Nouns identify people, places, or things. A common noun is a general word or name (president, country, bridge). A proper noun is the name of a specific person, place, or thing (George Washington, France, Golden Gate Bridge).

Verbs are action words that tell what nouns or pronouns do. For instance, laugh, grow, run, play, talk, and read are all verbs.

Adjectives describe nouns or pronouns. Adjectives answer the questions what kind, which one, how many, or how much. Some examples are a fast car, an orange flower, and five teams.

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. Adverbs answer the questions how, when, where, and to what extent. Some adverbs are made by adding an -ly to an adjective (loudly, slowly). However, most adverbs do not have a form that is easy to spot. Some examples are wait patiently, speak now, sit there, and very quickly.

Prepositions tell how words in a sentence relate to one another in time or space. Some examples of prepositions are on, in, before, and about.

Conjunctions combine parts of a sentence, or whole sentences, into one sentence. Some conjunctions are and, but, and or. An example is “It was raining, but I did not get wet. I had an umbrella.”

Interjections are used to show emotion. Some examples of interjections are wow, ouch, hooray, and oh no.

Pronouns replace nouns. Some common pronouns are he, she, it, and they. For example, “Joey rode his bike to the store. He locked the bike up before he went into the store.”

A figure of speech involving the comparison of one thing with another thing of a different kind, used to make a description more emphatic or vivid (e.g., as brave as a lion, crazy like a fox ).