In this section, we are going to look a little more closely at the various parts of speech such as the verb, the noun, and the adjective, amongst others. This will allow us to gain a better understanding of how a sentence is formed and how the various parts of speech work.

The Noun (n.)

Noun is any word that gives a name to something, in some cases, you might hear them referred to as a ‘naming word.’ There are various different subcategories of nouns such as the proper noun, the collective noun, the possessive noun, and the common noun. Each one of these serves a different purpose, let’s look at this a little more closely.

Noun Examples:

Jeffrey, Korea, pen, New Year, dog, cat, elephant, garden, school, work, music, town, Manila, teacher, farmer, Bob, Sean, Michael, police officer, France, coffee, football, danger, happiness…

Noun example sentences:

• The teacher told the children to stop chattering in class.
• John is good at French but weak at History.

The Proper Noun

The proper noun is used to name a specific item, for example, the names of places or people or perhaps a movie or song title.

• The capital of England is London.
• Sarah is beautiful.

The Collective Noun

The collective noun is used to refer to a group of nouns, for example, people or animal groups.

• The swarm of bees was headed straight toward our picnic.
• At church on Sunday, the choir sings loudly.

The Possessive Noun

Possessive noun is used to show ownership of something, this is done by adding an apostrophe and an s, like in the following examples.

• This is my dog’s ball.
• That is Sarah’s friend.

The Common Noun

Common noun is the most simple form of a noun and gives a name to an item.

• Here is a cup.
• Do you want a cake?

Determiners and Articles

Determiners and articles are parts of speech that are used with nouns or noun phrases to clarify them. They are usually placed in front of nouns (or noun phrases) and can help specify their identity, quantity, distance (from the speaker), or specific number (among other things).

Determiners

Determiners are a part of speech that is placed in front of nouns to clarify their reference. They include categories such as:

• Articles – a, an, the
• Numbers – two, eight, ninety-nine
• Pronouns and possessive determiners – his, her, its, your, my, their, our
• Difference determiners – other, the other, another
• Demonstratives – these, those, that, this
• Quantifiers – a little, a few, much, many, some, any, enough, most
• Distributives – half, both, every, each, all, neither, either
• Pre-determiners – quite, such, rather, what.

Articles

Articles are a sub-category of determiners that serve as a type of adjective to identify nouns. They may be:

• Definitive – which indicates that the noun’s identity is already known to the audience. The word the would be a definitive article because it indicates a noun that is already known to the reader/audience (“I am going to sit in the chair.”), or
• Indefinite – indicates an unfamiliar noun, or references a noun for the first time, or shows a noun belongs to a certain class of objects. The words a and an are considered indefinite articles (“I am going to sit in a chair.”, “You are an accountant.”, or “I was born on a Thursday.”).

The Verb (vb.)

Verb is one of the most important parts of speech and is a word that is used to describe an action. There are three main types of verbs which are detailed below.

Examples:

Walk, is, seem, realize, run, see, swim, stand, go, have, get, promise, invite, listen, sing, sit, laughed, walk…

Verb example sentences:

• Don’t try to run before you can walk.
• Did you kiss anybody?
• Leave me alone!

The Action Verb

An action verb does exactly what you might expect, it describes an action.

• The man walked down the street.
• I laughed at his joke.

The Linking Verb

Linking verb is used to show a state of being rather than a physical action.

• Sarah feels cold.
• I am very tired.

The Modal Verb

Modal verbs are used to ‘help’ the main verb and can show the speaker’s thoughts or attitude about what they are saying. For example, words such as might, must, could, and can are all modal verbs.

• I might walk to the park this afternoon.
• He can eat the last slice of cake.

The Pronoun (pron.)

Pronouns are those words that replaces a noun, and once again there are various different types of pronouns within the English language. Each one is used in a different way, let’s take a look at some examples of this.

Examples:

I, me, we, you, he, she, yours, himself, its, my, that, this, those, us, who, whom

Pronoun example sentences:

• Richard isn’t at work this week; he‘s gone on holiday.
• Don’t tell her the truth.
• She tried it herself.
• You can’t blame him for everything.
• The woman who called yesterday wants to buy the house.

The Reflexive Pronoun

Reflexive pronouns are used to refer to self, for example, myself or yourself.

• I am going to keep this last cupcake for myself.
• Peter always puts himself first.

The Indefinite Pronoun

This type of pronoun is used to refer to a non-specific person or item, you might see words such as anything, few, everyone, or all.

• Can you take all of these?
• I need to speak to someone about this rash on my arm.

Learn more: Indefinite Pronoun

The Possessive Pronoun

Possessive pronouns are used to show possession or ownership of something, for example, my, his, their, or yours.

• Is this your bag?
• I have been looking after his daughter.

The Relative Pronoun

Relative pronouns are used to introduce an adjective clause. You might recognize these as words such as who, which, that, or whose.

• This is the woman who will be working with you.
• Is this the book that everyone is raving about?

The Adjective (adj.)

Adjective are words that describes a noun or pronoun, there are thousands of adjectives within the English language.

