a sentence and be used as a completely different part of speech in another. Here are some examples:

Parts of speech describe the specific function of each word in a sentence as they work together to create coherent ideas.

The eight parts of speech are:

• Nouns- refer to a person, place, concept, or thing
• Pronouns- rename nouns
• Verbs- name the actions or the state of being of nouns
• Adjectives- describe or modify nouns or pronouns
• Adverbs- describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs
• Prepositions- show relationships between words in a sentence
• Conjunction- join words, phrases, and clauses
• Interjection- express emotions in a sentence

Sometimes the same word can act as different parts of speech depending on how it is used in a sentence.

Video Transcript

Part of speech defined.

If you're like many of us, you might still have nightmares of diagramming sentences in English class. With all the circling and lines drawn from one end to the other, your sentence diagram may have ended up looking like a tangled mess. However, if you recall, you probably started with a very orderly system of classification. Typically, the first step in diagramming a sentence is identifying what part of speech , or group of words categorized by their function in a sentence, a word belongs to.

Not counting articles - which only consist of the words 'the,' 'a' and 'an' - there are eight parts of speech. Though there might be a lot of differences between modern English and ancient Greek, the same parts of speech and their functions are used in both (and many others) and have remained virtually the same across time and cultures. Keep watching to discover more about these eight parts of speech and the vital services they perform in our sentences!

This part of speech is probably the one we're most familiar with since nouns identify pretty much anything we can see, hear, touch, taste, smell or think. This group of words is commonly noted as consisting of people, places, things and ideas, leading nouns to make up a huge portion of practically any dictionary.

Nouns can fall into two broad classifications: concrete and abstract. Concrete nouns are those that you can experience directly with your senses - 'car,' 'human,' 'garden' and 'water.' The abstract ones are those like 'patriotism' or 'love' that represent emotions or other intangible experiences.

Whether concrete or abstract, though, nouns are the words that can actually get things done or have things done to them. In fact, the other parts of speech are really used to describe the actions of various nouns and the other relationships between them.

Nouns might be important, but without verbs, they wouldn't be doing anything. Often referred to as action words, verbs are indeed the part of speech responsible for telling us what nouns are doing or experiencing. But verbs aren't always the action-packed words you might expect.

For example, the simple act of existing really doesn't take any effort, but it's not really a passive process either. With that in mind, verbs such as 'to be' and others like it denoting a state of being, sensing, feeling or thinking are known as linking verbs. Instead of allowing nouns to act or to be acted upon like other verbs, these simply link two parts of a sentence together: 'He is tall,' or 'I feel sick.'

People might be nouns, but 'you' and 'I' are pronouns . As their name suggests, these words are used in the place of nouns, especially when we already know what noun we're talking about. For instance, instead of repeating people's names or saying 'book' over and over, we can replace these nouns with pronouns like 'she,' 'they' or 'it.'

We learned our colors and numbers long before we ever knew they were adjectives, but this part of speech helps us make language more colorful from an early age. Adjectives are words used to modify nouns or pronouns in some way, usually by providing extra details about them. For example, 'The dog fetched the balls' can be made a little more descriptive by adding adjectives: 'The shaggy brown dog fetched five green balls.'

With adjectives, we can answer questions like 'How many?' or 'What kind?' With adverbs, though, we get answers to things like 'When?' or 'In what way?' Instead of modifying nouns and pronouns, adverbs are used to provide more details and describe verbs, adjectives and even other adverbs.

These words frequently ending in '-ly' (such as 'happily') and are often modified versions of their adjectival cousins (such as 'happy'), but there are many others that have distinct forms all their own. Take for instance 'almost' and 'never' in 'The dog almost never fetches the brightly colored balls.'

You might remember from elementary school that you can often identify words as prepositions by whether or not they can describe a rabbit in relation to a log: the rabbit can be 'on' the log, 'behind' it, or 'beneath' it. In fact, describing relationships between different nouns or pronouns is a preposition 's primary function.

In a larger context, prepositional phrases consist of a preposition, along with its object (a noun or pronoun) and any words modifying it. These phrases are adverbial in nature, considering they typically describe when, where or in what way an action is performed: 'He put it on the table ,' 'She opened the gift at midnight ,' and 'The dog fetched the ball with glee .'

Of all the songs Schoolhouse Rock ever sang about grammar, their 'Conjunction Junction' is by far the most memorable. Following that example, let's think about what a junction actually is. We can find junctions on highways, railroads and even shipping lanes - they're points at which different paths intersect. In our sentences, conjunctions (such as 'and,' 'but,' 'although' or 'because') are responsible for maintaining these intersections between different words and phrases, making sure the transitions from one to the other are smooth and understandable.

You're very unlikely to find this part of speech in use unless you're at a football game or some other place where people are likely to be excited, and if we take a look at its name, we might see why. If someone interjects into a conversation, that means he or she has interrupted its flow with something usually unrelated to it.

Likewise, interjections are unrelated to any other part of speech and therefore actually serve to break the flow of a sentence in order to demonstrate emotion: 'The dog actually fetched the ball, huh ?' (surprise) or 'Wow! Did you see that catch?' (excitement).

A part of speech is a group of words categorized by their function in a sentence, and there are eight of these different families.

• Nouns - consist of people, places, things, and ideas. They may be either concrete or abstract.
• Pronouns - take the place of nouns
• Verbs - action words
• Adjectives - modify nouns and pronouns
• Adverbs - modify verbs, adjectives and adverbs
• Prepositions - describing relationships between nouns and pronouns
• Conjunctions - connect different words and phrases
• Interjections - break the flow of a sentence in order to demonstrate emotion. Given their role, interjections are grammatically unrelated to the rest.

Learning Outcome

When you are finished, you should be able to state and describe the use of the eight parts of speech.

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The 8 Parts of Speech | Definition & Examples

A part of speech (also called a word class ) is a category that describes the role a word plays in a sentence. Understanding the different parts of speech can help you analyse how words function in a sentence and improve your writing.

The parts of speech are classified differently in different grammars, but most traditional grammars list eight parts of speech in English: nouns , pronouns , verbs , adjectives , adverbs , prepositions , conjunctions , and interjections . Some modern grammars add others, such as determiners and articles .

Many words can function as different parts of speech depending on how they are used. For example, ‘laugh’ can be a noun (e.g., ‘I like your laugh’) or a verb (e.g., ‘don’t laugh’).

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Table of contents

Prepositions, conjunctions, interjections, other parts of speech, frequently asked questions.

A noun is a word that refers to a person, concept, place, or thing. Nouns can act as the subject of a sentence (i.e., the person or thing performing the action) or as the object of a verb (i.e., the person or thing affected by the action).

There are numerous types of nouns, including common nouns (used to refer to nonspecific people, concepts, places, or things), proper nouns (used to refer to specific people, concepts, places, or things), and collective nouns (used to refer to a group of people or things).

Ella lives in France .

Other types of nouns include countable and uncountable nouns , concrete nouns , abstract nouns , and gerunds .

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A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. Pronouns typically refer back to an antecedent (a previously mentioned noun) and must demonstrate correct pronoun-antecedent agreement . Like nouns, pronouns can refer to people, places, concepts, and things.

There are numerous types of pronouns, including personal pronouns (used in place of the proper name of a person), demonstrative pronouns (used to refer to specific things and indicate their relative position), and interrogative pronouns (used to introduce questions about things, people, and ownership).

That is a horrible painting!

A verb is a word that describes an action (e.g., ‘jump’), occurrence (e.g., ‘become’), or state of being (e.g., ‘exist’). Verbs indicate what the subject of a sentence is doing. Every complete sentence must contain at least one verb.

Verbs can change form depending on subject (e.g., first person singular), tense (e.g., past simple ), mood (e.g., interrogative), and voice (e.g., passive voice ).

Regular verbs are verbs whose simple past and past participle are formed by adding’-ed’ to the end of the word (or ‘-d’ if the word already ends in ‘e’). Irregular verbs are verbs whose simple past and past participles are formed in some other way.

‘I’ve already checked twice’.

‘I heard that you used to sing ‘.

Other types of verbs include auxiliary verbs , linking verbs , modal verbs , and phrasal verbs .

An adjective is a word that describes a noun or pronoun. Adjectives can be attributive , appearing before a noun (e.g., ‘a red hat’), or predicative , appearing after a noun with the use of a linking verb like ‘to be’ (e.g., ‘the hat is red ‘).

Adjectives can also have a comparative function. Comparative adjectives compare two or more things. Superlative adjectives describe something as having the most or least of a specific characteristic.

Other types of adjectives include coordinate adjectives , participial adjectives , and denominal adjectives .

An adverb is a word that can modify a verb, adjective, adverb, or sentence. Adverbs are often formed by adding ‘-ly’ to the end of an adjective (e.g., ‘slow’ becomes ‘slowly’), although not all adverbs have this ending, and not all words with this ending are adverbs.

There are numerous types of adverbs, including adverbs of manner (used to describe how something occurs), adverbs of degree (used to indicate extent or degree), and adverbs of place (used to describe the location of an action or event).

Talia writes quite quickly.

Other types of adverbs include adverbs of frequency , adverbs of purpose , focusing adverbs , and adverbial phrases .

A preposition is a word (e.g., ‘at’) or phrase (e.g., ‘on top of’) used to show the relationship between the different parts of a sentence. Prepositions can be used to indicate aspects such as time , place , and direction .

I left the cup on the kitchen counter.

A conjunction is a word used to connect different parts of a sentence (e.g., words, phrases, or clauses).

The main types of conjunctions are coordinating conjunctions (used to connect items that are grammatically equal), subordinating conjunctions (used to introduce a dependent clause), and correlative conjunctions (used in pairs to join grammatically equal parts of a sentence).

You can choose what movie we watch because I chose the last time.

An interjection is a word or phrase used to express a feeling, give a command, or greet someone. Interjections are a grammatically independent part of speech, so they can often be excluded from a sentence without affecting the meaning.

Types of interjections include volitive interjections (used to make a demand or request), emotive interjections (used to express a feeling or reaction), cognitive interjections (used to indicate thoughts), and greetings and parting words (used at the beginning and end of a conversation).

Ouch ! I hurt my arm.

I’m, um , not sure.

The traditional classification of English words into eight parts of speech is by no means the only one or the objective truth. Grammarians have often divided them into more or fewer classes. Other commonly mentioned parts of speech include determiners and articles.

Determiners

A determiner is a word that describes a noun by indicating quantity, possession, or relative position.

Common types of determiners include demonstrative determiners (used to indicate the relative position of a noun), possessive determiners (used to describe ownership), and quantifiers (used to indicate the quantity of a noun).

My brother is selling his old car.

Other types of determiners include distributive determiners , determiners of difference , and numbers .

An article is a word that modifies a noun by indicating whether it is specific or general.

• The definite article the is used to refer to a specific version of a noun. The can be used with all countable and uncountable nouns (e.g., ‘the door’, ‘the energy’, ‘the mountains’).
• The indefinite articles a and an refer to general or unspecific nouns. The indefinite articles can only be used with singular countable nouns (e.g., ‘a poster’, ‘an engine’).

There’s a concert this weekend.

A is an indefinite article (along with an ). While articles can be classed as their own part of speech, they’re also considered a type of determiner .

The indefinite articles are used to introduce nonspecific countable nouns (e.g., ‘a dog’, ‘an island’).

In is primarily classed as a preposition, but it can be classed as various other parts of speech, depending on how it is used:

• Preposition (e.g., ‘ in the field’)
• Noun (e.g., ‘I have an in with that company’)
• Adjective (e.g., ‘Tim is part of the in crowd’)
• Adverb (e.g., ‘Will you be in this evening?’)

As a part of speech, and is classed as a conjunction . Specifically, it’s a coordinating conjunction .

And can be used to connect grammatically equal parts of a sentence, such as two nouns (e.g., ‘a cup and plate’), or two adjectives (e.g., ‘strong and smart’). And can also be used to connect phrases and clauses.

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Parts of Speech: The Ultimate Guide for Students and Teachers

This article is part of the ultimate guide to language for teachers and students. Click the buttons below to view these.

What are Parts of Speech ?

Just as a skilled bricklayer must get to grips with the trowel, brick hammer, tape measure, and spirit level, the student-writer must develop a thorough understanding of the tools of their trade too.

In English, words can be categorized according to their common syntactic function in a sentence, i.e. the job they perform.

We call these different categories Parts of Speech . Understanding the various parts of speech and how they work has several compelling benefits for our students.

Without first acquiring a firm grasp of the various parts of speech, students will struggle to fully comprehend how language works. This is essential not only for the development of their reading comprehension but their writing skills too.

Parts of speech are the core building blocks of grammar . To understand how a language works at a sentence and a whole-text level, we must first master parts of speech.

In English, we can identify eight of these individual parts of speech, and these will provide the focus for our Complete Guide to Parts of Speech .

THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH (Click to jump to each section)

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Often the first word a child speaks will be a noun, for example, Mum , Dad , cow , dog , etc.

Nouns are naming words, and, as most school kids can recite, they are the names of people, places, and things . But, what isn’t as widely understood by many of our students is that nouns can be further classified into more specific categories. 

These categories are:

Common Nouns

Proper nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns, countable nouns, uncountable nouns.

All nouns can be classified as either common or proper .

Common nouns are the general names of people, places, and things. They are groups or classes on their own, rather than specific types of people, places, or things such as we find in proper nouns.

Common nouns can be further classified as abstract or concrete – more on this shortly!

Some examples of common nouns include:

People: teacher, author, engineer, artist, singer.

Places: country, city, town, house, garden.

Things: language, trophy, magazine, movie, book.

Proper nouns are the specific names for people, places, and things. Unlike common nouns, which are always lowercase, proper nouns are capitalized. This makes them easy to identify in a text.

Where possible, using proper nouns in place of common nouns helps bring precision to a student’s writing.

Some examples of proper nouns include:

People: Mrs Casey, J.K. Rowling, Nikola Tesla, Pablo Picasso, Billie Eilish.

Places: Australia, San Francisco, Llandovery, The White House, Gardens of Versailles.

Things: Bulgarian, The World Cup, Rolling Stone, The Lion King, The Hunger Games.

Nouns Teaching Activity: Common vs Proper Nouns

• Provide students with books suitable for their current reading level.
• Instruct students to go through a page or two and identify all the nouns.
• Ask students to sort these nouns into two lists according to whether they are common nouns or proper nouns.

As mentioned, all common and proper nouns can be further classified as either concrete or abstract .

