Eight Parts of Speech

The Eight Parts of Speech 

Every single word belongs to one of eight word groups or parts of speech.

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1. Nouns

Nouns are the words that name people, places, things, or ideas.

Noun Type	Examples
Common Nouns name people, places or things that are not specific.	man, mountain, state, ocean, country, building, cat, airline
Proper Nouns name specific people, places, or things.	Walt Disney, Mount Kilimanjaro, Minnesota, Atlantic Ocean, Australia, Empire State Building, Fluffy, Sun Country
Abstract Nouns name nouns that you can't perceive with your five senses.	love, wealth, happiness, pride, fear, religion, belief, history, communication
Concrete Nouns name nouns that you can perceive with your five senses.	house, ocean, Uncle Mike, bird, photograph, banana, eyes, light, sun, dog, suitcase, flowers
Countable Nouns name nouns that you can count.	bed, cat, movie, train, country, book, phone, match, speaker, clock, pen, David, violin
Uncountable Nouns name nouns that you can't count.	milk, rice, snow, rain, water, food, music
Compound Nouns are made up of two or more words.	tablecloth, eyeglasses, New York, photograph, daughter-in-law, pigtails, sunlight, snowflake
Collective Nouns refer to things or people as a unit.	bunch, audience, flock, team, group, family, band, village
Singular Nouns name one person, place, thing, or idea.	cat, sock, ship, hero, monkey, baby, match
Plural Nouns name more than one person, place, thing, or idea.	cats, socks, ships, heroes, monkeys, babies, matches

2. Pronouns

Words that take the place of nouns

Personal Pronouns take the place of common and proper nouns.	Singular	Plural
First Person: the person or people speaking or writing	I me	we  us
Second Person: the person or people being spoken or written to	you	you
Third Person: the person, people, or things being spoken or written about	she, her  he, him  it	they  them

3. Verbs

Verbs are the words that show action or a state of being.

Action Verb

clean	cut	drive	eat
fly	go	live	make
play	read	run	shower
sleep	smile	stop	sweep
swim	think	throw	trip
walk	wash	work	write

Linking Verbs

Forms of be	be, am, is, are, was, were, been, being
Other Linking Verbs	appear, become, feel, grow, look, seem, remain, smell, sound, stay, taste, turn

4. Adjectives

Adjectives are the words that describe or modify nouns or pronouns.

Proper Adjectives

These are formed from proper nouns.

They always begin with a capital letter.

Proper Noun	Proper Adjective
America	American
Britain	British
Canada	Canadian
China	Chinese
Christianity	Christian
France	French

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Articles

There are only three of these special types of adjectives: a, an, and the.

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Regular Comparatives and Superlatives

Most adjectives can be described in degrees. This means that something can have more or less of the adjective's quality.

Regular comparatives end in -er or start with more.

Regular superlatives end in -est or start with most.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
ambitious	more ambitious	most ambitious
cold	colder	coldest
comfortable	more comfortable	most comfortable
dry	drier	driest
enchanting	more enchanting	most enchanting
funny	funnier	funniest
hot	hotter	hottest
organized	more organized	most organized
pretty	prettier	prettiest
radiant	more radiant	most radiant
sharp	sharper	sharpest
wavy	wavier	waviest

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Irregular Comparatives and Superlatives

These can still be given in degrees, but they don't follow the patterns listed above.

Positive	Comparative	Superlative
bad	worse	worst
good	better	best
little	less	least
many	more	most

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Adjectives That Cannot Be Comparative or Superlative

Some adjectives don't have degrees. There is only one level of these adjectives. (For example, something cannot be more half than something else. It either is half, or it isn't.)

entire	fatal	final
half	main	pregnant

5. Adverbs

Words that describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs

Kinds of Adverbs

There are three kinds of adverbs – Simple, Interrogative and Relative. The vast majority of adverbs belong to the first group; there are very few adverbs of the second and third types.

Simple Adverbs

Simple adverbs are of very many kinds:

Adverbs of Time

These adverbs answer the question ‘when’. Examples are: tomorrow, today, yesterday, now, then, never, soon, already, ago, formerly, lately etc.

We are late.
She died two years ago.
I wrote to him yesterday.
Have you seen him before?
May I leave now?
I will soon return.
He will come tomorrow.
I have warned him already.
I haven’t read anything lately.

Adverbs of Place

These adverbs answer the question ‘where’.
Examples are: here, there, upstairs, downstairs, everywhere, nowhere, in, out, inside, away.

We have been living here for several years.
I searched for him everywhere.
They went upstairs.
May I come in?
She came forward.
I decided to go there.

