Parts of Speech in the English
Language
There are thousands of words in any language. But not all words have the same job. For
example, some words express "action". Other words express a "thing". Other words "join" one
word to another word. These are the "building blocks" of the language. Think of them like the
parts of a house. When we want to build a house, we use concrete to make the foundations or
base. We use bricks to make the walls. We use window frames to make the windows, and door
frames to make the doorways. And we use cement to join them all together. Each part of the
house has its own job. And when we want to build a sentence, we use the different types of word.
Each type of word has its own job.
We can categorize English words into 8 basic types or classes. These classes are called "parts of
speech".
It's quite important to recognize parts of speech. This helps you to analyze sentences and
understand them. It also helps you to construct good sentences.
Following is an overview of the eight parts of speech, and a quiz to check your understanding:
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
This is my dog. He lives in my
house. We live in London.
Adjective
describes a noun
pen, dog, work,
music, town,
London, teacher,
John
a/an, the, 69, some,
good, big, red, well,
interesting
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My dog is big. I like big dogs.
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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. Examples of other
categorizations are:


Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:
o Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)
o 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:
verb
noun verb
noun
verb
verb
Stop!
John
John
is
working.
works.
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pronoun verb
noun
noun
verb
adjective
noun
She
animals.
Animals
like
kind
people.
loves
noun verb
noun
adverb
noun verb
adjective
noun
John
English
well.
John
good
English.
speaks
speaks
pronoun verb
preposition
adjective
noun
She
to
the
station quickly.
ran
adverb
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
young
John
to
school
slowly.
and
walk
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?"
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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:
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
Verb, noun, adverb, pronoun, preposition and conjuction!
word
part of speech
example
noun
My work is easy.
verb
I work in London.
conjunction
John came but Mary didn't come.
preposition
Everyone came but Mary.
adjective
Are you well?
adverb
She speaks well.
interjection
Well! That's expensive!
noun
We ate in the afternoon.
noun acting as adjective
We had afternoon tea.
work
but
well
afternoon
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Quiz
Determine which part of speech is the underlined
word:
1. I bought a beautiful dress at the mall.
2. What did she ask you to do?
3. I left my shoes under the kitchen table.
4. If we finish our work quickly we can go to the movies.
5. On Saturdays I work from nine to five.
6. I want to go to a university in the United States.
7. I'm sure I have met your girlfriend before.
8. Well, I don't think I will be here to answer the phone.
9. Andy knocked on the door but nobody answered.
10. After lunch let's go out for a coffee.
Answer Key:
(1) adjective, (2) pronoun, (3) preposition, (4) adverb,
(5) verb,
(6) noun,
(7) verb,
(8) interjection, (9) conjunction, (10) preposition
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