Parts of Speech

What Are The Parts of Speech?

Nouns

Adjectives

Verbs

What Are The Parts of Speech?

When mapping out the English language, we see eight types of words. Below, you'll see examples of each. When you know how the parts of speech work together, you can write readable and correctly punctuated sentences in academic English.

eight parts of speech tree. parts of speech are described below

Nouns

Can be a person, place, thing, idea, or quality. Example: Cat.

Adjectives

Describe a noun. Example: the brown cat, the soft cat, the elegant cat.

Verbs

Are action words or states of being.

Example: the cat is happy, the cat walks, the kitten plays.

Adverbs

Describe verbs.

Example: the cat walks primly, the cat meows loudly, the cat plays mischievously.

Pronouns

Replace a noun.

Example: He is a cat. She is a dog. They are my pets. If I give them a ball, they will play with it.

Conjunctions

Link words and sentences. See our page on Coordinating Conjunctions, or FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So). See our page on Subordinating Conjunctions, or dependent words (although, if, after, because, as, until, whenever, etc).

Example: The dog and the cat get along, but only if there's no food involved.

Prepositions

Shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence. This relationship is spatial, temporal, or directional.

The cat is beside the balls. The cat is in front of the toy. The toy is behind the cat. The cat is on the carpet.

Interjections

Convey emotion and are not grammatically related to any other part of the sentence.

Example: Wow, that cat is a supercat! Aww, he is so cute in his cape. Ouch! He dropped a ball of yarn on my head!

Practice

Read the following quotes be famous people. Which parts of speech are found in each? (Answers below).

“I did not attend his funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.” ― Mark Twain
“Everyone should be able to do one card trick, tell two jokes, and recite three poems, in case they are ever trapped in an elevator.” ― Lemony Snickett
“Once you can accept the universe as matter expanding into nothing that is something, wearing stripes with plaid comes easy.” ― Albert Einstein
“My ability to turn good news into anxiety is rivaled only by my ability to turn anxiety into chin acne.” – Tina Fey
"Before you marry a person, you should first make them use a computer with slow Internet to see who they really are.” – Will Ferrell

Possible Answers

Noun (funeral, letter). Verb (did not attend, sent, saying, approved). Pronoun (I, his, it). Conjunction (but). Adjective (nice). Preposition (of).
Pronoun (Everyone, they). Verb (should be, able, to do, tell, recite, are, trapped). Adjective (one, two, three). Noun (card trick, jokes, poems, elevator). Preposition (in). Conjunction (and, in case). Adverb (ever).
Noun (you, universe, matter, nothing, something, stripes, plaid). Verb (can accept, expanding, is, wearing, comes). Conjunction (as). Adverb (once, easy). Preposition (into, with). Pronoun (that).
Pronoun (my). Noun (ability, news, anxiety, is rivaled, chin acne). Preposition (to, by, into) Verb (turn). Adjective (good, only).
Preposition (before, to). Pronoun (you, them, they, who). Verb (marry, should, make, use, see, are). Adverb (first, really). Noun (person, computer, internet). Preposition (with). Adjective (slow). Adverb (first).

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