This document defines and provides examples of the main parts of speech in English: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, pronouns, prepositions, and conjunctions. It explains their grammatical functions and categories. For each part of speech, it gives definitions and examples to illustrate their uses in sentences.
2. Parts of Speech
The grammatical function that each word has in
the text.
The parts of speech are:
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Article
Pronoun
Preposition
Conjunction
3. The Noun
A noun is a word used to name a
person, animal, place, thing, and abstract
idea.
Late last year our neighbors bought a goat.
The bus inspector looked at all the
passengers' passes.
4. The Noun
Noun Gender
Female or Male
Noun Number
Singular or Plural
Possessive Nouns
The red suitcase is Cassandra's.
The miner's face was covered in coal dust.
5. The Noun
Proper Nouns
Canada is a large country.
Concrete
The stone is on the road.
Abstract
Justice often seems to slip out of our grasp.
6. The Noun
Countable
We painted the table red and the chairs blue.
Non-countable
Oxygen is essential to human life.
Collective Nouns
The flock of geese spends most of its time in
the pasture.
7. The Verb
The verb is perhaps the most important part
of the sentence. A verb or compound verb
asserts something about the subject of the
sentence and express actions, events, or
states of being. The verb or compound verb is
the critical element of the predicate of a
sentence.
The guitar player hasnt tuned the guitar.
The guitar is not tuned.
8. The Verb
Transitive
Intransitive
Linking
Verb Tenses
The postman delivered a package last week.
The assistant answers the phone.
The teacher will hand out some worksheets.
9. The Adjective
An adjective modifies a noun or a pronoun by
describing, identifying, or quantifying words.
An adjective usually precedes the noun or the
pronoun which it modifies.
They bought a beautiful chair.
10. The Adjective
Possessive Adjectives
Her dog is a Chihuahua.
Demonstrative Adjectives
They brought those books.
Interrogative Adjectives
Whose car is that?
Indefinite Adjectives
Some people enjoy this park.
11. The Adverb
An adverb can modify a verb, an
adjective, another adverb.
The girl walks slowly.
They are very selfish.
He sings very passionately.
12. The Article
An article is a word that combines with a noun
to indicate the type of reference being made
by the noun.
Indefinite Article
A university was founded last year.
An honest man must take that position.
Definite Article
The people in this neighborhood are very
happy.
13. The Pronoun
Subject Object Possessive Reflexive Other
I
You
He
She
It
We
They
Me
You
Him
Her
It
Us
Them
Mine
Yours
His
Hers
Its
Ours
Theirs
Myself
Yourself
Yourselves
Himself
Herself
Itself
Ourselves
Themselves
Demonstrative
This makes the process easier.
Interrogative
Who called?
Relative
The chair which you bought is nice.
Indefinite
Something happened
A pronoun can replace a noun or another
pronoun.
14. The Preposition
A preposition links nouns, pronouns and
phrases to other words in a sentence. The
word or phrase that the preposition
introduces is called the object of the
preposition.
About
Above
Across
After
Against
Along
Among
Around
At
Before
Behind
Below
Beneath
Beside
Between
Beyond
But
By
Despite
Down
During
Except
For
From
In
Inside
Into
Like
Near
Of
Off
On
Onto
Out
Outside
Past
Since
Through
Over
Throughout
Till
To
Toward
Under
Underneath
Until
Up
Upon
With
Within
Without
15. The Conjunction
You can use a conjunction to link
words, phrases, and clauses
Coordinating
He is kind but clumsy.
Subordinating
I would buy a new house if I won the lottery.
Correlative
Bring either a salad or a potato scallop.