Parts of Speech

The Ten Parts of Speech

There 8 to 10 parts of speech, depending on who you ask. Some people don’t count articles or auxiliary verbs as parts of speech. But, regardless of whether they are parts of speech, it’s very important that you know what they do.

That’s the most important thing to realize: parts of speech tell you the function or purpose each word has. If you understand the purpose of each word, knowing which part of speech a word is will be much easier.

Nouns (N)

Function: Refer to a name to a person, place, thing or idea.

Nouns are things like a motorbike, football, or apple but also things you can’t touch like happiness or an idea. There are proper nouns like Ros Serey Sothea or Royal University and common nouns like street. Proper nouns have their first letters capitalized. Nouns are the only part of speech a determiner can go before.

The woman sings.

Pronouns (PRO)

Function: Same as Noun, but shortened.

Pronouns have the exact same purpose and function as nouns. We only use them so that we don’t have to repeat the noun many times when talking. It is easier to use a pronoun.

The woman sings. ↓

She sings.

But, unlike nouns, pronouns cannot have a determiner go before them.

The woman sings. ✔ [1]

The she sings. [1]

That woman sings. ✔ [2]

That she sings. [2]

My woman sings. ✔ [3]

My she sings. [3]

Five women sing. ✔ [4]

Five they sing. [4]

Many women sing. ✔ [5]

Many they sing. [5]

Every woman sings. ✔ [6]

Every she sings. [6]

Which woman sings? ✔ [7]

Which she sings? [7]

Another difference between nouns and pronouns is that pronouns cannot have a prepositional phrase add extra information to them.

The teacher from America arrived. [Noun]

He from America arrived. [Pronoun]

Verbs (V)

Function: Express action or being.

Verbs, or “main verbs,” are the center and most important part of any sentence. They are only part of speech that must always be in a complete sentence. They tell you what is going on:

The man with the green coat reads by the riverside.

With just the verb – reads – we know that this sentence is about someone reading.

They are only part of speech that must always be in a complete sentence.

John eats. [Noun; Verb]

He eats. [Pronoun; Verb]

If the subject is understood by the listener, such as in a command, a sentence can be just a verb.

Eat! [Verb]

Verbs are complicated because they are the only in English that is conjugated (meaning it is changed depending on whether the action took place in the past, present, or future, and depending on if the person doing the action is I (first-person), you (second-person), he/she (third-person).

Verbs have two separate functions: to express action and to express being. 99% of verbs express action, and only a limited number express being. We call these ones linking verbs, and some examples are to be, seem, appear, felt, and become.

Sentences follow different rules when linking verbs are used, as we will see below.

Auxiliary Verbs

Function: Express tense, aspect, and modality.  

Auxiliary verbs, also called “helping verbs,” are by far, the most complicated part of speech in English. They express aspect and modality, and the future tense. Tense-aspect-modality (TAM) makes up the grammar of any language, and about 70% of English tense-aspect-modality comes from just auxiliary verbs.

They are separated into two groups: auxiliary verbs (AUX) -- yes, it’s confusing that they use the same name twice -- and modal verbs (MOD). Auxiliary verbs include: to be (be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being) to have (have, has, had, having), and to do (do, does, did, done, doing). Modal verbs include: can, could, may, might, must, should / ought to, will / going to / shall.

Auxiliary Verbs can also be the main verbs in a sentence.

Example: “I had had a good day until I got hurt”

Modal Verbs cannot be the main verb in a sentence. 

Adjectives (ADJ)

Function: Add extra information about a noun or pronoun.

The smart student quickly wrote a very long paper.

Adverbs (ADV)

Function: Add extra information about a verb, adjective, or another adverb.

The smart student quickly wrote a very long paper.

Both adjectives and adverbs have the same function or purpose: they add extra information about a specific word, by using only one word. What do I mean by “extra information?” I mean information that could be deleted, and the sentence would still be grammatically correct. In other words, it’s still a whole sentence.

The smart student quickly wrote a very long paper.

The student wrote a paper. 

