Hi everyone! Welcome to today’s lesson on parts of speech. What does “parts of speech” mean? When we say “parts of speech,” we mean the different words in a sentence. Sound simple? Let’s dive in!
Let’s start with an example sentence:
Woah! The little squirrel quickly ran up the tree because it was scared.
Now let’s break this down:
- Woah! = interjection
- The = article
- little = adjective
- squirrel = noun
- quickly = adverb
- ran = verb
- up = preposition
- the = article
- tree = noun
- because = conjunction
- it = pronoun
- was = verb
- scared = adjective
You can see above that each word has its function; each word has its name.
The parts of speech in English are:
noun, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections
In this lesson, I’ve also included “articles.” Different sources give a slight variation on the parts of speech, but these are the ones that I think every student needs to know.
Nouns: A noun can be a person, place or thing.
person | place | thing |
teacher | Washington D.C. | pen homework phone fruit tennis racquet toothpaste wi-fi |
Take a look at the example sentences below. The bold words in the sentences are the nouns.
- Karen loves playing cards.
- My neighbor has a garden.
- I bought a new phone.
Nouns that you can see and touch are called concrete nouns, you can see these in the table above. Nouns that are feelings, thoughts, or experiences are called abstract nouns, you can see these in the able below.
|
abstract nouns | |
|
love happiness freedom courage honesty wisdom friendship fear anger joy time |
peace justice patience kindness strength beauty trust success knowledge gratitude danger |
Example sentences using abstract nouns from the table above:
- Becca enjoys the freedom of working from home.
- What’s your definition of “success”?
- Martin has a fear of small spaces.
Nouns can be singular or plural. Singular means “one.” Plural means “two or more.”
singular nouns | plural nouns (-s / - es / - ies) |
dog pen potato daisy | dogs pens potatoes daisies |
singular: I’m going to take my dog for a walk.
plural: My dogs are called Timbo and Jimbo.
singular: This potato is rotten.
plural: Can you help me peel these potatoes?
Not all plural nouns in English have a simple -s or -es ending. We call these nouns irregular nouns, you can see these in the table below:
singular noun | irregular plural noun |
child man woman foot tooth goose mouse person ox leaf knife | children men women feet teeth geese mice people oxen leaves knives |
Example sentences using irregular nouns from the table above:
- singular: (from a teacher) Parents, can you please send your child in with a sunhat and a bottle of water.
- plural: All children must come to school wearing sunblock.
- singular: My tooth hurts.
- plural: Your teeth are so white!
If a word has a singular and a plural form, it is called a countable noun.
If a noun only has one form, it is called an uncountable noun. You can see these in the table below:
|
uncountble nouns | |
|
money luggage advice information furniture equipment bread water milk |
rice sugar flour homework knowledge news traffic music baggage luggage weather cheese |
Example sentences using uncountable nouns from the table above:
- I need more furniture for my apartment.
- I have a lot of homework.
We would not say:
- I need more furnitures for my apartment.
- I have a lot of homeworks.
Pronouns: Below is a table of pronouns. Pronouns help save us time.
subject pronouns | object pronouns |
I you he she it we they | me you him her it us them |
Example sentences using pronouns from the table above:
- Evelynn brought Joanna and me coffee. = She brought us coffee.
- Mr. Stevens gave the students homework. = He gave them homework.
- The printer printed my document. = It printed it.
As you can see, pronouns replace nouns. They can help you to avoid repetition.
You can learn more about all the types of pronouns in English here:
Verbs: Below we have a table of verbs. Verbs are actions, they are what the subject does.
bare infinitive | past simple | past participle |
ask clean cook dance finish jump play start talk walk | asked cleaned cooked danced finished jumped played started talked walked | asked cleaned cooked danced finished jumped played started talked walked |
Example sentences using verbs from the table above:
- I asked a question.
- We jumped in the air.
- Toby walks to work every day.
When do we use “bare infinitive,” “past simple,” or “past participle”?
If you want to know when and how verbs are used, you need to study the tenses. There are 12 tenses in English.
If you’re finding this lesson on Parts of Speech useful, please be sure to check out my store below! 
Verbs that have the standard – ed ending are called regular verbs. Verbs that have different forms are called irregular verbs.
|
irregular verbs | ||
|
bare infinitive |
past simple |
past participle |
|
be become begin break bring buy choose come do drink eat go know see take have |
was/were became began broke brought bought chose came did drank ate went knew saw took had |
was/were became began broke brought bought chose came did drank ate went knew saw took had |
- Jim was a teacher.
