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Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech in the English Language

Learn here the basics of English Grammar. Parts of Speech will become the overall framework of your language knowledge and will help you understand how the language is structured.

In order to build your basic grammar foundation it is very important to become familiar with the name of each part of speech and to expand your knowledge about each one of them.

A part of speech is a category of words that have similar properties. Many English words can belong to more than one part of speech.

There are 8 Parts of Speech

*Commonly, articles are classified under nouns.

Words are the building blocks of your communications, take some time to read and understand how they are classified and how they are applicable in your daily life.

Nouns

A noun is a word that functions to name a person, place, thing, or idea. Please note that when you are studying the Parts of Speech in English, articles are usually under nouns because they often refer to nouns.

Here you can study and learn more about Articles (A – AN – THE)

Nouns are divided in 6 groups, but one noun can belong to more than one group:

Type	Use	Examples
Common Nouns	General groups, people, animals, places, or things.	school car house building
Proper Nouns	Specific people, places, or things. The first letter must be capitalized.	John New York Monday Santa Claus
Concrete Nouns	Experienced through our senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch.	apple hamburger orange loud
Abstract Nouns	Things that are abstract.	love hate passion jealous
Collective Nouns	Groups as a unit.	family band team gang
Compound Nouns	Composed of two or more words that can be spelled together or separated.	sunset remote control breakfast mother-in-law

They can also be classified as masculine, feminine or neuter. Singular or plural. Mass nouns (meat, sugar and cheese), countable nouns (dogs, chair, tables and cars) and uncountable nouns (gold, information work and furniture).

Pronouns

A pronoun substitutes a noun. A pronoun is a word that you use to refer to someone or something when you do not need to use a noun or when it was mentioned before.

The pronoun takes the place of a common noun or a proper noun and it is also used to avoid repetition.

There are different kinds of pronouns:

Type	Pronoun	Use	Example
Personal Pronouns	I you he she it we you they	To replace words for people, places or things.	I am tall. He is a teacher.
Subject Pronouns	I you he she it we you they	Identifies what the sentence is about.	He walks. She talks. They like dogs.
Possessive Pronouns	mine yours his hers its ours yours theirs	To show possession. There is no apostrophe.	This book is mine. The car is hers.
Object Pronouns	me you him her it us you them	Receives the action of the verb or is used in a prepositional phrase.	The gift is for him.
Demonstrative Pronouns	This That These Those	To point out things.	This is my dog. These are my pets.
Indefinite Pronouns	Everyone Anyone Someone Anybody Nobody	They do not refer directly to any other word. Most indefinite pronouns express the idea of quantity.	Everyone is home. Nobody wants to go to show.

Here you can study and learn more about Pronouns

Adjectives

Adjectives describe and modify nouns and pronouns. They give you more information about people, places and things.

Adjectives can tell you the following things:

Type	Examples
Quantity (numerical adjective)	one two
Opinion / Quality	beautiful ugly
Size	small big
Shape	curved flat
Age	new old
Color	blue yellow
Origin	Spanish Italian
Material	plastic wooden
Purpose*	running shoes a frying pan

*A noun used as an adjective.

Adjectives can also compare two things and all things:

Adjective	Comparative	Superlative
large	larger	largest
big	bigger	biggest
beautiful	more beautiful	most beautiful
difficult	more difficult	most difficult
good	better	best
bad	worse	worst

Here you can learn Comparative and Superlative Adjectives

Verbs

Verbs are the most fundamental part of speech. They can describe actions, senses and even act as helpers.

Types of Verbs:

Type	Use	Examples
Action Verbs	To describe actions. Active agent.	to eat to drink to talk to walk
Non-Action Verbs	To tell about states of mind or senses. They do not express physical action. Passive recipient.	to think to look to hear to understand
Linking Verbs	A state of being. Mostly used to describe the subject by connecting it to a predicate adjective or predicate noun. They do not describe any direct action taken or controlled by the subject	am is are was were
Helping Verbs	They act as helpers of the main verb to express its full meaning, to make a statement, give a command or ask a question.	am, is, are, was, were have, has, had do, does, did can, could will, would may, might

All Verbs in English can be divided in Regular and Irregular. Most verbs are regular.

List of Irregular Verbs

We also have the Verb Tenses: Present, Past, Future and Conditional.

Subdivided in Simple, Continuous, Perfect and Perfect Continuous.

Example of Verb Tenses:

VERB TENSE	Present	Past	Future	Conditional
Simple	go(es)	went	will go (going to go)	would go
Continuous or Progressive	am/is/are going	was/were going	will be going	would be going
Perfect	have/has gone	had gone	will have gone	would have gone
Perfect Continuous or Present Progressive	have/has been going	had been going	will have been going	would have been going

Here you can study and learn more about Verb Tenses in English

Study Also:

Adverbs

Adverbs act as modifiers. They add to or modify the meaning of verbs.

Adverbs can be classified in five groups:

Type	Use	Example
Adverbs of Time	To tell when something happens, happened or will happen.	today yesterday tomorrow now before after soon later
Adverbs of Frequency	To tell how frequently something happens, happened or will happen.	always never often sometimes
Adverbs of Duration	To tell how long something happens, happened or will happen.	temporarily overnight for three days a very long time for over an hour
Adverbs of Location or Place	To tell where something happens, happened or will happen.	above below inside outside here there
Adverbs of Manner	To tell how something happens, happened or will happen. They describe the way something is done.	well slowly quickly carefully gently elegantly loudly silently
Adverbs of Degree	To tell to what extent something happens, happened or will happen.	fully totally completely nearly almost
Adverbs of Emphasis	To emphasise something.	really very too just quite

Here you can study and learn more about Adverbs

Prepositions

Prepositions are words that express a connection between other words, they show a relationship in a sentence. They have only one form, they don’t take a plural, a possessive, an inflection, or any other thing.

Prepositions can express:

Type	Use	Examples
Prepositions of Time	To express an event in time or time shown on a clock.	in on at
Prepostions of Location or Place	To describe a location or a place of someone or something.	in on at
Prepostitions of Direction or Movement	To express direction or movement or someone or something.	into out of across

Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words used to link words, phrases or independent clauses.They can also be used to contrast or compare parts of a sentence or express subordinative clause.

Type	Use	Examples
Coordinating Conjunctions	To link words, phrases or independent clauses.	and or nor but so
Correlative Conjunctions	To contrast or compare equal parts of a sentence.	both / and not only / but also either / or neither / nor
Subordinating Conjunctions	To express a subordinative clause.	although even if unless

Although Conjunctions are not forbidden to be used at the beginning of a sentence, you should be very carefully not to overdo that when you are writing as it signals a very poor way to express your ideas.

Interjections

Interjections express emotion or surprise. They are often signaled by an exclamation mark or a comma.

Use	Examples
To express mood emotions and feelings. Like surprise, pleasure, disappointment or pain.	Wow! That is great news. What! Why you never told me that? Ouch! That hurts.
To express YES or NO.	Yes! I knew you were going to pass the test. Nope! That is not it.
To interrupt a thought or a conversation.	Well, I didn’t know you would feel that way. I’m, uh, so embarrassed to tell you that.