part of

speech
function or "job" example words example sentences
Verb action or state
(to) be, have, do,
like, work, sing,
can, must
EnglishClub is a web site. I
like EnglishClub.
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.
The 8 Parts of Speech1. Nouns
Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas.
There are many different types of nouns. Here are a few: proper nouns, common nouns, collective
nouns, possessive nouns, and compound nouns.Proper. These name specific people, places, things,
or ideas.Britney, Paris, Rover, Nike
Since these nouns are naming specific things, they begin with a capital letter.
Common. Common nouns are your run-of-the-mill, generic nouns. They name people, places,
things or ideas that are not specific.woman, city, dog, shoe
Since these nouns are not naming anything specific, they do not need to start with a capital letter
unless they begin a sentence.PronounsPronouns take the place of nouns.Just like nouns, there are
many different types of pronouns. Here are a few of them: reflexive pronouns, indefinite pronouns,
possessive pronouns, and relative pronouns. Reflexive Pronouns
& Intensive PronounsReflexive pronouns and intensive pronouns are kind of like identical twins.
They look the same, but they are actually different.Both of them end in -self or -selvesmyself,
yourself, himself, herself, itself ourselves, yourselves, themselves..Reflexivehese pronouns are
objects that are used to refer to the subject of the sentence. They are a necessary part of the
sentence.I made myself a sandwich.Myself is referring to the subject which is I.My sister and I
bought ourselves popcorn at the movie.Intensive PronounsIntensive pronouns are used
to emphasize another noun or pronoun.That means that they do not need to refer to the subject.
They can refer to any old noun or pronoun in the sentence.I made a sandwich for the
President himself.The intensive pronoun himself is referring to the noun President which is an
object of the preposition.My sister herself paid for my popcorn.. VerbsVerbs show actions or states
of being.Linking verbs, action verbs, and helping verbs are described on the page above. Modals are
described here, and you can learn even more about action verbs and linking verbs.
An Introduction To Modals
Modals are types of auxiliary verbs that show a speaker's attitude about whatever they are
expressing.can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would.Since they are forms of helping
verbs, they must always be used with a main verb (as part of a verb phrase). They are never to be
used by themselves.I could play the piano for you..Could is being used with the main
verb play.I will follow you.Action Verbs Show Action!
They can show action in three ways, and you're about to learn all of them!
A transitive verb transfers its action to someone or something. There are two kinds of
transitive verbs: transitive active and transitive passive.
An intransitive verb does not transfer its action to someone or something. There is one
kind of intransitive action verb: intransitive complete verbs.A linking verb is a verb that
links the subject with either a noun that renames it (predicate nominative) or an adjective
that describes it (predicate adjective).
Adjectives are words that describe nouns and pronouns. happy baby, cold weather, green grass
Proper nouns are nouns that name specific people, places, things, or ideas. Think of proper as
meaning specific.
America, English, Paris..Proper adjectives are adjectives that are formed from proper nouns. of
them identify people, places, languages, or groups.
American cars, English grammar, Parisian scarf
Adverbs are describing words. Let's look at some examples of them describing verbs, adjectives,
and adverbs.We will eat there. There is an adverb describing the verb will eat.Your face is
extremely red. Extremely is an adverb describing the adjective red.The baby crawled very slowly.
Comparatives & Superlatives
Many adverbs can have different degrees.
Use the comparative form when you are comparing two actions or qualities.Most comparative
adverbs end in -er or begin with more (harder, more easily...). But, there are irregular comparatives
which do not end in -er (better, worse...).Use the superlative form when you are comparing three
or more things.Most superlative adverbs end in -est or begin with most. (hardest, most easily...).
But, just like comparative adverbs, there are some irregularities (best, worst...).
Prepositions are words that show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and some
other word or element in the rest of the sentence.
A prepositional phrase consists of a preposition plus a noun or pronoun (the object of the
preposition). Object of the preposition is just a fancy name for the noun or pronoun that that follows
the preposition.Conjunctions. join two or more words, phrases, or clauses
Words: silver and gold
Phrases: over the river and through the woods
Clauses: Marianne planted a flower, and she watched it grow.
In all of those examples, we used the conjunction and, one of the most common conjunctions.
Coordinating Conjunctions
There are only seven of these! for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so Some people remember these with the
acronym FANBOYS. They glue together sentence elements that are the same.
Two words: pie or cake
Two phrases: in the car or on the bike
Two independent clauses: You must study, or you won't learn grammar.
Subordinating Conjunctions (Adverb Clauses)
unless you are allergic
whenever I see your cat
sinceyou are coming
An interjection is a word that shows emotion. It is not grammatically related to the rest of the
sentencenterjections are usually one to two words that come at the beginning of a sentence.
They can show happiness (yippee), sadness (aww), anger (grr), surprise (holy cow), or any other
emotion.
Punctuation
Interjections are punctuated with an exclamation mark or a comma.Use an exclamation mark if the
emotion is very strong.Wow! I won the lottery!Use a comma if the emotion is not as strong.
Wow, I have a peanut butter sandwich for lunch