This is a chart with the 8 basic parts of speech*. Each part has a unique purpose and way to use them. It is important to understand how to use them. Practicing is the best way to learn them.
The definitions of each are below the chart. Parts of speech are the names of different types of words in grammar, like “nouns” and “verbs”.
You can find more detail about each one if you click term. The links will take you to the source, http://www.englishclub.com.
Source: English Club
part of speech | function or “job” | example words | example sentences |
Verb | action or state | (to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must | EnglishClub.com is a web site. I like EnglishClub.com. |
Noun | thing or person | pen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John | This is my dog. He lives in my house. We live in London. |
Adjective | describes a noun | a/an, the, 2, some, good, big, red, well, interesting | I have two dogs. My dogs are big. I like big dogs. |
Adverb | describes a verb, adjective or adverb | quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really | My dog eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats really quickly. |
Pronoun | replaces a noun | I, you, he, she, some | Tara is Indian. She is beautiful. |
Preposition | links a noun to another word | to, at, after, on, but | We went to school on Monday. |
Conjunction | joins clauses or sentences or words | and, but, when | I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don’t like cats. |
Interjection | short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence | oh!, ouch!, hi!, well | Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don’t know. |
- Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or 10 parts of speech. At EnglishClub.com, they use the traditional categorization of 8 parts of speech. Examples of other categorizations are:
- Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:
- Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)
- Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must)
- Determiners may be treated as a separate part of speech, instead of being categorized under Adjectives
Definitions
Verbs
Many English verbs are action words, expressing what is happening (do, work). Some verbs are state words, expressing a situation (be, have).
Nouns
Nouns represent people (teacher, Mary), places (town, Asia) and things (table, music).
Adjectives
An adjective is a word that tells us more about a noun (big, red, expensive).
Adverbs
An adverb tells us more about a verb, an adjective or another adverb (loudly, very).
Determiners
Determiners are words like the, an, this that come at the beginning of a noun phrase.
Prepositions
A preposition expresses the relationship of a noun or pronoun to another word (at, in, on, from).
Pronouns
Pronouns are small words like you, ours, some that can take the place of a noun.
Conjunctions
Conjunctions join two parts of a sentence (and, but, though).
Interjections
Interjections are short exclamations with no real grammatical value (ah, dear, er, um).