Parts of Speech Table
This is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click on each part of speech.
part of speech |
function or "job" |
example words |
example sentences |
Verb |
action or state |
(to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must |
EnglishClub.com is a web site. I like EnglishClub.com. |
Noun |
thing or person |
pen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John |
This is my dog. He lives in my house. We live in London. |
Adjective |
describes a noun |
a/an, the, 2, some, good, big, red, well, interesting |
I have two dogs. My dogs are big. I like big dogs. |
Adverb |
describes a verb, adjective or adverb |
quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really |
My dog eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats really quickly. |
Pronoun |
replaces a noun |
I, you, he, she, some |
Tara is Indian. She is beautiful. |
Preposition |
links a noun to another word |
to, at, after, on, but |
We went to school on Monday. |
Conjunction |
joins clauses or sentences or words |
and, but, when |
I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don't like cats. |
Interjection |
short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence |
oh!, ouch!, hi!, well |
Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know. |
* Some grammar sources categorize English into
9 or
10 parts of speech. At EnglishClub.com, we use the traditional categorization of
8 parts of speech. Examples of other categorizations are:
- Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:
- Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)
- Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must)
- Determiners may be treated as a separate part of speech, instead of being categorized under Adjectives
Parts of Speech Examples
Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech:
|
|
|
|
noun |
verb |
verb |
John |
is |
working. |
|
pronoun |
verb |
noun |
She |
loves |
animals. |
|
|
noun |
verb |
adjective |
noun |
Animals |
like |
kind |
people. |
|
noun |
verb |
noun |
adverb |
Tara |
speaks |
English |
well. |
|
|
noun |
verb |
adjective |
noun |
Tara |
speaks |
good |
English. |
|
pronoun |
verb |
preposition |
adjective |
noun |
adverb |
She |
ran |
to |
the |
station |
quickly. |
pron. |
verb |
adj. |
noun |
conjunction |
pron. |
verb |
pron. |
She |
likes |
big |
snakes |
but |
I |
hate |
them. |
Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:
interjection |
pron. |
conj. |
adj. |
noun |
verb |
prep. |
noun |
adverb |
Well, |
she |
and |
young |
John |
walk |
to |
school |
slowly. |
Words with More than One Job
Many words in English can have more than one job, or be more than one
part of speech. For example, "work" can be a verb and a noun; "but" can
be a conjunction and a preposition; "well" can be an adjective, an
adverb and an interjection. In addition, many nouns can act as
adjectives.
To analyze the part of speech, ask yourself: "What
job is this word doing in this sentence?"
In the table below you can see a few examples. Of course, there are
more, even for some of the words in the table. In fact, if you look in a
good dictionary you will see that the word "
but" has six jobs to do:
- verb, noun, adverb, pronoun, preposition and conjuction!
word |
part of speech |
example |
work |
noun |
My work is easy. |
verb |
I work in London. |
but |
conjunction |
John came but Mary didn't come. |
preposition |
Everyone came but Mary. |
well |
adjective |
Are you well? |
adverb |
She speaks well. |
interjection |
Well! That's expensive! |
afternoon |
noun |
We ate in the afternoon. |
noun acting as adjective |
We had afternoon tea. |