A concrete noun is any noun that can be experienced through one of the five senses. In other words, if you can see, smell, hear, taste, or touch it, then it’s a concrete noun.

Some examples of concrete nouns include:

Abstract nouns refer to those things that can’t be experienced or identified through the five senses.

They are not physical things we can perceive but intangible concepts and ideas, qualities and states.

Some examples of abstract nouns include:

Nouns Teaching Activity: Concrete Vs. Abstract Nouns

• Provide students with a book suitable for their current reading level.
• Instruct students to go through a page or two and identify all the nouns (the lists from Practice Activity #1 may be suitable).
• This time, ask students to sort these nouns into two lists according to whether they are concrete or abstract nouns.

A collective noun is the name of a group of people or things. That is, a collective noun always refers to more than one of something.

Some examples of collective nouns include:

People: a board of directors, a team of football players, a cast of actors, a band of musicians, a class of students.

Places: a range of mountains, a suite of rooms, a union of states, a chain of islands.

Things: a bale of hay, a constellation of stars, a bag of sweets, a school of fish, a flock of seagulls.

Countable nouns are nouns that refer to things that can be counted. They come in two flavors: singular and plural .

In their singular form, countable nouns are often preceded by the article, e.g. a , an , or the .

In their plural form, countable nouns are often preceded by a number. They can also be used in conjunction with quantifiers such as a few and many .

Some examples of countable nouns include:

COUNTABLE NOUNS EXAMPLES

Also known as mass nouns, uncountable nouns are, as their name suggests, impossible to count. Abstract ideas such as bravery and compassion are uncountable, as are things like liquid and bread .

These types of nouns are always treated in the singular and usually do not have a plural form. 

They can stand alone or be used in conjunction with words and phrases such as any , some , a little , a lot of , and much .

Some examples of uncountable nouns include:

UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS EXAMPLES

Nouns Teaching Activity: How many can you list ?

• Organize students into small groups to work collaboratively.
• Challenge students to list as many countable and uncountable nouns as they can in ten minutes.
• To make things more challenging, stipulate that there must be an uncountable noun and a countable noun to gain a point.
• The winning group is the one that scores the most points.

Without a verb, there is no sentence! Verbs are the words we use to represent both internal and external actions or states of being. Without a verb, nothing happens.

There are many different types of verbs. Here, we will look at five important verb forms organised according to the jobs they perform:

Dynamic Verbs

Stative verbs, transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, auxiliary verbs.

Each verb can be classified as being either an action or a stative verb.

Dynamic or action verbs describe the physical activity performed by the subject of a sentence. This type of verb is usually the first we learn as children. 

For example, run , hit , throw , hide , eat , sleep , watch , write , etc. are all dynamic verbs, as is any action performed by the body.

Let’s see a few examples in sentences:

• I jogged around the track three times.
• She will dance as if her life depends on it.
• She took a candy from the bag, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.

If a verb doesn’t describe a physical activity, then it is a stative verb.

Stative verbs refer to states of being, conditions, or mental processes. Generally, we can classify stative verbs into four types:

• Emotions/Thoughts

Some examples of stative verbs include: 

Senses: hurt, see, smell, taste, hear, etc.

Emotions: love, doubt, desire, remember, believe, etc.

Being: be, have, require, involve, contain, etc.

Possession: want, include, own, have, belong, etc.

Here are some stative verbs at work in sentences:

• That is one thing we can agree on.
• I remember my first day at school like it was yesterday.
• The university requires students to score at least 80%.
• She has only three remaining.

Sometimes verbs can fit into more than one category, e.g., be , have , look , see , e.g.,

• She looks beautiful. (Stative)
• I look through the telescope. (Dynamic)

Each action or stative verb can also be further classified as transitive or intransitive .

A transitive verb takes a direct object after it. The object is the noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that has something done to it by the subject of the sentence.

We see this in the most straightforward English sentences, i.e., the Subject-Verb-Object or SVO sentence. 

Here are two examples to illustrate. Note: the subject of each sentence is underlined, and the transitive verbs are in bold.

• The teacher answered the student’s questions.
• She studies languages at university.
• My friend loves cabbage.

Most sentences in English employ transitive verbs.

An intransitive verb does not take a direct object after it. It is important to note that only nouns, noun phrases, and pronouns can be classed as direct objects. 

Here are some examples of intransitive verbs – notice how none of these sentences has direct objects after their verbs.

• Jane’s health improved .
• The car ran smoothly.
• The school opens at 9 o’clock.

Auxiliary verbs, also known as ‘helping’ verbs, work with other verbs to affect the meaning of a sentence. They do this by combining with a main verb to alter the sentence’s tense, mood, or voice.

Auxiliary verbs will frequently use not in the negative.

There are relatively few auxiliary verbs in English. Here is a list of the main ones:

• be (am, are, is, was, were, being)
• do (did, does, doing)
• have (had, has, having)

Here are some examples of auxiliary verbs (in bold) in action alongside a main verb (underlined).

She is working as hard as she can.

• You must not eat dinner until after five o’clock.
• The parents may come to the graduation ceremony.

The Subject-Auxiliary Inversion Test

To test whether or not a verb is an auxiliary verb, you can use the Subject-Auxiliary Inversion Test .

• Take the sentence, e.g:
• Now, invert the subject and the suspected auxiliary verb to see if it creates a question.

Is she working as hard as she can?

• Can it take ‘not’ in the negative form?

She is not working as hard as she can.

• If the answer to both of these questions is yes, you have an auxiliary verb. If not, you have a full verb.

Verbs Teaching Activity: Identify the Verbs

• Instruct students to go through an appropriate text length (e.g., paragraph, page, etc.) and compile a list of verbs.
• In groups, students should then discuss and categorize each verb according to whether they think they are dynamic or stative, transitive or intransitive, and/or auxiliary verbs.

The job of an adjective is to modify a noun or a pronoun. It does this by describing, quantifying, or identifying the noun or pronoun. Adjectives help to make writing more interesting and specific. Usually, the adjective is placed before the word it modifies.

As with other parts of speech, not all adjectives are the same. There are many different types of adjectives and, in this article, we will look at:

Descriptive Adjectives

• Degrees of Adjectives

Quantitative Adjectives

Demonstrative adjectives, possessive adjectives, interrogative adjectives, proper adjectives.

Descriptive adjectives are what most students think of first when asked what an adjective is. Descriptive adjectives tell us something about the quality of the noun or pronoun in question. For this reason, they are sometimes referred to as qualitative adjectives .

Some examples of this type of adjective include:

• hard-working

In sentences, they look like this:

• The pumpkin was enormous .
• It was an impressive feat of athleticism I ever saw.
• Undoubtedly, this was an exquisite vase.
• She faced some tough competition.

Degrees of Adjectives 

Descriptive adjectives have three degrees to express varying degrees of intensity and to compare one thing to another. These degrees are referred to as positive , comparative , and superlative .

The positive degree is the regular form of the descriptive adjective when no comparison is being made, e.g., strong .

The comparative degree is used to compare two people, places, or things, e.g., stronger .

There are several ways to form the comparative, methods include:

• Adding more or less before the adjective
• Adding -er to the end of one syllable adjectives
• For two-syllable adjectives ending in y , change the y to an i and add -er to the end.

The superlative degree is typically used when comparing three or more things to denote the upper or lowermost limit of a quality, e.g., strongest .

There are several ways to form the superlative, including:

• Adding most or least before the adjective
• Adding -est to the end of one syllable adjectives
• For two-syllable adjectives ending in y , change the y to an i and add -est to the end.

There are also some irregular adjectives of degree that follow no discernible pattern that must be learned off by students, e.g., good – better – best .

Let’s take a look at these degrees of adjectives in their different forms.

Let’s take a quick look at some sample sentences:

• It was a beautiful example of kindness. 

Comparative

• The red is nice, but the green is prettier .

Superlative

• This mango is the most delicious fruit I have ever tastiest. 

Quantitive adjectives provide information about how many or how much of the noun or pronoun.

Some quantitive adjectives include:

• She only ate half of her sandwich.
• This is my first time here.
• I would like three slices, please.
• There isn’t a single good reason to go.
• There aren’t many places like it.
• It’s too much of a good thing.
• I gave her a whole box of them.

A demonstrative adjective identifies or emphasizes a noun’s place in time or space. The most common demonstrative adjectives are this , that , these , and those .

Here are some examples of demonstrative adjectives in use:

• This boat is mine.
• That car belongs to her.
• These shoes clash with my dress.
• Those people are from Canada.

Possessive adjectives show ownership, and they are sometimes confused with possessive pronouns.

The most common possessive adjectives are my , your , his , her , our , and their .

Students need to be careful not to confuse these with possessive pronouns such as mine , yours , his (same in both contexts), hers , ours , and theirs .

Here are some examples of possessive adjectives in sentences:

• My favorite food is sushi.
• I would like to read your book when you have finished it.
• I believe her car is the red one.
• This is their way of doing things.
• Our work here is done.

Interrogative adjectives ask questions, and, in common with many types of adjectives, they are always followed by a noun. Basically, these are the question words we use to start questions. Be careful however, interrogative adjectives modify nouns. If the word after the question word is a verb, then you have an interrogative adverb on hand.

Some examples of interrogative adjectives include what , which , and whose .

Let’s take a look at these in action:

• What drink would you like?
• Which car should we take?
• Whose shoes are these?

Please note: Whose can also fit into the possessive adjective category too.

We can think of proper adjectives as the adjective form of proper nouns – remember those? They were the specific names of people, places, and things and need to be capitalized.

Let’s take the proper noun for the place America . If we wanted to make an adjective out of this proper noun to describe something, say, a car we would get ‘ American car’.

Let’s take a look at another few examples:

• Joe enjoyed his cup of Ethiopian coffee.
• My favorite plays are Shakespearean tragedies.
• No doubt about it, Fender guitars are some of the best in the world.
• The Mona Lisa is a fine example of Renaissance art.

Though it may come as a surprise to some, articles are also adjectives as, like all adjectives, they modify nouns. Articles help us determine a noun’s specification. 

For example, ‘a’ and ‘an’ are used in front of an unspecific noun, while ‘the’ is used when referring to a specific noun.

Let’s see some articles as adjectives in action!

• You will find an apple inside the cupboard.
• This is a car.
• The recipe is a family secret.

Adjectives Teaching Activity: Types of Adjective Tally

• Choose a suitable book and assign an appropriate number of pages or length of a chapter for students to work with.
• Students work their way through each page, tallying up the number of each type of adjective they can identify using a table like the one below:

• Note how degrees of adjective has been split into comparative and superlative. The positive forms will take care of in the descriptive category.
• You may wish to adapt this table to exclude the easier categories to identify, such as articles and demonstrative, for example.

Traditionally, adverbs are defined as those words that modify verbs, but they do so much more than that. They can be used not only to describe how verbs are performed but also to modify adjectives, other adverbs, clauses, prepositions, or entire sentences.

With such a broad range of tasks at the feet of the humble adverb, it would be impossible to cover every possibility in this article alone. However, there are five main types of adverbs our students should familiarize themselves with. These are:

Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of time, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of place, adverbs of degree.

Adverbs of manner describe how or the way in which something happens or is done. This type of adverb is often the first type taught to students. Many of these end with -ly . Some common examples include happily , quickly , sadly , slowly , and fast .

Here are a few taster sentences employing adverbs of manner:

• She cooks Chinese food well .
• The children played happily together.
• The students worked diligently on their projects.
• Her mother taught her to cross the road carefully .
• The date went badly .

Adverbs of time indicate when something happens. Common adverbs of time include before , now , then , after , already , immediately , and soon .

Here are some sentences employing adverbs of time:

• I go to school early on Wednesdays.
• She would like to finish her studies eventually .
• Recently , Sarah moved to Bulgaria.
• I have already finished my homework.
• They have been missing training lately .

While adverbs of time deal with when something happens, adverbs of frequency are concerned with how often something happens. Common adverbs of frequency include always , frequently , sometimes , seldom , and never .

Here’s what they look like in sentences:

• Harry usually goes to bed around ten.
• Rachel rarely eats breakfast in the morning.
• Often , I’ll go home straight after school.
• I occasionally have ketchup on my pizza.
• She seldom goes out with her friends.

Adverbs of place, as the name suggests, describe where something happens or where it is. They can refer to position, distance, or direction. Some common adverbs of place include above , below , beside , inside , and anywhere .

Check out some examples in the sentences below:

• Underneath the bridge, there lived a troll.
• There were pizzerias everywhere in the city.
• We walked around the park in the pouring rain.
• If the door is open, then go inside .
• When I am older, I would like to live nearby .

Adverbs of degree express the degree to which or how much of something is done. They can also be used to describe levels of intensity. Some common adverbs of degree include barely , little , lots , completely , and entirely .

Here are some adverbs of degree at work in sentences:

• I hardly noticed her when she walked into the room.
• The little girl had almost finished her homework.
• The job was completely finished.
• I was so delighted to hear the good news.
• Jack was totally delighted to see Diane after all these years.

Adverb Teaching Activity: The Adverb Generator

• Give students a worksheet containing a table divided into five columns. Each column bears a heading of one of the different types of adverbs ( manner , time , frequency , place , degree ).
• Challenge each group to generate as many different examples of each adverb type and record these in the table.
• The winning group is the one with the most adverbs. As a bonus, or tiebreaker, task the students to make sentences with some of the adverbs.

Pronouns are used in place of a specific noun used earlier in a sentence. They are helpful when the writer wants to avoid repetitive use of a particular noun such as a name. For example, in the following sentences, the pronoun she is used to stand for the girl’s name Mary after it is used in the first sentence. 

Mary loved traveling. She had been to France, Thailand, and Taiwan already, but her favorite place in the world was Australia. She had never seen an animal quite as curious-looking as the duck-billed platypus.

We also see her used in place of Mary’s in the above passage. There are many different pronouns and, in this article, we’ll take a look at:

Subject Pronouns

Object pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns, intensive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, interrogative pronouns.

Subject pronouns are the type of pronoun most of us think of when we hear the term pronoun . They operate as the subject of a verb in a sentence. They are also known as personal pronouns.

The subject pronouns are:

Here are a few examples of subject pronouns doing what they do best:

• Sarah and I went to the movies last Thursday night.
• That is my pet dog. It is an Irish Wolfhound.
• My friends are coming over tonight, they will be here at seven.
• We won’t all fit into the same car.
• You have done a fantastic job with your grammar homework!

