10) Parts of speech

 

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. Ilike EnglishClub.com.

Noun

thing or person

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

This is my dog. He lives in myhouse. We live in London.

Adjective

describes a noun

a/an, the, 2, some, good, big, red, well, interesting

I have two dogs. My dogs are big. I like big dogs.

Adverb

describes a verb, adjective or adverb

quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really

My dog eats quickly. When he isvery hungry, he eats reallyquickly.

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. At EnglishClub.com, 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:
    • 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