Examples:

Beautiful, seven, cute, second, tall, blue, angry, brave, careful, healthy, little, old, generous, red, smart, two, small, tall, some, good, big, useful, interesting…

Brown dog, red car, tall boy, fat cat, big garden.

Adjective example sentences:

• This is a blue car.
• The small squirrel ran up the tree.
• During the thunderstorm, we saw some heavy rain.
• My mother has short hair.
• The documentary on TV last night was very interesting.
• My son has an impressive collection of toy soldiers.
• The weather is hot and sunny today.
• My vacation was exciting.
• The leaves on that tree are green and large.

The Adverb (adv.)

Adverb are used to modify, or further explain an adjective, verb, or another adverb. They can add more information to a sentence making it more clear and easier for the listener to imagine what is being described in detail. Most of the time, adverbs will end in the letters -ly but there are some exceptions to this rule such as the words very and never.

Examples:

Neatly, in the market, everyday, tomorrow, very, badly, fully, carefully, hardly, nearly, hungrily, never, quickly, silently, well, really, almost…

Adverb example sentences:

• This is an extremely attractive photograph.
• I have a very large pet dog.
• My car drives quickly.
• When I am running late for work, I eat my breakfast rapidly.
• The boy is crying loudly.
• She carefully preserved all his letters.

The Conjunction (conj.)

Conjunctions are used as a way of joining two or more ideas or words together. Most commonly you will see the words for, and, not, but, or, yet and so used as a conjunction.

Examples:

And, however, still, but, or, so, after, since, before, either, neither, because, unless…

Conjunction example sentences:

• My boyfriend and I are going on a date.
• I will go to the shop but not before I have had something to eat.
• This is a gift for my friend.
• I was tired yet I still went to the gym.

The Preposition (prep.)

Prepositions are used in English to show a relationship between two words or phrases. You might recognize a preposition as being words such as in, before, on, at, to, between, etc.

Examples:

In, on, at, about, apropos, according to, after, along, above, except, from, near, of, before, since, between, upon, with, to, after, toward…

Preposition example sentences:

• The cat is sitting on the wall.
• I am going to the salon after my dinner.
• The boy ran along the street for an hour.
• You will find the theatre in the town center.
• I saw that news in the newspapers.

The Interjection (interj.)

Interjections could also be thought of as exclamation. They are used to emotion, reaction, or excitement and have no grammatical link to anything else within the sentence they appear in.

Examples:

Ahem!, aha!, gosh!, aw!, great!, hey!, hi!, hooray!, oh!, yeah!, oops!, phew!, eh!, oh!, ouch!, hi!, well!…

Interjection example sentences:

• Phew! That was a close call.
• Wow! Did you see how big that bird was?
• Oh, I forgot to tell you that I saw your father last week.
• Hooray! You passed your exam!
• Well, what did he say?
• Yeah! She’s going with us tonight!

How To Determine The Part Of Speech In A Sentence

In order to determine a part of speech in a sentence, look at the word being used, its context, and what meanings it brings to the sentence structure. Here are some questions you can ask about a particular word in a sentence, in order to figure out what part of speech it is.

• Is it a person, place, idea, name, or thing?   It is a noun.
• Is the word used in place of a noun?   It is a pronoun.
• Does the word convey an action, occurrence, or state of being?   It is a verb.
• Does the word modify a noun?   It is an adjective.
• Does the word modify a verb, adjective, or itself?   It is an adverb.
• Is the word placed in front of a noun to form a modifying phrase?   It is a preposition.
• Does the word link a phrase or clause?   It is a conjunction.
• Is the word a quick expression of emotion?   It is an interjection.
• Is the word placed before a noun to clarify it?   It is a determiner or an article, as explained above.

Parts of Speech and Sentence Construction

Sentence constructions as parts of speech are present in what is known as the clauses of sentences. Clauses are groups of words that have a subject and a verb. The verb is also part of an entire verb phrase known as a predicate.

Simple/Basic Sentences

In its simplest form, a sentence can have one independent clause.

For example, the sentence “I walk to the store” contains one clause.

• “I” is the subject of the clause, while “walk” is the verb.
• The ending phrase, “walk to the store” would be the verb phrase, or predicate, of the sentence.

This entire sentence “I walk to the store” is an independent clause, expresses one subject doing one action — and is known as a simple sentence.

Knowing this, apply the fact that nouns and pronouns will often be the subjects or objects of simple sentences, while verbs will convey actions. So once again:

• I (subject, pronoun) walk (verb) to (preposition) the (article) store (object, noun).

Complex Sentences

Complex sentences also contain a subject and a verb, but can not stand alone as independent clauses. For example:

“… since the weather is sunny.”

Here, “weather” would be the subject, and “is” would be the verb. So, “I walk to the store since the weather is sunny” would be a complex sentence. The parts of speech in the second part here would be:

• since (conjunction) the (article) weather (noun) is (verb) sunny (adjective).

Parts of Speech in English | Picture

In the English language, there are eight different parts of speech and each one serves its own purpose. Without them, we would not be able to form a coherent sentence and so it is important that we are familiar with what each of them is. In these images, we are going to look at each of the different parts of speech, what they are used for, and some examples of how they work within a sentence.