The Main Parts of Speech
Humanities › English
The 9 Parts of Speech: De nitions and
Examples
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by Richard Nordquist
Updated February 02, 2019
A part of speech is a term used in traditional grammar for one of the nine main
categories into which words are classified according to their functions in sentences,
such as nouns or verbs. Also known as word classes, these are the building blocks of
grammar.
Key Takeaways: Parts of Speech
Word types divide into nine parts of speech, such as nouns, prepositions, Ad
adjectives, and adverbs.
Some words can be more than one part of speech, depending on context and
usage.The Main Parts of Speech
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Interjections can be sentences on their own.
Every sentence you write or say in English includes a few words that fall into the nine
parts of speech. These include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs,
prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections. (Some sources
include only eight parts of speech but leave off interjections as a category.)
Learning the names of the parts of speech probably won't make you witty, healthy,
wealthy, or wise. In fact, learning just the names of the parts of speech won't even
make you a better writer. However, you will gain a basic understanding of sentence
structure and the English language.
Word Classes
The parts of speech are commonly divided into open classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives,
and adverbs) and closed classes (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions,
articles/determiners, and interjections). Although we can add to the open classes of
words as language develops, those in the closed classes are pretty much set in stone.
(See examples below.)
Some traditional grammars have treated articles as a distinct part of speech. Modern
grammars more often include articles in the category of determiners, which identify
or quantify a noun. Even though they modify nouns like adjectives, they are different
in that articles are an essential part of the proper syntax of a sentence, and Ad
determiners are necessary to convey the meaning of the sentence.
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The Main Parts of Speech
Adjectives are optional parts of a sentence.
In contemporary linguistics, the label part of speech has generally been discarded in
favor of the term word class or syntactic category.
Noun
Nouns are a person, place, or thing (or even an abstraction, such as an idea). They can
take on myriad roles in a sentence, from the subject of it all to the object of an action
or any other (literal) thing in between. They are capitalized when they're an official
name of something or someone. For example pirate, Caribbean, ship, freedom, Captain
Jack Sparrow
Pronoun
Pronouns stand in for nouns in a sentence. Examples: I, you, he, she, it, ours, them, Ad
who, which, anybody, ourselves
Verb The Main Parts of Speech
Verbs are what happens in a sentence. They're either action words or show the state
of being (is, was) of the subject of the sentence. They change form based on tense
(present, past) and the subject of the sentence (singular or plural). Examples: sing,
dance, believe, seem, finish, eat, drink, be, become
Adjective
Adjectives describe nouns or pronouns. They specify which one, how much, or what
kind. Examples: hot, lazy, funny, unique, bright, beautiful, poor, smooth
Adverb
Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, or even other adverbs.
They specify when something happened, where, how, why, and how much.
Examples: softly, lazily, often, only, hopefully, softly, sometimes
Preposition
Prepositions show a relationship between a noun (or a pronoun) and the other words
in a sentence. They come at the start of a prepositional phrase. For example: up, over,
against, by, for, into, close to, out of, apart from
Conjunction
Conjunctions join words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. Examples: and, but, or,
so, yet, with
Articles and Determiners
Articles and determiners function like adjectives by modifying nouns, but they are
different than adjectives, in that they are necessary for a sentence to have proper
syntax. Examples: articles: a, an, the; determiners: these, that, those; enough, much,
few; which, what
Interjection
Interjections are expressions that can stand on their own as complete sentences.
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The Main Parts of Speech
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They are words that often carry emotion. Examples: ah, whoops,
ouch, yabba dabba do!
How to Determine the Part of Speech
Only interjections (Hooray!) have a habit of standing alone, though they can also
appear alongside complete sentences. The other parts of speech come in many
varieties and may appear just about anywhere in a sentence.
To know for sure what part of speech a word is, look not only at the word itself but
also at its meaning, position, and use in a sentence.
For example, in the first example here, work functions as a noun; in the second
sentence, a verb; and in the third sentence, an adjective:
Bosco showed up for work two hours late.
(The noun work is the thing Bosco shows up for.)
He will have to work until midnight.
(The verb work is the action he must perform.)
His work permit expires next month.
(The attributive noun [or converted adjective] work modifies the noun permit.)
Don't let this variety of meanings and uses discourage or confuse you. Learning the
names of the basic parts of speech is just one way to understand how sentences are
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Dissecting Basic Sentences
The Main Parts of Speech
To form a complete sentence, you really only need two things: a noun (or pronoun
standing in for a noun) and a verb. The noun gives us the subject, and the verb tells us
the action the subject is taking, the predicate.
Birds fly.
In this short sentence, birds is the noun and fly is the verb. The sentence makes sense
and gets the point across.
Go!
You can have a sentence with just one word as well, but it doesn't break the above
rule.
This short sentence is still complete because it's a command to "you"; the pronoun,
standing in for a noun, is just understood to be there. It is the subject. The sentence is
really saying "(You) go!"
It's important to note that no other two-word class combinations can form a complete
sentence unless it involves an interjection. You always need a verb to have a sentence.
You cannot, for instance, use a pronoun and an adverb alone and have a complete
sentence: She softly. This is not a sentence because we don't know what she's doing
softly.
Next, we can add more information to our first sentence by including the other parts
of speech.
Birds fly when migrating before winter.
Birds and fly remain the noun and verb. When is an adverb because it modifies the Ad
verb fly.
The word before is a little tricky because it can be either a conjunction, preposition, or
The Main Parts
adverb depending of Speech
on the context. In this case, it's a preposition because a noun
follows it. The preposition begins an adverbial phrase (before winter) that answers
the question of time when the birds migrate. It is not a conjunction because it does not
connect two clauses.
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