Parts of Speech in the English Language

Parts of Speech in the English Language

There are thousands of words in any language. But not all words have the same job. For example, some words express "action". Other words express a "thing". Other words "join" one word to another word. These are the "building blocks" of the language. Think of them like the parts of a house. When we want to build a house, we use concrete to make the foundations or base. We use bricks to make the walls. We use window frames to make the windows, and door frames to make the doorways. And we use cement to join them all together. Each part of the house has its own job. And when we want to build a sentence, we use the different types of word. Each type of word has its own job.

We can categorize English words into 8 basic types or classes. These classes are called "parts of speech".

It's quite important to recognize parts of speech. This helps you to analyze sentences and understand them. It also helps you to construct good sentences.

Following is an overview of the eight parts of speech, and a quiz to check your understanding:

Parts of Speech Table

This is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click on each part of speech.

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, 69, some, good, big, red, well, interesting	My dog is 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. 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.

Parts of Speech Examples

Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech:

verb Stop!

noun verb John works.

noun verb verb John is working.

 

pronoun verb noun She loves animals.

noun verb adjective noun Animals like kind people.

 

noun verb noun adverb John speaks English well.

noun verb adjective noun John speaks good English.

 

pronoun	verb	preposition	adjective	noun	adverb
She	ran	to	the	station	quickly.

 

pron.	verb	adj.	noun	conjunction	pron.	verb	pron.
She	likes	big	snakes	but	I	hate	them.

Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:

interjection	pron.	conj.	adj.	noun	verb	prep.	noun	adverb
Well,	she	and	young	John	walk	to	school	slowly.

Words with More than One Job

Many words in English can have more than one job, or be more than one part of speech. For example, "work" can be a verb and a noun; "but" can be a conjunction and a preposition; "well" can be an adjective, an adverb and an interjection. In addition, many nouns can act as adjectives.

To analyze the part of speech, ask yourself: "What job is this word doing in this sentence?"

In the table below you can see a few examples. Of course, there are more, even for some of the words in the table. In fact, if you look in a good dictionary you will see that the word but has six jobs to do:

• Verb, noun, adverb, pronoun, preposition and conjuction!

word	part of speech	example
work	noun	My work is easy.
	verb	I work in London.
but	conjunction	John came but Mary didn't come.
	preposition	Everyone came but Mary.
well	adjective	Are you well?
	adverb	She speaks well.
	interjection	Well! That's expensive!
afternoon	noun	We ate in the afternoon.
	noun acting as adjective	We had afternoon tea.

Quiz

Determine which part of speech is the underlined word:

1.      I bought a beautiful dress at the mall.

2.      What did she ask you to do?

3.      I left my shoes under the kitchen table.

4.      If we finish our work quickly we can go to the movies.

5.      On Saturdays I work from nine to five.

6.      I want to go to a university in the United States.

7.      I'm sure I have met your girlfriend before.

8.      Well, I don't think I will be here to answer the phone.

9.      Andy knocked on the door but nobody answered.

10.  After lunch let's go out for a coffee.

Answer Key:

(1) adjective, (2) pronoun, (3)  preposition, (4)  adverb,         (5) verb, (6) noun,       (7) verb,        (8) interjection, (9) conjunction, (10) preposition