| The parts of speech explains the different ways words are used when we speak and write. Every word in the English language functions as at least one part of speech. Many words can serve, at different times, as two or more parts of speech, depending upon how they are used in a sentence.
Most books that are written about the English language say that there are eight parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. We will add one more part of speech for our studies: articles.
Here is a brief explanation of what the parts of speech are:
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Noun |
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun can tell you who, what, or where.
Examples: teacher, school, desk, thought, playground, kindness, arrival |
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Pronoun |
A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun. A pronoun is used to avoid repeating a noun.
Examples: I, me, you, he, she, it, them, they, her, we, us |
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Verb |
A verb is a word which describes an action (doing something) or a state of being (being something). The main word in the predicate of a sentence is the verb.
Examples: walk, think, believe, live, like, want, is, was |
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Adjective |
An adjective is a word that describes a noun or a pronoun. Adjectives may tell what kind, how many, or which one.
Examples: big, ugly, yellow, amazing, seven, important |
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Adverb |
An adverb is a word that describes a verb. An adverb may tell when, where, or how an action takes place. Adverbs that tell how often end in -ly.
Examples: slowly, eagerly, well, today, tomorrow, here, there, everywhere |
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Conjunction |
A conjunction is a word which is used to join two words, phrases, or sentences together.
Examples: and, but, or, because, so |
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Preposition |
A preposition is a word that comes before a noun, pronoun, or a noun phrase. A preposition links a noun or a pronoun with some other part of the sentence.
Examples: on, in, by, over, under, through, at, for, of |
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Interjection |
An interjection is an unusual type of word, because it often stands alone. Interjections are words which are added to a sentence to express emotion or surprise. Interjections are usually followed by an exclamation point, but may also be followed by a comma.
Examples: Ouch! Yuck! Hurray! Wow! Oh, Okay |
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Article |
An article is a word that is used to introduce a noun. There are only three articles in the Enlish language:
the, a, an |
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