Word Basics: The Eight Parts of Speech Overview

Because the parts of speech are considered the building blocks of the language, we learn the parts of speech for two main reasons:

  • by knowing the elements of English, you'll have an easier time using them correctly in your writing;
  • by knowing how these elements are being used, you'll also have an easier time learning their meaning.

Let's start by first reviewing a list of the parts of speech to know their definition and examples. Next, we will learn about each part of speech in more detail to understand how we can use the correct form of a word to build sentences. 

These words work together to make all kinds of messages. When you know what part of speech a word is, it's easier to see the meaning of a sentence. The parts of speech are:

Part of Speech What is it? Examples Sentence Examples
1. Nouns name a person, place, thing, or idea teacher, Robert, college, California, phone, cat, success, loyalty Robert lives in a small apartment in California with his wife and two cats.
2. Pronouns take a noun's place he, it, you, they, I He teaches college courses.
3. Adjectives describe a noun or pronoun smart, cute, expensive, black, incredible His black cat only eats expensive food. The cat is cute, but it is picky.
4. Verbs describe an action or a state teach, eat, talk, achieve – be, feel, think, believe His wife works as a teacher, too. She loves her job.
5. Adverbs describe a verb, adjective, or adverb clearly, happily, here, well, intelligently, always They always go to work together. This is a very useful arrangement.
6. Prepositions show a relationship of place, time, location, or direction between words in, on, over, at, to On Saturdays, they go to the beach.
7. Conjunctions connect words, phrases, and clauses and, so, because, but, if, when Robert and his wife are happy because their life is perfect.
8. Interjections tell emotion or surprise yay, oh no, oops Yeah, life is good for Robert, his wife, and their two cats. Cheerio!

To easily understand more grammar explanations later, it is necessary to list one other type of word:

9. Articles introduce nouns a, an, the Robert's friend has a cat and an apartment, too. The cat often sleeps at Robert's place.

Now that we know what all parts of speech are, let's look at them in more detail to see how they are different from each other and how they are used in sentences.

Source: Saylor Academy
Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Last modified: Friday, 26 July 2024, 4:17 PM