Parts of Speech Table
This is a summary of the 9 parts of speech*.
[spaces:0]|
part of speech |
function or "job" |
example words |
example sentences |
|
Verb |
action or state |
(to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must |
I like Grammar. I study English. |
|
Noun |
thing or person |
pen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John |
This is my dog. He lives in my house. |
|
Adjective |
describes a noun |
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. |
|
Article |
A determiner* used before nouns; to ascertain a noun definitely or indefinitely |
a/an, the |
A dog is walking outside. An elephant at the zoo. |
|
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. In the rain. |
|
Conjunction |
joins clauses or sentences or words |
and, but, when |
I like dogs and I like cats. 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! Yiiiks. Well, I don't know. |
* Some other grammar sources may categorize English into 8 or 10parts 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 an Adjective.
Parts of Speech Examples
Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech:
[spaces:0]
[spaces:0]
|
|
[spaces:0]
|
|
[spaces:0]
|
[spaces:0]
[spaces:0]
|
|
[spaces:0]
|
[spaces:0]
[spaces:0]
|
|
[spaces:0]
|
[spaces:0]
|
pronoun |
verb |
preposition |
adjective |
noun |
adverb |
|
She |
ran |
to |
the |
station |
quickly. |
[spaces:0]
|
pron. |
verb |
adj. |
noun |
conjunction |
pron. |
verb |
pron. |
|
He |
likes |
big |
snakes |
but |
I |
hate |
them. |
Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:
[spaces:0]|
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!
[spaces:0]|
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. |