Parts of Speech

Introduction
Parts of speech are the basic types of words that English has. Most grammar books
say that there are eight parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns,

conjunctions, prepositions and interjections. We will add one more type: articles.
It is important to be able to recognize and identify the different types of words in
English, so that you can understand grammar explanations and use the right word form
in the right place. Here is a brief explanation of what the parts of speech are:

A noun is a naming word. It names a person, place, thing,

Noun

idea, living creature, quality, or action.

Examples: cowboy, theatre, box, thought, tree, kindness,

arrival
A verb is a word which describes an action (doing something)
Verb

or a state (being something).

Examples: walk, talk, think, believe, live, like, want
An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It tells you

Adjective

something about the noun.

Examples: big, yellow, thin, amazing, beautiful, quick,

important
An adverb is a word which usually describes a verb. It tells
you how something is done. It may also tell you when or
Adverb

where something happened.

Examples: slowly, intelligently, well, yesterday, tomorrow,

here, everywhere
A pronoun is used instead of a noun, to avoid repeating the
Pronoun

noun.
Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they

Conjunction

A conjunction joins two words, phrases or sentences together.

Examples: but, so, and, because, or

A preposition usually comes before a noun, pronoun or noun

Preposition

phrase. It joins the noun to some other part of the sentence.

Examples: on, in, by, with, under, through, at
An interjection is an unusual kind of word, because it often
stands alone. Interjections are words which express emotion

Interjection

or surprise, and they are usually followed by exclamation

marks.
Examples: Ouch!, Hello!, Hurray!, Oh no!, Ha!

Article

An article is used to introduce a noun.

Examples: the, a, an

part of
speech

function or
"job"

example
words

example sentences

Verb

action or
state

(to) be,
have, do,
like, work,
sing, can,
must

EnglishClub is a web site.

Ilike EnglishClub.

Noun

thing or
person

pen, dog,
work,
music,
town,
London,
teacher,
John

This is my dog. He lives

in my house. We live
inLondon.

Adjective

describes a
noun

a/an, the,
2, some,

I have two dogs. My dogs

are big. I like big dogs.

good, big,
red, well,
interestin
g
Adverb

describes a
verb,
adjective or
adverb

quickly,
silently,
well,
badly,
very,
really

My dog eats quickly.

When he is very hungry,
he eatsreally 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 onMonday
.

Conjunctio
n

joins clauses and, but,

or sentences when
or words

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, we use the traditional categorization
of 8 parts of speech. Examples of other categorizations are:

Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:

o Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)
o Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must)