Object pronouns operate as the object of a verb, or a preposition, in a sentence. They act in the same way as object nouns but are used when it is clear what the object is.

The object pronouns are:

Here are a few examples of object pronouns in sentences:

• I told you , this is a great opportunity for you .
• Give her some more time, please.
• I told her I did not want to do it .
• That is for us .
• Catherine is the girl whom I mentioned in my letter.

Possessive pronouns indicate ownership of a noun. For example, in the sentence:

These books are mine .

The word mine stands for my books . It’s important to note that while possessive pronouns look similar to possessive adjectives, their function in a sentence is different.

The possessive pronouns are:

Let’s take a look at how these are used in sentences:

• Yours is the yellow jacket.
• I hope this ticket is mine .
• The train that leaves at midnight is theirs .
• Ours is the first house on the right.
• She is the person whose opinion I value most.
• I believe that is his .

Reflexive pronouns are used in instances where the object and the subject are the same. For example, in the sentence, she did it herself , the words she and herself refer to the same person.

The reflexive pronoun forms are:

Here are a few more examples of reflexive pronouns at work:

• I told myself that numerous times.
• He got himself a new computer with his wages.
• We will go there ourselves .
• You must do it yourself .
• The only thing to fear is fear itself .

This type of pronoun can be used to indicate emphasis. For example, when we write, I spoke to the manager herself , the point is made that we talked to the person in charge and not someone lower down the hierarchy. 

Similar to the reflexive pronouns above, we can easily differentiate between reflexive and intensive pronouns by asking if the pronoun is essential to the sentence’s meaning. If it isn’t, then it is used solely for emphasis, and therefore, it’s an intensive rather than a reflexive pronoun.

Often confused with demonstrative adjectives, demonstrative pronouns can stand alone in a sentence.

When this , that , these , and those are used as demonstrative adjectives they come before the noun they modify. When these same words are used as demonstrative pronouns, they replace a noun rather than modify it.

Here are some examples of demonstrative pronouns in sentences:

• This is delicious.
• That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
• These are not mine.
• Those belong to the driver.

Interrogative pronouns are used to form questions. They are the typical question words that come at the start of questions, with a question mark coming at the end. The interrogative pronouns are:

Putting them into sentences looks like this:

• What is the name of your best friend?
• Which of these is your favourite?
• Who goes to the market with you?
• Whom do you think will win?
• Whose is that?

Pronoun Teaching Activity: Pronoun Review Table

• Provide students with a review table like the one below to revise the various pronoun forms.
• They can use this table to help them produce independent sentences.
• Once students have had a chance to familiarize themselves thoroughly with each of the different types of pronouns, provide the students with the headings and ask them to complete a table from memory.  

Prepositions

Prepositions provide extra information showing the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another part of a sentence. These are usually short words that come directly before nouns or pronouns, e.g., in , at , on , etc.

There are, of course, many different types of prepositions, each relating to particular types of information. In this article, we will look at:

Prepositions of Time

Prepositions of place, prepositions of movement, prepositions of manner, prepositions of measure.

• Preposition of Agency
• Preposition of Possession
• Preposition of Source

Phrasal Prepositions

It’s worth noting that several prepositional words make an appearance in several different categories of prepositions.

Prepositions of time indicate when something happens. Common prepositions of time include after , at , before , during , in , on .

Let’s see some of these at work:

• I have been here since Thursday.
• My daughter was born on the first of September.
• He went overseas during the war.
• Before you go, can you pay the bill, please?
• We will go out after work.

Sometimes students have difficulty knowing when to use in , on , or at . These little words are often confused. The table below provides helpful guidance to help students use the right preposition in the right context.

The prepositions of place, in , at , on , will be instantly recognisable as they also double as prepositions of time. Again, students can sometimes struggle a little to select the correct one for the situation they are describing. Some guidelines can be helpful.

• If something is contained or confined inside, we use in .
• If something is placed upon a surface, we use on .
• If something is located at a specific point, we use at .

A few example sentences will assist in illustrating these:

• He is in the house.
• I saw it in a magazine.
• In France, we saw many great works of art.
• Put it on the table.
• We sailed on the river.
• Hang that picture on the wall, please.
• We arrived at the airport just after 1 pm.
• I saw her at university.
• The boy stood at the window.

Usually used with verbs of motion, prepositions of movement indicate movement from one place to another. The most commonly used preposition of movement is to .

Some other prepositions of movement include:

Here’s how they look in some sample sentences:

• The ball rolled across the table towards me.
• We looked up into the sky.
• The children ran past the shop on their way home.
• Jackie ran down the road to greet her friend.
• She walked confidently through the curtains and out onto the stage.

Preposition of manner shows us how something is done or how it happens. The most common of these are by , in , like , on , with .

Let’s take a look at how they work in sentences:

• We went to school by bus.
• During the holidays, they traveled across the Rockies on foot.
• Janet went to the airport in a taxi.
• She played soccer like a professional.
• I greeted her with a smile.

Prepositions of measure are used to indicate quantities and specific units of measurement. The two most common of these are by and of .

Check out these sample sentences:

• I’m afraid we only sell that fabric by the meter.
• I will pay you by the hour.
• She only ate half of the ice cream. I ate the other half.
• A kilogram of apples is the same weight as a kilogram of feathers.

Prepositions of Agency

These prepositions indicate the causal relationship between a noun or pronoun and an action. They show the cause of something happening. The most commonly used prepositions of agency are by and with .

Here are some examples of their use in sentences:

• The Harry Potter series was written by J.K. Rowling.
• This bowl was made by a skilled craftsman.
• His heart was filled with love.
• The glass was filled with water.

Prepositions of Possession

Prepositions of possessions indicate who or what something belongs to. The most common of these are of , to , and with .

Let’s take a look:

• He is the husband of my cousin.
• He is a friend of the mayor.
• This once belonged to my grandmother.
• All these lands belong to the Ministry.
• The man with the hat is waiting outside.
• The boy with the big feet tripped and fell.

Prepositions of Source

Prepositions of source indicate where something comes from or its origins. The two most common prepositions of source are from and by . There is some crossover here with prepositions of agency.

Here are some examples:

• He comes from New Zealand.
• These oranges are from our own orchard.
• I was warmed by the heat of the fire.
• She was hugged by her husband.
• The yoghurt is of Bulgarian origin.

Phrasal prepositions are also known as compound prepositions. These are phrases of two or more words that function in the same way as prepositions. That is, they join nouns or pronouns to the rest of the sentence.

Some common phrasal prepositions are:

• According to
• For a change
• In addition to
• In spite of
• Rather than
• With the exception of

Students should be careful of overusing phrasal prepositions as some of them can seem clichéd. Frequently, it’s best to say things in as few words as is necessary.

Preposition Teaching Activity: Pr eposition Sort

• Print out a selection of the different types of prepositions on pieces of paper.
• Organize students into smaller working groups and provide each group with a set of prepositions.
• Using the headings above as categories, challenge students to sort the prepositions into the correct groups. Note that some prepositions will comfortably fit into more than one group.
• The winning group is the one to sort all prepositions correctly first.
• As an extension exercise, students can select a preposition from each category and write a sample sentence for it.

ConjunctionS

Conjunctions are used to connect words, phrases, and clauses. There are three main types of conjunction that are used to join different parts of sentences. These are:

• Coordinating
• Subordinating
• Correlative

Coordinating Conjunctions

These conjunctions are used to join sentence components that are equal such as two words, two phrases, or two clauses. In English, there are seven of these that can be memorized using the mnemonic FANBOYS:

Here are a few example sentences employing coordinating conjunctions:

• As a writer, he needed only a pen and paper.
• I would describe him as strong but lazy.
• Either we go now or not at all.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions are used to introduce dependent clauses in sentences. Basically, dependent clauses are parts of sentences that cannot stand as complete sentences on their own. 

Some of the most common subordinate conjunctions are: 

Let’s take a look at some example sentences:

• I will complete it by Tuesday if I have time.
• Although she likes it, she won’t buy it.
• Jack will give it to you after he finds it.

Correlative Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are like shoes; they come in pairs. They work together to make sentences work. Some come correlative conjunctions are:

• either / or
• neither / nor
• Not only / but also

Let’s see how some of these work together:

• If I were you, I would get either the green one or the yellow one.
• John wants neither pity nor help.
• I don’t know whether you prefer horror or romantic movies.

Conjunction Teaching Activity: Conjunction Challenge

• Organize students into Talking Pairs .
• Partner A gives Partner B an example of a conjunction.
• Partner B must state which type of conjunction it is, e.g. coordinating, subordinating, or correlative.
• Partner B must then compose a sentence that uses the conjunction correctly and tell it to Partner A.
• Partners then swap roles.

InterjectionS

Interjections focus on feelings and are generally grammatically unrelated to the rest of the sentence or sentences around them. They convey thoughts and feelings and are common in our speech. They are often followed by exclamation marks in writing. Interjections include expressions such as:

• Eww! That is so gross!
• Oh , I don’t know. I’ve never used one before.
• That’s very… err …generous of you, I suppose.
• Wow! That is fantastic news!
• Uh-Oh! I don’t have any more left.

Interjection Teaching Activity: Create a scenario

• Once students clearly understand what interjections are, brainstorm as a class as many as possible.
• Write a master list of interjections on the whiteboard.
• Partner A suggests an interjection word or phrase to Partner B.
• Partner B must create a fictional scenario where this interjection would be used appropriately.

With a good grasp of the fundamentals of parts of speech, your students will now be equipped to do a deeper dive into the wild waters of English grammar. 

To learn more about the twists and turns of English grammar, check out our comprehensive article on English grammar here.

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Basic English: The 8 Parts of Speech

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Many thanks dear teacher I caught very well these parts of speech

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1o/1o Thanks Mrs.Jill for this short review of the different parts of speech This class really helps us to identify all these parts of speech when we look at a sentence

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Thank you Miss Jill! This lesson is really going to help me to help my nieces to study English…

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The Eight Parts of Speech

• Prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Interjections
• Basic Sentence Structure
• Sentence Fragments
• Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices
• Sentence Type and Purpose
• Independent and Dependent Clauses: Coordination and Subordination
• Subject Verb Agreement
• Consistent Verb Tense
• Other Phrases: Verbal, Appositive, Absolute
• Pronoun Reference
• Relative Pronouns: Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses
• Avoiding Modifier Problems
• Transitions
• Would, Should, Could
• Achieving Parallelism
• Definite and Indefinite Articles
• Two-Word Verbs

TIP Sheet THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH

There are eight parts of speech in the English language: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. The part of speech indicates how the word functions in meaning as well as grammatically within the sentence. An individual word can function as more than one part of speech when used in different circumstances. Understanding parts of speech is essential for determining the correct definition of a word when using the dictionary.

1. NOUN

• A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

man... Butte College... house... happiness

A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are often used with an article ( the , a , an ), but not always. Proper nouns always start with a capital letter; common nouns do not. Nouns can be singular or plural, concrete or abstract. Nouns show possession by adding 's . Nouns can function in different roles within a sentence; for example, a noun can be a subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, or object of a preposition.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher , and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!

See the TIP Sheet on "Nouns" for further information.

2. PRONOUN

• A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.

She... we... they... it

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. A pronoun is usually substituted for a specific noun, which is called its antecedent. In the sentence above, the antecedent for the pronoun she is the girl. Pronouns are further defined by type: personal pronouns refer to specific persons or things; possessive pronouns indicate ownership; reflexive pronouns are used to emphasize another noun or pronoun; relative pronouns introduce a subordinate clause; and demonstrative pronouns identify, point to, or refer to nouns.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!

See the TIP Sheet on "Pronouns" for further information.

3. VERB

• A verb expresses action or being.

jump... is... write... become

The verb in a sentence expresses action or being. There is a main verb and sometimes one or more helping verbs. (" She can sing." Sing is the main verb; can is the helping verb.) A verb must agree with its subject in number (both are singular or both are plural). Verbs also take different forms to express tense.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared . Oh my!

See the TIP Sheet on "Verbs" for more information.

4. ADJECTIVE

• An adjective modifies or describes a noun or pronoun.

pretty... old... blue... smart

An adjective is a word used to modify or describe a noun or a pronoun. It usually answers the question of which one, what kind, or how many. (Articles [a, an, the] are usually classified as adjectives.)

See the TIP Sheet on "Adjectives" for more information.

5. ADVERB

• An adverb modifies or describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

gently... extremely... carefully... well

An adverb describes or modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, but never a noun. It usually answers the questions of when, where, how, why, under what conditions, or to what degree. Adverbs often end in -ly.

See the TIP Sheet on "Adverbs" for more information.

6. PREPOSITION

• A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying another word in the sentence.

by... with.... about... until

(by the tree, with our friends, about the book, until tomorrow)

A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying another word in the sentence. Therefore a preposition is always part of a prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrase almost always functions as an adjective or as an adverb. The following list includes the most common prepositions:

See the TIP Sheet on "Prepositions" for more information.

7. CONJUNCTION

• A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses.

and... but... or... while... because

A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses, and indicates the relationship between the elements joined. Coordinating conjunctions connect grammatically equal elements: and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet. Subordinating conjunctions connect clauses that are not equal: because, although, while, since, etc. There are other types of conjunctions as well.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!

See the TIP Sheet on "Conjunctions" for more information.

8. INTERJECTION

• An interjection is a word used to express emotion.

Oh!... Wow!... Oops!

An interjection is a word used to express emotion. It is often followed by an exclamation point.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my !

See the TIP Sheet on "Interjections" for more information.

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8 Parts of Speech

The 8 parts of speech in English are: Nouns, Adjectives, Adverbs, Verbs, Prepositions, Pronouns, Conjunctions, and Interjections.

A part of speech is a category of words that have similar grammatical functions or properties. In other words, they play similar roles in a sentence. For instance, a verb shows the action of a subject or the subject's state of being. 

We'll now look in more detail at the function of each of these parts of speech. 

Understanding the 8 Parts of Speech

Nouns are words used to talk about people, places, things, or ideas/concepts. Here are some examples:

• Person: The President
• Place: London
• Thing: Table
• Idea/concept: Neo-liberalism

So it may be naming something we can touch ( e.g. table; book; car ) or something we cannot touch ( e.g. Neo-liberalism; happiness; wish ).

There are both common nouns, used for classes of   people, places, things, or ideas/concepts,  and proper nouns, which is their given name, always with a capital letter.

