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  2. Collocations List
  3. Irregular Verbs List
  4. Numbers Chart 1-100
  5. Verb Tenses
  6. Grammar
  7. Parts of Speech
  8. Prepositions of Time at in on
  9. WH- Question Words
  10. Grammar Quizzes
  11. Parts of Speech Quiz

Parts of Speech

What is a Part of Speech?

We can categorize English words into 9 basic types called "parts of speech" or "word classNamees". 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.

parts of speech

Parts of Speech Table

This is a summary of the 9 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click on each part of speech.

part of speechfunction or "job"example wordsexample sentences
Verbaction or state(to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, mustEnglishClub is a web site. I like EnglishClub.
Nounthing or personpen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, JohnThis is my dog. He lives in my house. We live in London.
Adjectivedescribes a noungood, big, red, well, interestingMy dogs are big. I like big dogs.
Determinerlimits or "determines" a nouna/an, the, 2, some, manyI have two dogs and some rabbits.
Adverbdescribes a verb, adjective or adverbquickly, silently, well, badly, very, reallyMy dog eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats really quickly.
Pronounreplaces a nounI, you, he, she, someTara is Indian. She is beautiful.
Prepositionlinks a noun to another wordto, at, after, on, butWe went to school on Monday.
Conjunctionjoins clauses or sentences or wordsand, but, whenI like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don't like cats.
Interjectionshort exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentenceoh!, ouch!, hi!, wellOuch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know.
* Some grammar sources traditionally categorize English into 8 parts of speech. Others say 10. At EnglishClub, we use the more recent categorization of 9 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 adjectives, instead of being a separate part of speech.

Parts of Speech Examples

Here are some examples of sentences made with different English parts of speech:

verb
Stop!
nounverb
Johnworks.
nounverbverb
Johnisworking.
pronounverbnoun
Shelovesanimals.
nounverbnounadverb
TaraspeaksEnglishwell.
nounverbadjectivenoun
TaraspeaksgoodEnglish.
pronounverbprepositiondeterminernounadverb
Sherantothestationquickly.
pron.verbadj.nounconjunctionpron.verbpron.
ShelikesbigsnakesbutIhatethem.

Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:

interjectionpron.conj.det.adj.nounverbprep.nounadverb
Well,sheandmyyoungJohnwalktoschoolslowly.

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 conjunction!
wordpart of speechexample
worknounMy work is easy.
verbI work in London.
butconjunctionJohn came but Mary didn't come.
prepositionEveryone came but Mary.
welladjectiveAre you well?
adverbShe speaks well.
interjectionWell! That's expensive!
afternoonnounWe ate in the afternoon.
noun acting as adjectiveWe had afternoon tea.