Adverbs of Frequency

These adverbs answer the question ‘how often’. Examples are: again, frequently, always, seldom, hardly, often, once etc.

You are always welcome.
I have gone there only once.
We visit them frequently.
I often go there.

Adverbs of Number

These adverbs answer the question ‘in what order’.
Examples are: firstly, secondly, lastly, once, never, twice etc.

I have seen him only once.
Secondly, I can’t afford to buy it.

Adverbs of Manner

These adverbs answer the question ‘in what manner’. Examples are: slowly, carefully, terribly, seriously, well, pleasantly, really, thus etc.

The soldiers fought bravely.
Walk carefully.
I was terribly upset.
He is seriously ill.
She was pleasantly surprised.
She can speak English well.

Adverbs of Degree or Quantity

These adverbs answer the question ‘how much’ or ‘in what degree’.
Examples are: much, very, fully, partly, little, enough, so, rather etc.

He is quite strong.
She is very beautiful.
I am fully prepared.
My work is almost finished.
This is good enough.
You are absolutely right.
He is entirely wrong.
He was rather busy.

Adverbs of reason

These adverbs answer the question ‘why’.
Examples are: therefore, hence, thus, consequently etc.

He did not work hard, therefore, he failed.
Consequently he refused to come.

Adverbs of Affirmation or Negation

Examples are: surely, yes, no, certainly etc.

I will not come.
We will certainly help you.

Note that when used alone yes or no represents a whole sentence.

Will you come? Yes. (= Yes, I will come.)
Have you finished the work? No. (= No, I haven’t finished the work.)

6. Prepositions

Prepositions are the words that show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and some other word in the rest of the sentence. 

Preposition List

* Notice that this list of prepositions contains one-word, two-word, and three-word prepositions. Sometimes, words act together to form one preposition.

A

aboard, about, above, across, after, against, ahead of, along, amid, 

amidst, among, around, as, as far as, as of, aside from, at, athwart, atop

B

barring, because of, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, besides, 

between, beyond, but, by, by means of

C

circa, concerning

D

despite, down, during

E

except, except for, excluding

F

far from, following, for, from

I

in, in accordance with, in addition to, in case of, in front of, in lieu of, 

in place of, in spite of, including, inside, instead of, into

L

like

M

minus

N

near, next to

O

of, off, on, on account of, on behalf of, on top of, onto, opposite, out, 

out of, outside, over

P

past, plus, prior to

R

regarding, regardless of

S

save, since

T

than, through, till, to, toward, towards

U

under, underneath, unlike, until, up, upon

V

versus, via

W

with, with regard to, within, without

7. Conjunctions

Conjunctions are the words that join two or more words, phrases, or clauses

Coordinating Conjunctions

There are only seven of these.

Learn to diagram coordinating conjunctions.

Example: cookies and milk

Here they are:

for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

You can remember them using the acronym FANBOYS.

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Subordinating Conjunctions

There are many subordinating conjunctions. This list does not include all of them.

Learn to diagram subordinating conjunctions.

Example: I will eat broccoli after I eat this cookie.

A: after, although, as, as if, as long as, as much as, as soon as, as though

B: because, before, by the time

E: even if, even though

I: if, in order that, in case

L: lest

O: once, only if

P: provided that

S: since, so that

T: than, that, though, till

U: unless, until

W: when, whenever, where, wherever, while

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Correlative Conjunctions

These are always used in pairs.

Example: This cookie contains neither chocolate nor nuts.

both... and

either... or

neither... nor

not only... but also

whether... or

8. Interjections

Interjections are words that show excitement or emotion. They are not grammatically related to the rest of the sentence. 

Examples of interjections:

A: aha, ahem, ahh, ahoy, alas, arg, aw

B: bam, bingo, blah, boo, bravo, brrr

C: cheers, congratulations

D: dang, drat, darn, duh

E: eek, eh, encore, eureka

F: fiddlesticks

G: gadzooks, gee, gee whiz, golly, goodbye, goodness, good grief, gosh

H: ha-ha, hallelujah, hello, hey, hmm, holy buckets, holy cow, 

holy smokes, hot dog, huh?, humph, hurray

O: oh, oh dear, oh my, oh well, ooops, ouch, ow

P: phew, phooey, pooh, pow

R: rats

S: shh, shoo

T: thanks, there, tut-tut

U: uh-huh, uh-oh, ugh

W: wahoo, well, whoa, whoops, wow

Y: yeah, yes, yikes, yippee, yo, yuck