Common Nouns

• political party

Proper Nouns

• Chester Avenue

Learn more about the various types of noun >>

Another of the 8 parts of speech are adjectives. They describe nouns or pronouns. They can come before or after the noun/pronoun they describe:

Absolute Adjectives

• The  large  shopping complex
• The  excited  child
• She is  happy
• It was a  shocking  film
• Her dress was  lovely
• He's a  good-looking  man

These are  absolute adjectives , but they can also be  comparative  (comparing two or more things) or  superlative  (showing degree or quality):

Comparative Adjectives

• She's  fitter than the others
• Their house is bigger
• I ran faster  than you
• Cats are more agile than dogs
• Sue's  more tired than Tim

Superlative Adjectives

• She's the fittest
• Their house is the biggest
• I ran the fastest
• Cats are the most agile
• Sue's the most tired

There are various other types of adjective. Learn more about the different types of adjectives >>

Adverbs modify verbs, other adverbs, and adjectives. There are adverbs of manner, time, place and degree . Here are examples of each being modified in relation to verbs, adverbs, and adjectives (the word being modified is underlined):

Adverbs Modifying Verbs

• He runs fast
• Ian quickly left the room
• She spoke slowly

Adverbs Modifying Other Adverbs

• He runs exceptionally  fast
• Ian very  quickly left the room
• She spoke extremely  slowly

Adverbs Modifying Adjectives

• She's really excited
• He's happily married
• The elegantly designed dress is mine

Verbs form part of the predicate of a sentence.

In relation to the subject, they are used to express a physical action (e.g. walk; speak; show) or a mental action (e.g. think; feel; want). They can also express a state of being , mainly with the verb 'to be' but also some others.

Here are some examples:

Physical Action

• He ran home
• They chose the blue one

Mental Activity

• I am thinking about it
• Ian guessed the answer
• She believes in ghosts

State of Being

• She is a police woman
• They seem worried

These though are main verbs. They have many other uses in a sentence so you should read about all the types of verbs further. 

Prepositions

Another of the 8 parts of speech are prepositions. These show the relationship between two words or phrases in a sentence. They precede a noun or pronoun.

Commons examples of prepositions are  above,  up, upon,  at, before, behind,  since, to, through, under, until, with, within,  about, against, along, around,  beside, between,  down, during,  below, by,  except, for, from, in, into, like, near, of, off, on,  toward.

In these example sentences with prepositions, the two words whose relationship is being expressed are underlined and the prepositions are in bold:

• The book is on the table
• He is the leader of the conservative party
• The boy picked up the toy under the sofa
• This is a present for your mother

Pronouns replace nouns and they prevent us from repeating the noun in a sentence. These are the types of pronouns with some examples:

• Personal e.g. I; you; they; she
• Possessive e.g. mine; yours; his; theirs
• Relative e.g. who; which; that; whom
• Demonstrative e.g. this; these; those
• Reciprocal e.g. one another; each other
• Emphatic / Reflexive e.g. myself; herself; itself; ourselves
• Interrogative e.g. what; which; whom; whose

Here are some examples of these words used in sentences:

• Martha decided she would leave
• Why don't you use his  car instead of mine
• Mick is a person who learns quickly
• Shall we buy some of these ?
• They began to argue with each other
• Jenny is pleased with  herself
• What time is he coming?

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are the of the 8 parts of speech responsible for joining together words, phrases, or clauses. There are three types:

• Coordinating: and; or; but; so; yet; for; nor
• Correlative: neither/nor; either/or; not only/but also
• Subordinating: e.g. although; because; while; which; where; until

Coordinating Conjunctions

Used to connect like for like words (e.g. noun+noun):

• I like apples and oranges ( 2 nouns )
• His speech was slow but effective ( 2 adjectives )
• Shall I say it loudly or quietly? ( 2 adverbs )

Or simple sentences (independent clauses):

• I find the music annoying but she finds It pleasant
• She came to the lecture late so she missed everything important
• She took her umbrella for it was raining hard

Correlative Conjunctions

Used to join alternative or equal elements:

• He felt neither happy nor sad about it
• Sue had to decide to either quit or carry on
• I went not only to Australia but also to New Zealand

Subordinating Conjunctions

Used to join subordinate clauses to main clauses:

• The government won't vote on the bill until both parties agree
• I'm still not tired although it is late
• I'll eat the dish which you don't like

Interjections

Interjections are words used to express an emotion or a sentiment such as surprise, joy, disgust, fear, excitement, pain, or enthusiasm.

They usually appear at the start of a sentence and are not connected to it grammatically. Here are some examples of interjections in sentences:

• Wow , that's an amazing score!
• Oh , I didn't know you failed the exam
• Well , we better not leave too late
• Ow , that really hurt!
• Ah , I understand now
• Oops , I've forgotten to bring the sandwiches

Are there only 8 Parts of Speech?

Sometimes rather than 8 parts of speech, you may see 9 or 10 listed. This is because some people treat articles and determiners  as separate categories. 

However, when there are only 8 parts of speech considered (as above), this is because as these two types of word modify nouns, they are classified under adjectives. 

Now practice what you have learned in our identifying parts of speech quiz

More on Sentence Structure:

Parallelism Grammar Rules (Parallel Structure)

Parallelism is about balancing the grammatical structure of words, phrases and clauses in your sentences. Parallel structure will improve your writing's coherence.

Parts of a Sentence: Subject, Verbs, Objects, Predicates, Complements

The main parts of a sentence are subjects, verbs, objects, predicates, and subject complements. All of these have a specific purpose within the structure of a sentence.

Types of Clauses in English Grammar - Independent and Dependent Clause

The two types of clauses in English grammar are the independent and dependent clause. Both have a subject and verb which makes them clauses, but while independent clauses express a complete thought, dependent clauses do not. This is the main distinction.

How to Use Either and Neither with Examples

Advice on how to use either and neither in English grammar. They can be adjectives, adverbs, pronouns and conjunctions.

Direct and Indirect Objects: The Differences

Direct and indirect objects are key parts of most sentences. A direct object is the receiver of action while indirect object identifies to or for whom or what the action of the verb is performed.

Using Object Complements in a Sentence

Using object complements in a sentence enhances your ability to convey specific information about actions and their outcomes.

Phrases and Clauses - Building good sentences

Phrases and clauses are the key building blocks of sentences. A clause contains a subject and a verb and can express a complete thought. A phrase does not contain a subject or verb.

Nominalisation in English Grammar: High Level Writing Tips

Nominalisation is an important aspect of academic writing. This lesson teachers you what this is and how you can use it effectively in your writing.

Examples of Parallelism in English Grammar

View examples of parallelism in English grammar that show you correct and incorrect parallel sentences.

Subject Complements: Predicate Adjectives and Predicate Nominatives

Here we demystify subject complements, predicate adjectives, and predicate nominatives with simple explanations and examples.

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Parts of Speech

What are the parts of speech, a formal definition.

Table of Contents

The Part of Speech Is Determined by the Word's Function

Are there 8 or 9 parts of speech, the nine parts of speech, (1) adjective, (3) conjunction, (4) determiner, (5) interjection, (7) preposition, (8) pronoun, why the parts of speech are important, video lesson.

• You need to dig a well . (noun)
• You look well . (adjective)
• You dance well . (adverb)
• Well , I agree. (interjection)
• My eyes will well up. (verb)
• red, happy, enormous
• Ask the boy in the red jumper.
• I live in a happy place.
• I caught a fish this morning! I mean an enormous one.
• happily, loosely, often
• They skipped happily to the counter.
• Tie the knot loosely so they can escape.
• I often walk to work.
• It is an intriguingly magic setting.
• He plays the piano extremely well.
• and, or, but
• it is a large and important city.
• Shall we run to the hills or hide in the bushes?
• I know you are lying, but I cannot prove it.
• my, those, two, many
• My dog is fine with those cats.
• There are two dogs but many cats.
• ouch, oops, eek
• Ouch , that hurt.
• Oops , it's broken.
• Eek! A mouse just ran past my foot!
• leader, town, apple
• Take me to your leader .
• I will see you in town later.
• An apple fell on his head .
• in, near, on, with
• Sarah is hiding in the box.
• I live near the train station.
• Put your hands on your head.
• She yelled with enthusiasm.
• she, we, they, that
• Joanne is smart. She is also funny.
• Our team has studied the evidence. We know the truth.
• Jack and Jill went up the hill, but they never returned.
• That is clever!
• work, be, write, exist
• Tony works down the pit now. He was unemployed.
• I will write a song for you.
• I think aliens exist .

Are you a visual learner? Do you prefer video to text? Here is a list of all our grammar videos .

Video for Each Part of Speech

The Most Important Writing Issues

The top issue related to adjectives.

The Top Issue Related to Adverbs

• Extremely annoyed, she stared menacingly at her rival.
• Infuriated, she glared at her rival.

The Top Issue Related to Conjunctions

• Burger, Fries, and a shake
• Fish, chips and peas

The Top Issue Related to Determiners

The Top Issue Related to Interjections

The top issue related to nouns, the top issue related to prepositions, the top issue related to pronouns, the top issue related to verbs.

• Crack the parts of speech to help with learning a foreign language or to take your writing to the next level.

This page was written by Craig Shrives .

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Home » 8 Parts of Speech with Types, Definitions and their Examples

8 Parts of Speech with Types, Definitions and their Examples

Are you curious to Speak or Learn the English Language? well, Every word in the English language is referred to as a component of speech. The 8 parts of speech are Nouns , Pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. we will go over the Common Eight parts of speech in this tutorial, along with their definitions, types, and Examples. This is the article on the different 8 parts of speech and Their examples and definitions as well as Example Sentences.

The 8 parts of speech are the regular grammar categories to which words are allocated based on their functions of syntax, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and so on. Stated differently, they talk about the varied roles that words might play in a sentence and the connections that words have to one another as defined by syntax and grammar .

Every single English word can be classified into one of the eight components of speech. A word’s part of speech is the purpose it fulfills in a sentence. These jobs were also designed to work as a team, much like any workplace or ensemble cast television series.

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• Types of furniture items names 
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• Vegetables vocabulary words
• Kitchen vocabulary words
• Household items vocabulary words

Table of Contents

What Is a Part of Speech?

Before delving into the specifics, let’s clarify what we mean by a “Part of speech.” In English grammar, a part of speech is a category of main and a lot of words. These types of categories help us to understand how the words we use and Speak within the daily life Conversation.

8 Parts of Speech Are:

• Prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Interjections

Names of 8 Parts of speech

 The 8 parts of speech:

Noun: the foundation of sentences.

• Types: Common, proper, abstract, concrete, and countable nouns. See more…
• Definition: A noun is a word that tells of a person, place, thing, or idea.
• Example: cat , London , happiness ,
• Nouns Example Sentences: She has an Adorable Cat . They are going to London. may god give you happiness.

Pronoun: Substitutes for Nouns

• Types: Personal pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns. See More…
• Definition: A pronoun is a word that represents a noun to avoid repetition.
• Example: he , she , it , they He is a good boy. she is studying. it is an amazing sight. they live in New York.

Verb: The Action Words

• Types: Action verbs, linking verbs, helping verbs. See More….
• Definition: in the English Language, A verb explains an action, occurrence, or state of being.
• Example: Runs, smell, Going, playing,  He runs every morning. The flowers smell delicious. I am going with my Friends. they are Playing Football.

Adjective: Describing Words

• Types: Descriptive adjectives, limiting adjectives. See More… 
• Definition: An adjective describes or modifies a noun or pronoun.
• Example: blue , tall , delicious today the sky is blue. He is a tall man. She makes delicious food.

Adverb: Modifiers of Verbs

• Types: Adverbs of manner, place, time, degree. See More…
• Definition: An adverb tells about the verb, adjective, or another adverb
• Example: quickly,   beautifully, Loudly This boy runs quickly. She sings beautifully . He Speaks Loudly .

Preposition: Indicators of Position or Relationship

• Types: Simple prepositions, compound prepositions. See More…
• Definition: A preposition describes the relationship between its object and another word in the sentence.
• Example: on, in, at, across The book is on the table. I am in the car. He is at the bus stand. She walked across the bridge.

Conjunction: Joining Words

• Types: Coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions. See more…
• Definition: A conjunction connects words, phrases, or clauses.
• Examples: And, Because, that,  She likes tea and coffee. He went to the store because he needed groceries. this is the pen, that writes very well.

Interjection: Expressions of Emotion

• Types: Expressive interjections, introductory interjections. See More…. 
• Definition: An interjection Describe strong emotions or sudden bursts of feelings.
• Example: wow! ouch! Ouwww! Wow! That was amazing! Ouch! That hurt. Ouwww! That’s amazing.

Eight parts of Speech and their Types, Definition and Examples

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Basic English Grammar

Helping People Understand the Eight Parts of Speech!

8 Parts of Speech Definitions With Examples

The 8 parts of speech definitions with examples include nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections.

By using proper grammar in your writing and speaking, you will communicate clearly and effectively with your subject or audience! Moreover, by learning and understanding the 8 parts of speech, you will be able to master proper grammar in your writing and speaking. Below are the 8 parts of speech definitions with examples!

TOC – 8 Parts of Speech Definitions With Examples

• Prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Interjections

Definition of Parts of Speech: A part of speech is a category to which a word is assigned in accordance with its syntactic functions.

To put it very simply, a part of speech identifies a word in accordance with its function in a sentence such as: a noun, a verb, an adjective, a pronoun, an adverb, a preposition, a conjunction and an interjection.

Some Examples of Parts of Speech:

• The driver died in the car accident. (Noun)
• The prisoner escaped from the moving van. (Verb)
• The violent criminal changed his ways in prison. (Adjective)
• The students were late so they ran to class. (Pronoun)
• The bus will leave soon. (Adverb)
• He left his computer in the house. (Preposition)
• David and Jonathan fished all day with no success. (Conjunction)
• Wow! What a magnificent photograph! (Interjection)

Definition of Nouns: Nouns are naming words and they name persons, places, things, animals, qualities, feelings, actions or ideas.

Examples of Nouns:

• Jonathan and Rachel are excellent workers (Naming a Person).
• Australia and New Zealand are island continents in the South Pacific (Naming a Place).
• The boat sank in the river (Naming a Thing).
• The dog jumped the fence (Naming an Animal).
• Courage and bravery are two heroic qualities (Naming a Quality).
• Candice experienced both happiness and sadness at her mother’s funeral (Naming a Feeling).
• He demanded justice for all (Naming an Idea).