The sentence will still be complete, even if you remove all the adjectives and adverbs. We use these words because we want to add more detail about another word in the sentence. In this example, we want to say that the student is smart, that the speed the student wrote the paper was fast, and that the paper was very long.

*** This is not true for adjectives if the main verb is a linking verb, such as in:

The student is tired.

If we try to delete the adjective, the sentence is incomplete.

The student is.

However, you can always delete adverbs.

The student is very tired.

The student is tired. ✔

Prepositions (PREP)

Function: Begins an extra phrase that adds extra information about another word in the sentence.

The student waited in the hallway.

This phrase is called a prepositional phrase and the whole phrase works just like an adjective or an adverb – it adds extra information to a noun, verb, or adjective. In this example, it adds extra information to the verb waited – it  tells you where the waiting happened. Here are some other examples where the prepositional phrase adds information to other parts of speech:

 The student waited in the hallway. [Verb]

The teacher from America arrived. [Noun]

Panha was sick with the flu. [Adjective]

Conjunctions (CONJ)

Function: Begins an extra phrase that has a verb and adds on to the sentence in general.

The student waited and then he went home.

Both prepositions and conjunctions start new, extra phrases. Similar to adjectives and adverbs, the whole phrase can be deleted and the sentence will still be grammatically correct:

The student waited.

The difference is that the phrase that a conjunction starts is a clause, meaning it contains a verb. A prepositional phrase never contains a verb.

Just like adjectives, prepositional phrases cannot be deleted if the main verb is a linking verb.

The student is in the hallway.

The student is.

However, phrases started by a conjunction can always be deleted.

The student is in the hallway and he is impatient.

The student is in the hallway. ✔

Determiner (DET)

Function: A type of adjective that gives specific information about a noun.

There are 7 types of determiners. The first is called an article.

An article comes before a noun and shows whether it is general or specific. There are only 3 in the entire language (the, a, an).

The is used to refer to a specific noun. A or an is used to refer to any noun. Use a if the first letter of the next word is a consonant, and use an if the first letter of the word is a vowel.

The second is this or that. The third is a possessive determiner such as (my, his, her, our, their, your, John’s, etc.). The fourth is any number (e.g. three cats). The fifth is any quantifier (such as many, most, some, few, etc.). The sixth is words like each, every, all, etc. The final is interrogative determiners that are used in questions, such as which or what.

Remember that every one of these comes immediately before a noun, or it is not a determiner.

An easy test to do to see if a word is a determiner is to simply switch out the word with an article (the, a, an) and see if the sentence still works. If it does, then the word is a determiner.

Interjection (INT)

Function: To express emotion, often suddenly or loudly. Examples: Wow! Ah! Gahh! Shh! Boo! Oh my!

Notice: The following pairs of parts of speech each have a lot in common. 

What is this Word?

Tips for Figuring Out Parts of Speech 

• Try switching out the word with a word that already know what part of speech it is. For example, if you didn’t know the part of speech of afternoon below:

In the afternoon, the children swam. ↓

In the watery, the children swam. [Adjective]

In the quite, the children swam. [Adverb]

In the teach, the children swam. [Verb]

In the ocean, the children swam. [Noun]

• • • • Since the noun you switched afternoon out with can form a grammatically correct sentence, we know afternoon must be a noun. This will work with any part of speech, except prepositions, conjunctions, auxiliary verbs, and interjections.

• If the main verb express action, you can always delete adjectives and adverbs, and the sentence will still be grammatically correct (it still makes sense). So, ask yourself, “If I delete this word, will the sentence still make sense?” If yes, then it’s an adjective or adverb.

  • • • Then, ask yourself if the word modifies a noun (like an adjective) or modifies a verb, adjective, or adverb (like an adverb).

• If the word begins a phrase that you can delete, then it’s either a preposition or a conjunction. So, ask yourself, “Can I delete this whole phrase and have the whole sentence still make sense?” If yes, then the word is either a conjunction or a preposition.

  • • • Then, ask your if the phrase that the word begins has a verb in it (like a conjunction), or if it begins a phrase without a verb (like a preposition).

• If you can switch out any word with a, an, or the and it still makes sense, then it is a determiner.