- We ate lunch at 12.
- I’ve known Su for five years.
There are many types of verbs in English:
- auxiliary verbs
- causative verbs
- modal verbs
- transitive verbs
- intransitive verbs
- reflexive verbs
- phrasal verbs
- stative verbs
Adjectives: Adjectives describe nouns. They modify nouns. They help make nouns more interesting. Below I have three sentences for you, the words in bold are adjectives.
- I’d prefer a small dog to a big dog.
- Mandy is a tall American woman.
- My daughter has such a beautiful and bright smile.
Most adjectives come before the noun they are describing. But, adjectives can also go after a noun.
- Why is this paper crumpled?
- I feel scared.
- This pizza looks delicious.
Adverbs: Adverbs can describe/modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
- an adverb modifying a verb: Cheetahs run quickly. “Quickly” is describing the verb “run.”
- an adverb modifying an adjective: You are a very pleasant person. “Very” is describing the adjective “pleasant.”
- an adverb modifying another adverb: Snails move incredibly slowly. “Incredibly” is describing the adverb “slowly.”
In English, we have adverbs of manner, degree, frequency, place and time. Please see the table below:
manner | degree | frequency | place | time |
quickly slowly happily sadly loudly quietly brightly softly eagerly angrily simply strongly | very quite too extremely fairly slightly somewhat totally completely almost just nearly absolutely particularly so | always usually often frequently sometimes occasionally rarely seldom never hardly ever | here there everywhere nowhere somewhere anywhere upstairs downstairs nearby away outside inside above below around | now soon later today yesterday tomorrow already yet currently |
manner: Please speak quietly. This is a library.
degree: The printer is almost completely out of ink.
frequency: Do you always wear black?
place: I’ll meet you there in 10 minutes.
time: Please come home soon. I miss you.
Prepositions: Prepositions help us show direction, time, place, and location. You can see examples of these in the table below (I’ve also included another category called “other”).
|
direction/movement |
time |
place |
other |
|
to |
at |
at |
of |
Example sentences using prepositions from the table above:
- I walked past my favorite bakery. – direction.
- The lesson begins at 4 p.m. – time
- There’s someone behind you. – place
- You look like my sister. – relation
As you can see, a preposition comes before a noun or a pronoun.
Conjunctions: Conjunctions connect two parts together. Think about it like this: “conjunction” and “connect” both start with C.
|
coordinating conjunctions |
subordinating conjunctions |
|
for |
after since |
Coordinating conjunctions can connect:
word + word:
- I like mangoes and lychees.
- The movie was long yet entertaining.
phrase + phrase:
- Leslie finished her book and started a new one.
- My tooth is neither under my pillow nor on the bed.
clause + clause:
- He was tired but he finished his work.
- I was lost because my phone was dead.
A subordinating conjunction connects a clause to another clause.
- We went for a walk after the rain stopped.
- After the rain stopped, we went for a walk.
- We haven’t seen each other since we graduated.
- Since we graduated, we haven’t seen each other.
- I can book a ticket as long as I have enough money.
- As long as I have enough money, I can book a ticket.
Notice how subordinating conjunctions can go at the start or middle of a sentence.
Articles: In English, we have three articles: a/an/the. Articles are placed before a noun. Below I’ve created a chart for you. In it you will see I have included “no article”, this is because articles are sometimes omitted.
(indefinite article) a an | (definite articles) the | (no article) |
singular countable noun
| singular countable noun The couch is blue. plural nouns The couches on the website were expensive. uncountable nouns My parents gave me the money to buy it. | plural countable nouns Couches are usually expensive. Money doesn’t grow on trees. |
You can learn more about using articles in English here:
Articles | A, AN, THE, ‘no article’ (with video!) – How do I use these correctly?
Interjection: Interjections are sounds, they show our emotions and reactions.
- aw
- hooray
- oh
- oops
- ouch
- ugh
- wow
- yikes
- yay
Example using interjections:
- Oops! Sorry.
- Ugh, this fish smells disgusting.
- Arnel released a new video. Hooray!
Test time:
Below you will see a multiple choice test that I have put together for you. Please choose the part of speech for each word. Let me know your score in the comments below, I’d love to hear from you!