Examples of Types of Nouns:

• Jennifer is my best friend (Proper Noun).
• I read several books a week (Common Noun).
• Emma parked her vehicle in the driveway (Concrete Noun).
• His joy overwhelmed the crowd (Abstract Noun).
• I gave my brother a pack of cards for his birthday (Collective Noun).
• My mother-in-law drives a new car (Compound Noun).
• The photographer took a variety of photographs at the school picnic (Countable Noun).
• The jogger brought his water with him (Non-Countable Noun).
• Jonathan’s pickup is being repaired (Possessive Noun).
• His return was a complete surprise (Verbal Noun).

You can learn more about the types of nouns in English grammar by checking out 10 Types of Nouns With Examples. You will find each type of noun explained with several examples so that your skill levels to recognize nouns will increase.

Examples of Functions of Nouns:

• David arrived late to the party (Noun Functions as Subject).
• Rebekah washed the dishes before she went to school (Noun Functions as Direct Object).
• Jonathan taught the students public speaking in class (Noun Functions as Indirect Object).
• Scott is the minister of the local church (Noun Functions as Predicate Nominative).
• The traffic stopped at the lights (Noun Functions as Object of Preposition).
• My assistant, Brad, shared the message on Sunday (Noun Functions as an Appositive).
• Rebekah named her dog Bailey (Noun Functions as Objective Complement).
• Class, it is time for fire drill (Noun Functions as Noun of Direct Address).

You can learn more about the functions of Nouns in English grammar by clicking on The 8 Noun Functions With Examples. You will find each function explained with examples to help you develop your skills in recognizing the different ways nouns function.

Definition of Verbs: Verbs show action or state-of-being.

Examples of Verb Types:

• The dog jumped the fence (Action Verb).
• Rachel is beautiful (State-of-Being Verb).
• Brad hits the ball over the fence (Action Verb).
• The song sounds awful (State-of-Being).
• Emma walked the dog in the park (Action Verb).

Examples of Verb Functions:

• Candice writes a letter to her friend (Transitive Verb).
• Candice writes beautifully (Intransitive Verb).
• David walked the dog in the park (Transitive Verb).
• David walked in the park in the rain (Intransitive Verb).
• Emma became an apprentice hairdresser (Intransitive Verb).

Examples of Verb Voices:

• John rode the bike to school (Active Voice).
• The bike was ridden by John (Passive Voice).
• Jennifer led the worship service (Active Voice).
• The worship service was led by Jennifer (Passive Voice).
• The criminal was punished by the courts (Passive Voice).

You can learn more about how to identify types, functions and voices of verbs by clicking on How To Identify Verbs With Examples. This will help you develop your writing and speaking gifts.

3. Adjectives

Definition of Adjectives: Adjectives are words that describe or modify other words in a sentence thus making your writing and speaking more specific and interesting.

Examples of Several Types Adjectives:

• English grammar will help you develop your writing and speaking skills (Proper Adjective).
• Rachel had beautiful hair (Descriptive Adjective).
• My son bought an expensive car (Qualitative Adjective).
• The black cat ran in front of the car (Attributive Adjective).
• The cat is black (Predicative Adjective).
• My husband has a single focus for life (Quantitative Adjective).
• I can get twenty-four hours of service in our location (Numeral Adjective).
• I want those people charged for robbery (Demonstrative Adjective).
• David wants every person evacuated safely (Distributive Adjective).
• What time will you arrived home from the game (Interrogative Adjective)?
• The students will submit their assignments on time (Possessive Adjective).
• It is a long, narrow, winding road to the mountain top (Sequence Adjectives).
• Emma is a happy and lively person (Coordinate Adjectives).
• That was one nasty old man who drove the school bus this morning (Cumulative Adjectives).
• The murderer is a cold-blooded person (Compound Adjective).
• The builder bought a house in the country (Article Adjectives).
• Jonathan wants a few minutes of your time (Indefinite Adjective).
• The first person in the line collapsed onto the floor (Ordinal Adjective).
• The two men were jailed for life (Cardinal Adjective).

Learning to recognize the different types of adjectives will help you develop your speaking and writing skills so that you can be more specific, interesting and colorful in the way you express yourself.

4. Pronouns

Definition of Pronouns: Pronouns are words that replace nouns in sentence in order to avoid repeating the same noun over and over again.

Examples of Several Types of Pronouns :

• Dad, will you help me with my assignment (Personal Pronoun)?
• These books are mine (Possessive Pronoun).
• Give me that (Demonstrative Pronoun)!
• Some made thousands from the market collapse (Indefinite Pronoun).
• The player who was warmed about his behavior lost his spot on the team (Relative Pronoun).
• Candice saw herself in the mirror (Reflective Pronoun).
• David repairs the car himself (Emphatic Pronoun).

You can learn more about the different types of pronouns in English grammar with examples by clicking on Types of Pronouns With Examples. You will find a brief explanation of each type of pronoun with some examples. This will help you understand how pronouns work in English sentences.

Definition of Adverbs: Adverbs are words or a group of words that modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. They usually tell when, where, how or to what extent an action is performed or it may indicate the quality or degree of the action.

Examples of Different Types of Adverbs:

• She worked slowly and carefully on the building site (Adverb of Manner).
• David will be home soon (Adverb of Time).
• Candice put her book there (Adverb of Place).
• We are extremely hungry (Adverb of Degree).
• She never cleans her room (Adverb of Frequency).
• He gave little to charity (Adverb of Quantity).
• He fell forward on the parade ground (Adverb of Direction).
• Hopefully, I will be able to attend class today (Adverb of Uncertainty).
• Rachel went shopping; however, she didn’t buy anything (Conjunctive Adverb).
• Yes, I will be coming to the game tomorrow (Adverb of Affirmation).

You can learn more about adverbs and how they are used in English sentences by clicking on What is an Adverb? Adverb can be confusing at times because they perform differently roles and they can be inserted at different place in English sentences. By learning to recognize the types of adverbs and how they function in sentences, you will certainly increase your ability to write and speak with interesting to your audiences.

6. Prepositions

Definition of Prepositions: Prepositions consist of words or groups of words that show the relationship between nouns or pronouns with other words in sentences.

Examples of Several Types of Prepositions:

• Emma arrived on Saturday afternoon (Preposition of Time).
• The book is on the table (Preposition of Place).
• David will ride his bike to the game on Saturday (Preposition of Movement).
• Rebekah goes to work by bus (Preposition of Manner).
• Jonathan is sawing the timber with his new saw (Preposition of Agent).
• The hardware store sells electrical cord by the meter (Preposition of Measure).
• Candace received her weekly wage from her workplace (Preposition of Source).
• This is the property of my late wife (Preposition of Possession).

You can learn more about the 8 types of prepositions with examples by clicking on 8 types of prepositions with examples. Once you identify the 8 types of preposition and how they function in sentence, you will become more creative in your writing and speaking skills.

7. Conjunctions

Definition of Conjunctions: Conjunctions are words or groups of words that show how ideas are related to each other in English sentences.

Examples of Several Types of Conjunctions:

• Rachel and Darcy traveled to the zoo during the holidays (Coordinating Conjunction).
• Unless the drought breaks soon, many farmers will find it very difficult to continue farming (Subordinating Conjunction).
• David is both discreet and considerate (Correlative Conjunctions).
• We have been good friends; however, I think at times you take me for granted (Conjunctive Adverb).
• The stray dog not only destroyed the chicken pen but also killed the chickens (Correlative Conjunctions).

You can learn more about the 4 types of conjunctions with examples by clicking on 4 Types of Conjunctions With Examples. By learning these 4 types of conjunctions with examples, you will be able to identify how words, phrases and clauses relate to each other in English sentences.

8. Interjections

Definition of Interjections: Interjections are used to express feelings and emotions in English sentences.

Examples of Interjections:

• Oh, you can’t be serious!
• Wow! That’s was excellent.
• Ah, I needed that cuppa!
• I won the lottery, wahoo!
• It stinks, hey, I will never do that again!

You can learn more about interjections by clicking on What is an Interjection?

The more you understand the 8 parts of speech in English grammar with examples, the better you will be able to write and speak to your designated audience. Enjoy!

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Articles of Interest

What are the 7 Subjective Pronouns?

Possessive Adjectives vs Possessive Pronouns

What are the 7 Possessive Adjectives?

What is a Simple Sentence With Examples?

Predicate Nominative Vs Predicate Adjective

4 Types of Sentence Structures With Examples

• School Guide
• English Grammar Free Course
• English Grammar Tutorial
• Parts of Speech
• Figure of Speech
• Tenses Chart
• Essay Writing
• Email Writing
• NCERT English Solutions
• English Difference Between
• SSC CGL English Syllabus
• SBI PO English Syllabus
• SBI Clerk English Syllabus
• IBPS PO English Syllabus
• IBPS CLERK English Syllabus
• English Grammar : Learn Rules of Grammar and Basics
• Parts of Speech: Definitions, Examples & 8 Types
• What is a Noun? Types, Definitions and Examples (List)
• Proper Noun - Definition, Examples, & Rules
• Common Noun - Definition, Examples, List & Usage
• Plural Noun - Rules and Examples
• Possessive Noun - Meaning, Usage, Rules and Examples
• What is Collective Noun? List of Examples, Uses and Exercises
• Abstract Nouns - Definition, Examples, List, Usage
• What is a Compound Noun? Definition, Types & Examples
• What are Countable Noun?
• What are Uncountable Noun - How to use them?
• Material Noun: Definition, Examples, Rules & Exercises
• Pronoun Definition - Rules and Types of Pronouns
• Reflexive Pronoun
• Subject Pronouns - Definition, Example and Exercise
• Relative Pronouns - Definition, Uses and Examples
• Demonstrative Pronouns - Definition and Examples
• Possessive Pronouns - Definition, Usage and Examples
• Indefinite Pronoun
• Personal Pronoun - Definition, Rules and Examples
• Interrogative Pronoun
• Reciprocal Pronouns - Definition, Examples & Uses
• What is a Verb? Types, Uses, Examples
• Main Verbs - Meaning, Types and Examples
• Helping Verb: Definition, Types and Examples
• Auxiliary Verbs: Definition, Examples & List
• Irregular Verbs
• What Are Modal Verbs? – Definition, Usage & Examples
• What is A Gerund? Definition and Examples
• Adjective - Definition, List, Types, Uses and Examples
• Proper Adjectives Definition and Examples
• Possessive Adjectives - Definition, Example and List
• Interrogative Adjective - Meaning, Definition and Examples
• What Is an Adverb? Definition, List & Examples
• Conjunctive Adverbs - Meaning, Examples and Exercises
• Adverbs of Time - Examples, Meaning, and Definition
• Adverbs of Frequency - Definition, Examples, and Usage
• Adverbs of Place - Definition, List and Examples
• What are Adverbs of Degree? Definition, List and Examples
• Adverbs of Manner - Meaning, Definition and Examples

Conjunction

• What is a Conjunction - Meaning, Definition, Types & Exercises
• Subordinating Conjunction - Meaning, Definition, Types and Examples

Preposition

Interjection.

• Interjections - Definition, Types, Rules and Examples
• Definite and Indefinite Articles ( A, An, The)
• Subject-Verb Agreement Rules: Examples & Exercises
• Active and Passive Voice Rules for Competitive Exams
• What is Tense? Types, Definitions & Examples
• Tense Chart in English - Rules, Examples, Types & Mind map

Parts of Speech: Definitions, Examples & 8 Types

Every word is a part of speech playing a specific role in sentences or paragraphs. Parts of speech provide an organized way to align words and phrases, it is a fundamental meaning for a language to become more understandable and serve a specific purpose. Here, in this article, we will see what is Part of Speech, its types, and its uses. So let us dive in deeper to learn more about it!

Table of Content

What is Part of Speech?

Parts of speech chart.

• Different Types of Parts of Speech :
• Parts of Speech Examples Using Sentences
• Quiz to practice Parts of Speech 

Parts of Speech – FAQs

The English language has thousands of words and every word has some function to perform. Some words are there to show action, some to join, and some to name something. There are 8 different parts of speech including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunction, and interjection. And together, all the functions performed by words in the English language fall under Parts of speech.           

Parts of Speech Definition

The parts of speech are the “traditional grammatical categories to which words are assigned in accordance with their syntactic functions, such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and so on.” In other words, they refer to the different roles that words can play in a sentence and how they relate to one another based on grammar and syntax.

All Parts of Speech with Examples 

There are 8 different types of parts of speech i.e., Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverb, prepositions, Conjunction, and Interjection.

Noun –

A   noun   is a word that names a person, place, thing, state, or quality. It can be singular or plural. Nouns are a part of speech.

• Function: Refers to Things or person
• Examples: Pen, Chair, Ram, Honesty
• Sentences: Cars are expensive, This chair is made of wood, and Ram is a topper, Honesty is the best policy.

Pronoun –

The word used in place of a noun or a noun phrase is known as a pronoun. A pronoun is used in place of a noun to avoid the repetition of the noun. 

• Function: Replaces a noun
• Examples: I, you, he, she, it, they
• Sentences: They are expensive, It is of wood, He is a topper, It is the best policy

Adjective –

A word that modifies a noun or a pronoun is an adjective. Generally, an adjective’s function is to further define and quantify a noun or pronoun.

• Function: Describes a noun
• Examples: Super, Red, Our, Big, Great, class
• Sentences: Supercars are expensive, The red chair is for kids, Ram is a class topper, and Great things take time.

Verb –

A word or a group of words that describes an action, a state, or an event is called a verb. A verb is a word that says what happens to somebody or what somebody or something does.

• Function: Describes action or state
• Sentences: I play football, I will be a doctor, I like to work, I love writing poems.

Adverb –

A verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence is typically modified by an adverb . Adverbs often answer questions like “how,” “in what way,” “when,” “where,” and “to what extent” by expressing things like method, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc

• Function: Describes a verb, adjective, or adverb
• Examples: Silently, too, very
• Sentences: I love reading silently, It is too tough to handle, He can speak very fast.

Preposition –

A preposition is called  a connector or linking word which has a very close relationship with the noun, pronoun or adjective that follows it . Prepositions show position in space, movement, direction, etc.

• Function: Links a noun to another word
• Examples: at, in, of, after, under,
• Sentences: The ball is under the table, I am at a restaurant, she is in trouble, I am going after her, It is so nice of him

Conjunction –

A  conjunction  is a word that connects clauses, sentences, or other words.  Conjunctions  can be used alone or in groups of two.

