What is a Part of Speech?
We can categorize English words into 9 basic types called “parts of speech” or “word classes”. 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.
Parts of Speech Table
This is a summary of the 9 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 is a web site. I like EnglishClub. |
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 |
good, big, red, well, interesting |
My dogs are big. I like big dogs. |
Determiner |
limits or “determines” a noun |
a/an, the, 2, some, many |
I have two dogs and some rabbits. |
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 traditionally categorize English into
8 parts of speech. Others say
10. At EnglishClub, we use the more recent categorization of
9 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 adjectives, instead of being a separate part of speech.
Parts of Speech Examples
Here are some examples of sentences made with different English parts of speech:
noun |
verb |
verb |
John |
is |
working. |
pronoun |
verb |
noun |
She |
loves |
animals. |
noun |
verb |
noun |
adverb |
Tara |
speaks |
English |
well. |
noun |
verb |
adjective |
noun |
Tara |
speaks |
good |
English. |
pronoun |
verb |
preposition |
determiner |
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. |
det. |
adj. |
noun |
verb |
prep. |
noun |
adverb |
Well, |
she |
and |
my |
young |
John |
walk |
to |
school |
slowly. |
Source: englishclub.com
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