• Function: Joins clauses and sentences
• Examples: and, but, though, after
• Sentences: First, I will go to college and then I may go to Fest, I don’t have a car but I know how to drive, She failed the exam though she worked hard, He will come after he finishes his match. 

Interjection –

An  interjection  is a word or phrase expressing some sudden feelings of sadness or emotions. 

• Function: Shows exclamation
• Examples: oh! wow!, alas! Hurray!
• Sentences: Oh! I got fail again, Wow! I got the job, Alas! She is no more, Hurray! We are going to a party.

These are the main parts of speech, but there are additional subcategories and variations within each. Understanding the different parts of speech can help construct grammatically correct sentences and express ideas clearly.

Sentence Examples for the 8 Parts of Speech

• Examples: Luggage, Cattle.
• Sentence:  Never leave your luggage unattended.
• In some places, cattle are fed barely.
• Examples: who, either, themselves
• Sentence: I know a man who plays the guitar very well.
• Either of the two cars is for sale.
• They enjoyed themselves at the party.
• Examples: kind, moving, wounder.
• Sentence: 
• She is a kind person.
• Boarding a moving bus can be dangerous.
• Never poke a wounded animal.
• Examples: Praise, Hate, Punish
• Sentence: She always praises her friends.
• I don’t hate anybody.
• The boy has been punished by his teacher
• Examples: Always, enough, immediately
• Sentence: we should always help each other.
• We should be wise enough to understand what is good for us.
• We should leave bad habits immediately.
• Examples: Off, Below, From. to
• He plunged off the cliff
• I live below the 9th floor.
• I travel daily from Delhi to Noida.
• Examples: whereas, as well as, so, 
• Sentence: The new software is fairly simple whereas the old one was a bit complicated.
• The finance company is not performing well as well as some of its competitors.
• He was ready so he may come. 
• Examples: oops! whoa! phew! 
• Sentence: Oops! I forgot to mention her name.
• Whoa! you drive fast. 
• Phew! That was a close call, we had a narrow escape.

Parts of Speech Exercise – Test your Knowledge of Part of speech 

Choose the correct Parts of Speech of the BOLD word from the following questions.

1. Let us play, Shall We?

       a. Conjunction        b. Pronoun        c. Verb

2.  I t is a good practice to arrange books on shelves.

      a. Verb       b. Noun       c. Adjective

3. Whose books are these?

      a. Pronoun      b. Preposition      c. verb

4.   Father, please get me that toy. 

     a. Pronoun      b. Adverb      c. Adjective

5.  His mentality is rather obnoxious.

     a. Adverb      b. Adjective      c. Noun

6.  He is the guy whose money got stolen.

      a. Pronoun       b. Conjunction       c. Adjective

7. I will have finished my semester by the end of this year.

      a. Interjection       b. Conjunction       c. Preposition

8. Bingo! That’s the one I have been looking for

    a. Interjection      b. Conjunctio      c. Preposition

Quiz Answers:

1. c,  2. b,  3. a,  4. c,  5. a,  6. b,  7. c,  8. a

Also Check:

• English Grammar
• Figures of Speech
• Learn English Grammar Online
• Difference Between Adjective and Verb

Q1. What are Parts of Speech?

A word is assigned to a category as per its function, and those categories are together known as Parts of Speech.

Q2. What are the 8 Parts of Speech?

Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection.

Q3. How many Parts of Speech are there?

There are a total of 8 parts of Speech.

Q4. What Part of Speech is “our”?

“Our” is a adjective type of Part of Speech. Eg. Our car.

Q5. What Part of Speech is “Quickly”?

Adverb. let us understand it with this example – Milk sours quickly in warm weather.

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Conjunctions

Prepositions, interjections, categorizing the parts of speech.

part of speech

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part of speech , lexical category to which a word is assigned based on its function in a sentence.

There are eight parts of speech in traditional English grammar: noun, pronoun, verb , adjective , adverb , conjunction, preposition , and interjection . In linguistics , parts of speech are more typically called word classes .

A noun names a person, place, thing, or idea. There are many subcategories of nouns, including common nouns, proper nouns, collective nouns, and abstract nouns.

Common nouns name basic things that can be seen and touched. Examples of common nouns include dog , banana , table , and book .

• The dog ate a banana .
• The book was on the table .

Proper nouns name specific people, places, and things, and they begin with a capital letter . Examples of proper nouns include George, New York City , Empire State Building , and Atlantic Ocean .

• George sailed the Atlantic Ocean .
• The Empire State Building is in New York City .

Collective nouns name groups of people or things. Examples of collective nouns include team , flock , litter , and batch .

• The team won the game.
• The flock flew south for the winter.

Abstract nouns name things that cannot be seen or touched. Examples of abstract nouns include happiness , truth , friendship , and beauty .

• He brings her so much happiness .
• The friendship is a strong one.

A pronoun is used in place of a noun. There are many subcategories of pronouns, including but not limited to personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, and reflexive pronouns.

Personal pronouns replace names of people, places, things, and ideas. Examples of personal pronouns include she , he , it , and they .

• They enjoyed the party.
• Mikey likes it .

Possessive pronouns replace nouns and indicate ownership. Because they modify nouns, they are also frequently categorized as adjectives. Examples of possessive pronouns include his , its , mine , and theirs .

• The house is theirs .
• The parrot knows its name.

Reflexive pronouns replace nouns when the subject and object in a sentence are the same. Examples of reflexive pronouns include myself , herself , themselves , and oneself .

• She baked a cake all by herself .
• They prepared themselves for the adventure.

A verb indicates a state of doing, being, or having. There are three main subcategories of verbs: doing verbs, being verbs, and having verbs.

Doing verbs indicate actions. Examples of doing verbs include run , wash , explain , and wonder .

• Oliver washed the windows.
• I wonder where the cat is hiding.

Being and having verbs do not indicate action and are considered relating (or linking) verbs because they connect one piece of information to another. Examples of being and having verbs include am , are , has , and own .

• We are at the store.
• John has a red baseball cap.

An adjective describes or modifies a noun or pronoun.

Adjectives provide information about the qualities or classifications of a person or thing. Examples of adjectives include tall , purple , funny , and antique .

• The Willis Tower is a tall building.
• There were several antique cars in the parade.

An adverb describes or modifies verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs.

Adverbs provide information about the manner in which things are done, as well as when, where, and why they are done. Examples of adverbs include quickly , extremely , fiercely , and yesterday .

• The boy ran quickly through the rainstorm.
• That was a fiercely competitive game yesterday.

A conjunction links words, phrases, and clauses. There are two main subcategories of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.

Coordinating conjunctions link words, phrases, and clauses that are equally important in a sentence. Examples of coordinating conjunctions include and , but , or , and so .

• The students read short stories and novels.
• Liz went to the movies but not to dinner.

Subordinating conjunctions link subordinate clauses to a sentence. Examples of subordinating conjunctions include because , although , before , and since .

• The team is cheering because it is excited.
• Henry had Swiss cheese on his burger although he preferred cheddar.

A preposition provides information about the relative position of a noun or pronoun. Prepositions can indicate direction, time, place, location, and spatial relationships of objects. Examples of prepositions include on , in , across , and after .

• The cat ran across the road.
• The pencil is in the drawer.

An interjection acts as an exclamation. Interjections typically express emotional reactions to information in an adjoining sentence. Examples of interjections include eek , wow , oops , and phew .

• Eek ! That was a huge spider.
• Oops ! I didn’t mean to slam the door.

Although the number of parts of speech is traditionally fixed at eight, some grammarians consider there to be additional parts of speech. For example, determiners (also called determinatives) modify nouns and are therefore generally considered to be adjectives, but they differ from other adjectives in that their exact meaning is supplied by context . They include articles, demonstrative pronouns, possessive pronouns, and quantifiers. Examples of determiners include the , an , that , your , and many .

Over the years grammarians have also proposed changes in how parts of speech are categorized. The 2002 edition of the Cambridge Grammar of the English Language , for example, placed pronouns as a subcategory of nouns.

Parts Of Speech

The 8 Parts of Speech - Learn with Examples

Published on: May 31, 2024

Last updated on: Jun 1, 2024

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Language is a fascinating tool that helps us communicate our thoughts, feelings, and ideas. Whether we're speaking, writing, or even just thinking, we rely on words to convey meaning. 

But have you ever stopped to think about the different roles words play in our language? That's where the concept of "parts of speech" comes in.

In this blog, we'll explore the fundamental building blocks of language, breaking down each part of speech including nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. We will help you understand how they work and how they contribute to the structure of sentences. 

By the end, you'll have a solid grasp of the basic components that make up the sentences we use every day.

What are Parts of Speech? 

Parts of speech are the fundamental categories into which words in a language are classified based on their grammatical functions and roles within sentences. These classifications help us understand how words behave in context and how they contribute to the overall structure and meaning of a sentence. 

Each part of speech serves a distinct purpose and has specific characteristics that differentiate it from other parts of speech.

Here are the 8 parts of speech:

• Preposition
• Conjunction
• Interjection 

1. Nouns: Names for People, Places, and Things 

Let's start with one of the most familiar parts of speech: nouns.  A noun is a word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. It can function as the subject or object of a sentence, and it may also serve as the complement of a verb or the object of a preposition. 

There are different types of nouns, including common nouns, abstract nouns, proper nouns, and gerunds. Gerunds are formed by adding "-ing" to verbs and function as nouns representing actions or activities.

Examples of Nouns 

• Person: John, teacher, friend
• Place: Paris, school, park
• Thing: book, computer, table
• Idea: love, freedom, happiness

2. Pronouns: Words that Replace Nouns 

Pronouns are handy little words that stand in for nouns, helping us avoid repetition and making our language more efficient. Instead of saying someone's name over and over again, we can use pronouns to refer back to them.

There are different types of pronouns, including personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, and reflexive pronouns. Each type serves a unique function in replacing nouns.

Examples of Pronouns 

• Personal Pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they
• Possessive Pronouns: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs
• Demonstrative Pronouns: this, that, these, those
• Reflexive Pronouns: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves

3. Verbs: Actions and States of Being  

Verbs are the engines that drive our sentences. They express actions, states of being, or occurrences. Without verbs, sentences wouldn't have any action or meaning. 

There are different types of verbs, including auxiliary verbs, action verbs that depict physical or mental actions, and helping verbs that assist main verbs in forming verb phrases.

Examples of Verbs 

• Action Verbs: run, jump, eat, sleep
• State of Being Verbs: am, is, are, was, were
• Helping Verbs: can, will, might, should, have, has, had

4. Adjectives: Describing Words 

Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns or pronouns by adding information about their qualities, characteristics, or attributes. They help us paint a vivid picture in the reader's mind by providing information about qualities, characteristics, or attributes.

There are different types of adjectives including descriptive, demonstrative, quantitative, possessive, interrogative, and indefinite adjectives.

Examples of Adjectives  

• Descriptive Adjectives: big, red, happy, beautiful
• Quantitative Adjectives: few, many, some, several
• Demonstrative Adjectives: this, that, these, those

5. Adverbs: Modifiers for Verbs, Adjectives, and Other Adverbs 

Adverbs are words that modify or describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs by providing additional information about the manner, time, place, or degree of an action or state.

They tell us how, when, where, or to what extent something happens.

Examples of Adverbs 

• How: quickly, slowly, carefully
• When: now, later, soon
• Where: here, there, everywhere
• To What Extent: very, extremely, somewhat

6. Prepositions: Relationship Words  

Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word in the sentence. They often indicate location, direction, time, or manner.

Examples of Prepositions 

• Location: in, on, at, under, above
• Direction: to, from, toward, into, out of
• Time: before, after, during, since, until

7. Conjunctions: Joining Words 

Conjunctions are the glue that holds our sentences together. They join words, phrases, or clauses to create compound sentences or complex relationships between ideas. 

Conjunctions can be categorized into coordinating conjunctions , which join similar elements, and subordinating conjunctions , which introduce dependent clauses.

Examples of Conjunctions 

• Coordinating Conjunctions (FANBOYS): and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet
• Subordinating Conjunctions: although, because, since, while, if, when, after

FANBOYS is an acronym representing coordinating conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so .

8. Interjections: Expressions of Emotion 

Interjections are short, exclamatory words or phrases that express strong emotions or reactions. They often stand alone and can convey feelings like surprise, joy, anger, or relief. 

Interjections are words or phrases used to interrupt or express sudden emotion, adding emphasis or intensity to a statement.

Examples of Interjections 

Here is a part of speech chart you can use.

8 Parts of Speech Definitions and Examples PDF 

Explore the 8 parts of speech pdf definitions and examples and download them for free.

8 Parts of Speech Definitions and Examples

Open and Closed Word Classes 

Open and closed word classes refer to different categories of words based on their flexibility and potential for expansion within a language.

Open Word Classes 

Open word classes are those that readily accept new words and can expand over time. They include parts of speech such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

New words can be added to these categories as languages evolve or encounter new concepts, experiences, or technologies.

For example , nouns expanded to encompass innovative concepts, such as "metaverse" and "cryptocurrency," reflecting advancements in technology and virtual reality. Verbs adapted to describe contemporary actions, like "troll" (meaning to provoke others online). 

Adjectives mirrored shifting societal values, with terms like "woke" and "cancel-culture" gaining prominence. Adverbs were coined to modify modern behaviors, such as "binge-watch" (to watch multiple episodes of a TV series in rapid succession).

Closed Word Classes 

Closed word classes are those that have a limited number of members and rarely accept new additions . They typically include parts of speech such as pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and determiners.

These categories have a relatively stable set of words and are less likely to incorporate new terms over time.

For example , pronouns such as "they" (used in non-binary gender contexts) continued to gain acceptance, while conjunctions like "because" and prepositions like "beyond" retained their traditional forms. Determiners such as "this" and "that" remained unchanged, serving their grammatical roles without significant modification.

In Summary , understanding the eight parts of speech is really important for both talking and writing well. If you know and get good at using these basic parts of language, you'll be able to express yourself clearly and correctly. 

This guide has hopefully given you a good understanding of grammar. Keep practicing, and you'll become a better communicator before you know it!

Not Sure About Your Grammar Skills? 

If you're unsure whether you're using words correctly or following grammar rules in your writing, you can use the Grammar Checker at MyEssayWriter.ai . It'll give you instant feedback on any spelling, punctuation, or structure mistakes, helping you improve your language skills and aim for great communication. Also, if you want instant help with essay writing, try out AI essay writer free with no sign-up . 

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Caleb S. is an accomplished author with over five years of experience and a Master's degree from Oxford University. He excels in various writing forms, including articles, press releases, blog posts, and whitepapers. As a valued author at MyEssayWriter.ai, Caleb assists students and professionals by providing practical tips on research, citation, sentence structure, and style enhancement.

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8 Parts of Speech | Definitions, Types, and Examples

8 parts of speech definitions and examples.

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This lesson will analyze the ‘8 Parts of Speech’ in English with definitions, types, and examples. Parts of Speech are part and parcel of English grammar. We can’t think of a sentence without using Parts of Speech. There are 8 Parts of Speech in English.

However, if you want to learn English, you must know the Parts of Speech. Otherwise, it won’t be easy to learn English grammar more accurately. Let us know the definition of ‘Parts of Speech in English grammar. Just follow the below sentence.

• Wow! I see a very stunning bird flying in the sky.

This sentence will get a clear picture of the 8 Parts of Speech in English.

Every word underlined in the sentence is called Parts of Speech.

Definition of Parts of Speech by Different Scholars

J.C. Nesfield: The different kinds of words are called P arts of Speech. Wren & Martin: Words are divided into different kinds of classes, called Parts of speech, according to their use; that is, according to the work they do in the sentence.

Types of Parts of Speech

There are eight types of Parts of Speech in English grammar. They are:

• Preposition
• Conjunction
• Interjection .
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Any naming word (person, place, thing, or idea) is called a Noun. Sometimes many students think a noun is the name of a person or place only, but it can be a thing, idea, feeling, etc.

Let us see some examples of nouns; John, boy, country, United Kingdom, New York City, cow, army, iron, honesty, etc. Nouns are underlined in the below sentences for easy identification:

• John  is a good  boy .
• The  United Kingdom  is my favorite country.
• My  brother  lives in  New York City .
• The  Cow   is roaming in the  field .
• The  army   protects their homeland .
• Iron  is beneficial for  human   life.
• Honesty   is a good virtue.

There are five types of nouns in English. They are:

• Proper noun
• Common noun
• Material noun
• Abstract noun

A word that is placed instead of a noun is called a Pronoun. If we use a single noun for every sentence, it doesn’t look good. For example,  James  goes to meet with his friends, and James is enjoying the party, and James recollects his old memories.

Here we use a single noun for every sentence, and that’s why it looks weird. But if we use the pronoun ‘he’ for the last two sentences instead of ‘James,’ it seems pretty good.

That’s why we need to use a pronoun instead of a noun. Let us see examples of pronouns; he, she, they, I, we, it, etc. Pronouns are underlined in the below sentences for easy identification:

• He  is going to the market to buy a t-shirt.
• She  plays with her classmate.
• I  am the only man who understands the matter.
• We  are going to arrange a free campaign.
• It  was considered that he would be won the trophy.

There are nine types of pronouns. They are:

• Personal pronoun
• Possessive pronoun
• Reflexive pronoun
• Demonstrative pronoun
• Indefinite pronoun
• Relative pronoun
• Interrogative pronoun
• Distributive pronoun
• Reciprocal pronoun.

3. Adjective

A word used to describe a noun or pronoun is called an  Adjective . In other words, we can say an adjective usually modifies a noun or a pronoun.

For example, happy, good, clever, intelligent, lazy, large, etc. Adjectives are underlined in the below sentences for easy identification:

• He looks like he is  happy  now.
• They had been playing  good  cricket at a time.
• Don’t try to be more  clever .
• Undoubtedly he is an  intelligent  person.
• This animal is so  lazy .
• I saw a  large  building.

There are nine types of adjectives. They are:

• Proper Adjectives
• Adjectives of Quality
• Adjectives of Quantity
• Numeral Adjectives
• Demonstrative Adjectives
• Distributive Adjectives
• Interrogative Adjectives
• Possessive Adjectives

A word that expresses an action or doing something is called a Verb. For example, am, is, are, was, were, have, has had, can, could, should, will, go, play, read, want, sing, etc.

Verbs are underlined in the below sentences for easy identification:

• I  am  good at English.
• He  is  a good boy.
• They  are playing  in the field.
• She  was suffering  from a fever.
• These two boys  were going  to catch fish.
• I  have  a beautiful doll.
• They  have gone  to this place.
• He  has done  his job successfully.
• My sister  had  a sweet dog.
• He  can do  this work.
• You  could attend  this meeting.
• His father  shall go  to the field.
• You  should  be attentive to your study.
• She  will  go to  meet  her friends.
• He  would claim  a better job.
• Read  the book carefully.
• The boy  wants  to  sing  a song.

There are four types of verbs. They are:

• Auxiliary verb
• Principal verb
• Transitive verb
• Intransitive verb

A word that is used to add something to the meaning or modify a verb, an adjective, or another adverb is called an Adverb.

For example, about, after, before, fast, slow, etc. Adverbs are underlined in the below sentences for easy identification:

• Tell me something  about  you.
• Pass the book  after  him.
• He has done his task  before  the boy.
• They want to run  fast .
• The tortoise walks  slowly .

There are three types of Adverbs. They are:

• Simple adverb
• Relative adverb
• Interrogative adverb

6. Preposition

A word that is placed before a noun or a pronoun or a noun-equivalent to show its relation to any other term of the sentence is called a Preposition.

For example, on, in, to, for, with, within, above over, etc. Prepositions are underlined in the below sentences for easy identification:

• He stores his books  on  his bookshelf.
• They have been playing football  on  the field since morning.
• He goes  to the  market to buy some clothes.
• She is dancing  with  her mates.
• The plane was flying  above  my head.
• He couldn’t succeed in this plan  over  the years.

There are three types of prepositions. They are:

• Simple preposition
• Double preposition
• Compound preposition

7. Conjunction

A word that is usually used to join one word to another, one word to a clause, or one sentence to another is called a Conjunction.

Conjunctions are of three types. They are:

• Coordinating Conjunctions
• Subordinating Conjunctions
• Correlative Conjunctions

For example; and, but, or, if, though, than, since, so–that, as soon as, either–or, neither–nor, etc. Conjunctions are underlined in the below sentences for easy identification:

• Janny  and  Jammy are good friends.
• He is rich  but  cheap-minded.
• Please read more,  or  you will fail the exam.
• They will be good doctors  if  they work hard.
• He could attend the meeting  though  he had enough time.
• The boy is tall  than  the girl.
• It has been raining  since  morning.
• The older man is  so  poor  that  he can’t buy enough food.
• He left the place  as soon as  they came.
• Either  Jack  or  John will do the task.
• She will  neither  come here  nor  her friend.

8. Interjection

A word used to express a short sudden emotion or excitement is called an Interjection. For example, hurrah! alas! oops! Etc. Interjections are underlined in the below sentences for easy identification:

• Hurrah ! We won the match.
• Alas ! She is no more.
• Oops ! They can’t do this job correctly.

There are three kinds of Interjections. They are:

• Volitive Interjection
• Emotive Interjection
• Cognitive Interjection.

To sum up, we may say without parts of speech; we can’t make a sentence. These eight parts of speech  are the fundamental parts of English grammar.

Please share this article with your friends to get a helpful guideline about these  eight parts of speech  with definitions and examples.

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Azizul Hakim is the founder & CEO of englishfinders.com . He is a passionate writer, English instructor, and content creator. He has completed his graduation and post-graduation in English language and literature.

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The 9 Parts of Speech: Definitions and Examples

• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

A part of speech is a term used in traditional grammar for one of the nine main categories into which words are classified according to their functions in sentences, such as nouns or verbs. Also known as word classes, these are the building blocks of grammar.

Every sentence you write or speak in English includes words that fall into some of the nine parts of speech. These include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections. (Some sources include only eight parts of speech and leave interjections in their own category.)

Parts of Speech

• Word types can be divided into nine parts of speech:
• prepositions
• conjunctions
• articles/determiners
• interjections
• Some words can be considered more than one part of speech, depending on context and usage.
• Interjections can form complete sentences on their own.

Learning the names of the parts of speech probably won't make you witty, healthy, wealthy, or wise. In fact, learning just the names of the parts of speech won't even make you a better writer. However, you will gain a basic understanding of sentence structure  and the  English language by familiarizing yourself with these labels.

Open and Closed Word Classes

The parts of speech are commonly divided into  open classes  (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and  closed classes  (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections). Open classes can be altered and added to as language develops, and closed classes are pretty much set in stone. For example, new nouns are created every day, but conjunctions never change.

In contemporary linguistics , parts of speech are generally referred to as word classes or syntactic categories. The main difference is that word classes are classified according to more strict linguistic criteria. Within word classes, there is the lexical, or open class, and the function, or closed class.

The 9 Parts of Speech

Read about each part of speech below, and practice identifying each.

Nouns are a person, place, thing, or idea. They can take on a myriad of roles in a sentence, from the subject of it all to the object of an action. They are capitalized when they're the official name of something or someone, and they're called proper nouns in these cases. Examples: pirate, Caribbean, ship, freedom, Captain Jack Sparrow.

Pronouns stand in for nouns in a sentence . They are more generic versions of nouns that refer only to people. Examples:​  I, you, he, she, it, ours, them, who, which, anybody, ourselves.

Verbs are action words that tell what happens in a sentence. They can also show a sentence subject's state of being ( is , was ). Verbs change form based on tense (present, past) and count distinction (singular or plural). Examples:  sing, dance, believes, seemed, finish, eat, drink, be, became.

Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. They specify which one, how much, what kind, and more. Adjectives allow readers and listeners to use their senses to imagine something more clearly. Examples:  hot, lazy, funny, unique, bright, beautiful, poor, smooth.

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and even other adverbs. They specify when, where, how, and why something happened and to what extent or how often. Many adjectives can be turned into adjectives by adding the suffix - ly . Examples:  softly, quickly, lazily, often, only, hopefully, sometimes.

Preposition

Prepositions  show spatial, temporal, and role relations between a noun or pronoun and the other words in a sentence. They come at the start of a prepositional phrase , which contains a preposition and its object. Examples:  up, over, against, by, for, into, close to, out of, apart from.

Conjunction

Conjunctions join words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. There are coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions. Examples:  and, but, or, so, yet.

Articles and Determiners

Articles and determiners function like adjectives by modifying nouns, but they are different than adjectives in that they are necessary for a sentence to have proper syntax. Articles and determiners specify and identify nouns, and there are indefinite and definite articles. Examples of articles:  a, an, the ; examples of determiners:  these, that, those, enough, much, few, which, what.

Some traditional grammars have treated articles  as a distinct part of speech. Modern grammars, however, more often include articles in the category of determiners , which identify or quantify a noun. Even though they modify nouns like adjectives, articles are different in that they are essential to the proper syntax of a sentence, just as determiners are necessary to convey the meaning of a sentence, while adjectives are optional.

Interjection

Interjections are expressions that can stand on their own or be contained within sentences. These words and phrases often carry strong emotions and convey reactions. Examples:  ah, whoops, ouch, yabba dabba do!

How to Determine the Part of Speech

Only interjections ( Hooray! ) have a habit of standing alone; every other part of speech must be contained within a sentence and some are even required in sentences (nouns and verbs). Other parts of speech come in many varieties and may appear just about anywhere in a sentence.

To know for sure what part of speech a word falls into, look not only at the word itself but also at its meaning, position, and use in a sentence.

For example, in the first sentence below,  work  functions as a noun; in the second sentence, a verb; and in the third sentence, an adjective:

• Bosco showed up for  work  two hours late.
• The noun  work  is the thing Bosco shows up for.
• He will have to  work  until midnight.
• The verb  work  is the action he must perform.
• His  work  permit expires next month.
• The  attributive noun  (or converted adjective) work  modifies the noun  permit .

Learning the names and uses of the basic parts of speech is just one way to understand how sentences are constructed.

Dissecting Basic Sentences

To form a basic complete sentence, you only need two elements: a noun (or pronoun standing in for a noun) and a verb. The noun acts as a subject, and the verb, by telling what action the subject is taking, acts as the predicate. 

In the short sentence above,  birds  is the noun and  fly  is the verb. The sentence makes sense and gets the point across.

You can have a sentence with just one word without breaking any sentence formation rules. The short sentence below is complete because it's a verb command with an understood "you" noun.

Here, the pronoun, standing in for a noun, is implied and acts as the subject. The sentence is really saying, "(You) go!"

Constructing More Complex Sentences

Use more parts of speech to add additional information about what's happening in a sentence to make it more complex. Take the first sentence from above, for example, and incorporate more information about how and why birds fly.

• Birds fly when migrating before winter.

Birds and fly remain the noun and the verb, but now there is more description. 

When  is an adverb that modifies the verb fly.  The word before  is a little tricky because it can be either a conjunction, preposition, or adverb depending on the context. In this case, it's a preposition because it's followed by a noun. This preposition begins an adverbial phrase of time ( before winter ) that answers the question of when the birds migrate . Before is not a conjunction because it does not connect two clauses.

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English Grammar Here

Sentences with all 8 Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech

Anyone who wants to learn English should firstly recognize the English sentence structure. There are eight chapters in English, and each word belongs to one of these eight species. However, for each word it is impossible to say that it belongs to the group, because some words can be in many groups according to their meaning.

When learning a word, a person who learns all its meanings and uses will also automatically increase the number of words he knows. Therefore, it is very important to learn different meanings when learning a word. In addition, when searching for a word from the dictionary, attention should be paid to the word types indicated by abbreviations, and their use in the sentence should be made in accordance with the word type.

The following are different types of words. This topic needs to be learned very well in order to improve the use of dictionary and  vocabulary . It consists of 8 groups which are given below as the elements of the sentence.  These;

Noun : Living is words that meet all living beings and concepts.

• They live in  Madrid .
• This is my  cat .

Adverb : The opposite of adjectives in the sentence quality, place, quantity, direction and status of verbs are known as the words.

• My cat eats  quickly .
• She spoke  softly .

Adjective : Words that qualify a noun in terms of quality, place, quantity and order.

• We like  big  cake.
• I have  three  pencils.

Conjunction : Words that connect words, phrases and sentences in form and meaning.

• I am very hungry,  but  the fridge is empty.
• I was watching tv  when  she came in.

Pronouns : They are used in place of nouns in sentences.

• He  is very clever.
• 12th September is the date  that  I was born.

Preposition : Words that help to establish meaning relevance between words and concepts of different tasks and genres. In English, they change meaning by using verbs many times.

• She was hiding  under  the table.
• There is some milk  in  the fridge.

Interjection : Words that express emotions such as joy, anger, sadness, anxiety, fear and astonishment, reflecting the sounds of nature or being used to address someone.

• Wow ! What a beautiful car!
• Oh  no, I can’t believe that it is snowing here again!

Verb : Business, occurrence and movement are words that tell. In English, verbs exist as infinitive. English verbs at the beginning of the infinitive ‘to’ has the suffix.

• I  like  apple.
• Come  in please.

Each word or phrase in a sentence can be described as one of the elements given above, depending on its function in the sentence. Note that a word in one function in an English sentence can be used in another in another.

Other Example Sentences ;

• Looks ugly (Adjective)
• It plays quite well (Envelope)
• What a coincidence!  (Exclamation)
• His eyes filled up when he entered the room (Verb)
• Microbes are tiny creatures that are invisible to the eye.  (Name)

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1. Parts of Speech Sorting Worksheets

2. identify and color parts of speech, 3. preposition matching, 4. parts of speech mad libs, 5. flashcard quiz, 6. interjection worksheet, 7. word search, 8. fill in the blanks, 9. sentence construction, 10. pronoun substitution.

Parts of speech refer to the different roles words play in sentences, such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, and others. In this guide on “ how to teach parts of speech ,” you’ll learn simple, engaging methods to help kids understand each type, making language learning fun and easy. Knowing these basics will help them write and speak more clearly.

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What are the 8 Types of Parts of Speech?

What is the Best Order to Teach the Parts of Speech?

When teaching the parts of speech, it’s helpful to follow a clear order that builds understanding step by step. Start with the basics, like nouns and verbs, then progress to more complex types. Here’s a simple guide on which ones to teach first.

• Prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Interjections

How to Teach Parts of Speech: 15 Fun Ways

Using worksheets is one of the fun ways to teach parts of speech, such as sorting words into categories. Provide kids with parts of speech sorting worksheet. They’ll categorize each word into the correct part of speech. This activity helps reinforce their understanding of how different words function within sentences.

This themed worksheet activity offers a creative way to make teaching parts of speech enjoyable. The worksheet features fun designs, like a turkey and Santa, divided into sections representing different examples of parts of speech, such as nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Below the illustration, kids use a color scheme to identify and color each part of speech accurately. It’s a visually engaging and fun way to teach parts of speech that keep kids entertained while reinforcing their understanding of grammar concepts.

Here are fun themed identify and color parts of speech worksheet:

In the preposition matching worksheet, kids will identify the correct prepositions by pairing them with pictures or sentences. They will practice using “in,” “on,” “under,” and other prepositions, reinforcing how these words show the relationship between objects. This fun activity will help them understand prepositions through real-life examples while building their grammar skills.

Mad Libs is a playful and imaginative way to reinforce understanding of the parts of speech. Provide kids with fill-in-the-blank stories and ask them to supply words like nouns, verbs, or adjectives in specific places. The result is a fun, silly story that often makes everyone laugh! This activity helps children practice vocabulary in a creative context, letting them see how different parts of speech fit together in sentences.

A flashcard quiz is a handy activity for teaching parts of speech to ESL students and native English speakers alike. Use flashcards with sentences or single words and ask students to identify the parts of speech for kids to understand. You can have them raise a card, give a thumbs up, or call out the right answer. This quick game helps kids reinforce their knowledge while keeping the activity light and engaging.

This worksheet introduces kids to interjections in three engaging tasks. First, they’ll identify and color the interjections provided in the worksheet. Next, they’ll write down three interjections that express specific emotions like surprise or excitement. Lastly, they’ll practice using these interjections in complete sentences to understand how they bring emotion and emphasis to writing. This activity helps children recognize and apply interjections in a creative and structured way.

The word search activity will challenge kids to find various parts of speech, like nouns, verbs, and adjectives, hidden within a word grid. They’ll scan the puzzle to identify and circle the words, reinforcing their understanding of different parts of speech. It’s a playful way for them to practice grammar while sharpening their vocabulary and word recognition skills.

This activity involves giving kids sentences or stories with missing words and asking them to fill in the blanks using appropriate parts of speech. You can focus on different types, such as nouns, verbs, or adjectives. For instance, “The ____ ran quickly,” could be filled with “dog” or “cat.” It helps kids practice choosing the right words and reinforces their understanding of grammar.

Here are some fill-in-the-blank worksheets:

With sentence construction , give students word cards featuring different parts of speech like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more. Challenge them to arrange these cards into meaningful sentences that include multiple parts of speech. This activity helps children learn sentence structure, practice vocabulary, and see how each part of speech functions within a complete sentence.

In the pronoun substitution activity, kids replace nouns in a story with suitable pronouns like “he,” “she,” “they,” or “it.” Provide a short story where specific nouns are underlined and let the children rewrite it using appropriate pronouns. This practice helps them see how pronouns can simplify sentences and make writing more fluid.

Here are some fun sentence worksheets to get started:

11. Conjunction Connect

Conjunction Connect is a simple activity where kids practice combining short sentences using conjunctions like “and,” “but,” or “because.” Provide pairs of short sentences that need to be joined, and ask kids to pick the right conjunction to form a single sentence. It’s a great way to teach children how conjunctions help link ideas and improve their writing skills .

12. Grammar Posters

Creating grammar posters is a fantastic way to reinforce the concept of parts of speech for kids. Let them make colorful posters with definitions and examples of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more. Each poster can focus on one part of speech and include drawings, diagrams, or sentences. It’s a wonderful visual aid for kids, giving them something to reference during their writing or reading practice.

13. Verb Charades

Verb Charades is an interactive and fun way to teach parts of speech, focusing on verbs. Kids act out different verbs while their classmates guess the action. This activity not only makes learning parts of speech active and fun but also helps children understand verbs as action words. It’s a great way to physically engage students in learning and reinforce their understanding through movement and interaction.

14. Parts of Speech Bingo

Turn identifying parts of speech into a game with Parts of Speech Bingo. Create bingo cards with different words representing each part of speech. As you call out a word, students will mark their cards under the correct category, like “noun” or “verb.” This game adds a playful twist to grammar lessons while reinforcing the kids’ ability to categorize different words accurately.

15. Interjection Role-Play

Interjection Role-Play helps children grasp how interjections add emotion to sentences. Create scenarios where kids take turns acting out situations, using interjections like “Wow!” for excitement or “Oh no!” for surprise. You can offer prompts like receiving a gift or finding a missing toy to encourage genuine expressions. This fun activity allows kids to practice using interjections naturally in conversations, boosting their confidence and creativity with language.

Understanding how to teach parts of speech is essential for helping kids communicate clearly and confidently. By following a structured approach, kids will develop strong language skills that support them in reading, writing, and everyday conversations.

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• Your Guide to the 9 Parts of Speech in Spanish With Examples

When learning a new language, like Spanish, it’s good to know the basic parts of speech that help you make sense of things like word order (syntax) and verb conjugations (morphology). Some grammar concepts, like parts of speech, can easily transfer over from other languages to Spanish. So, you don’t need to become a grammar expert to learn basic Spanish. But knowing these fundamental building blocks will prepare you to start reading and listening to Spanish with confidence.

Table of Contents

What are the parts of speech in spanish.

Think of Spanish language parts of speech like the blocks that kids use to build a house. They start with a foundation and then place block after block next to one another until they make a row. This is similar to how you construct a sentence with the different parts of speech. You have the first block (or part) of speech, the second, and so forth—but some of these parts of speech in Spanish are interchangeable and don’t follow the rules that the same parts of speech in English do.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of each part of speech in the Spanish language, we’ll give you an example that serves as an overview. Look at this sentence, which uses all of the Spanish parts of speech (the English translation is below it):

• ¡Ay! El perro negro come el pollo rápidamente y lo devora en la cocina.  
• Oh! The black dog quickly eats the chicken and devours it in the kitchen.

You’ll notice that the word order is slightly different from Spanish to English. Below is the first part of the sentence in building block form, with each Spanish part of speech in its own box. 

See how the sentence is like a row of building blocks? Sometimes, these blocks can be more easily rearranged in Spanish than in English, and we’ll talk about that later.

Parts of speech in Spanish chart

Using the original example sentence above, here’s a handy chart that gives an overview of the parts of speech in Spanish.

Sustantivos (nouns)

Many of us remember the “person, place, or thing” theme from elementary school, but nouns are a lot more than that. 

They can function as the subject of a sentence—meaning the inanimate object or being doing the action:

• La niña juega todo el día . = The girl plays all day long.

They can also act as the object of a verb, which means they are the one receiving the action. Here, the post receives the impact of the car:

• El carro pegó al poste . = The car hit the post .

Similarly, they can be the object of a preposition:

• El abuelo se sentó en su silla favorita. = The grandfather sat in his favorite chair .

Nouns can also be a lot more conceptual or abstract:

• La belleza está en el ojo del observador. = Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Note: Spanish is a gendered language, which means nouns are considered masculine or feminine. These Spanish gender rules are important because noun genders also need to match their accompanying adjectives.

Verbos (verbs)

You probably already have an idea of how verbs commonly follow nouns from the examples above. However, talking about verbs being action words can be a little misleading. 

Sometimes there is a very active verb:

• El volcán explotó . = The volcano erupted .

Yet, sometimes the verb is more about existence:

• Hay un volcán en Puebla, México. = There is a volcano in Puebla, Mexico.

A verb can also have a more submissive sense:

• Paola recibió una llamada. = Paola got a phone call.

Here, Paola is not exactly doing the action. Rather, she is on the receiving end of an action initiated by someone else. Still, Paola is the subject of the verb.

Spanish is not as strict as English when it comes to where the verb goes, thus the sentence from above can also be expressed like this: 

• Recibió una llamada Paola. = Paola got a phone call.

Verbs get conjugated in unique ways in Spanish, with each verb form having a special ending depending on who is speaking or doing the action. A good place to start is by learning the most common Spanish verbs and their conjugations.

Preposiciones (prepositions)

Prepositions help us know where a noun is located, usually in a physical way, but they can also help us talk about the duration of things like historical periods. In other words, Spanish prepositions help us talk about space and time in reference to a noun. Here’s an example:

• El conejo está dentro de la caja. = The rabbit is inside the box.

Prepositions can also be used metaphorically:

• Su mente está en las nubes. = His head is in the clouds.

As we mentioned, prepositions can be used to talk about time:

• Durante la guerra, muchas personas quedaron sin casa. = During the war, many people were left homeless.

Adjetivos (adjectives)

Adjectives describe or modify nouns by making their nature clearer. Most adjectives in Spanish are placed after the noun they describe, and they should match that noun in gender and number. 

• un libro aburrido = a boring book
• unos libros aburridos = some boring books

See how the plural form of a masculine noun (usually ending in “o”) has the “s” added to the noun and the adjective?

With a few exceptions, such as colors, it’s possible to place adjectives before the noun for emphasis:

• la bella casa = the beautiful house
• las bellas casas = the beautiful houses

Our list of 100+ adjectives and how to use them gives you more details about adjectives.

Adverbios (adverbs)

Just as adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs. They tell the reader or listener more details about the action of the sentence. 

• La tortuga cruza la calle lentamente . = The turtle crosses the street slowly .

The most common adjectives in Spanish often end in “-mente,” the equivalent of “-ly” in English, but not all of them do! An example is adverbs of frequency like siempre (always) and nunca (never). 

Pronombres (pronouns)

We use pronouns all the time in English as a substitute for names or nouns. In Spanish, they’re optional when they serve as the subject of a sentence, but there are nine types of pronouns , most of which aren’t optional. It’s important to learn the subject pronouns in Spanish because they serve as the basis for learning the verb conjugations. 

• ( Tú ) lees muy bien. = You read very well.

The subject pronoun is optional, but because each verb gets conjugated distinctly for what is called “point of view” ( first person, second person, third person ), we can understand the sentence even without the subject pronoun in Spanish. In this way, we can sometimes remove one of the building blocks of our sentence in Spanish, but this is not recommended if you’re building a house!

Many of the other types of pronouns are used to indicate objects in a sentence. Don’t be fooled: In grammar, objects are not necessarily things. Rather, they are the objects receiving the action.

• Renata besó a Alfonso . = Renata kissed Alfonso .

In this example, Alfonso is on the receiving end of the verb, and he functions as the object of the sentence.

Conjunciones (conjunctions)

Conjunctions join two phrases or items in a sentence. There are three basic types of Spanish conjunctions : coordinating, correlative, and subordinating. 

Coordinating conjunctions generally unite small items or phrases of a sentence:

• Me gustan las peras y las manzanas. = I like pears and apples.

Correlative conjunctions work in pairs:

• No comen trigo ni carne. = They eat neither wheat nor meat.

Subordinating conjunctions are used for dependent clauses, meaning full phrases that depend on the other part of the sentence to make sense:

• Cuando te pica un zancudo, te da comezón. = When a mosquito bites you, it makes you itch.

Artículos (articles)

As in English, there are definite articles like el (the) that describe a known thing or person such as el monumento de la ciudad (the city monument). There are also articles like un (a) that describe an unknown thing or person such as un huracán (a hurricane). When an indefinite article is plural in Spanish— unos jitomates —it’s translated as “some tomatoes.”

When it comes to definite and indefinite Spanish articles , they need to match the nouns they accompany in number and gender. Here is a useful chart to help remember them:

Interjecciones (interjections)

Interjections and exclamations are just that: They quickly and briefly interject or exclaim something in a sentence. As in English, we often use Spanish interjections to express surprise with words like vaya (well, wow), but they can also be used to show a sudden noise. For example, pum , which might be translated as “boom.”

As you can see, some of these words don’t translate directly or they have dual meanings, another reason why studying with a program and not just a dictionary is important. The subtleties of language are not always obvious from a simple internet search. In business and public situations, it’s necessary to understand that some interjections are casual and others are more acceptable in formal situations. One way to understand these differences is with Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion method , which helps you learn a language in context.

Key takeaways for parts of speech in Spanish

There’s a lot of crossover between how the parts of speech work in English and Spanish. Here are a few things to remember about the parts of speech in Spanish:

• Parts of speech are the building blocks of sentence-making and communication in Spanish.
• Spanish has nine basic parts of speech: sustantivos , verbos , preposiciones , adjetivos , pronombres , adverbios , conjunciones , artículos , and interjecciones .
• Each part of speech in Spanish serves a specific purpose and may be used in different places within a sentence. 
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Rowena Galavitz is a Spanish translator, bilingual copy editor, and language and literature instructor with three master’s degrees. She loves Spanish and all things Mexico.

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