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Parts of Speech

The eight parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections.

Noun

A noun is generally defined as a person, place, or thing; however, ideas are also nouns. For example, love is not a tangible thing that can be seen or held, but clearly it exists, so it is a also a noun.

Nouns can be divided into two main categories: proper nouns and common nouns. Proper nouns are the names of people or places that are capitalized (Aims Community College, John Smith, etc.). Common nouns are names that do not require capitalization (book, chair, school, etc).

Verb

A verb is a word that describes action or a state of being. The second part of this definition is important, as many believe that verbs are always action words that can be visualized. This is true of action verbs: run, walk, play, jump, sing, scream, etc.

However, there are also linking verbs, and these types of verbs do not express action; instead, they express identity, classification, or existence. (The following are the most common linking verbs: is, am, was, were, are, and verb phrases ending in be, been, being.)

Verbs often change their form as different endings are added to them. These endings are changed to show a verb's relationship to time. This is referred to as verb tense.

Infinitive

An infinitive is the most basic form of a verb. In English, inifinitives are usually used with "to" (for example, "to shout", or "to whisper").

Pronoun

A pronoun is a word that is used to replace a noun For example, instead of saying "Sam likes pizza" we can use "He" as a substitute for Sam. Writers need to be careful with pronoun use, as pronouns should only be used after a noun has been used first, and it must be clear which noun the pronoun is replacing.

Adjective

An adjective modifies (limits or describes) a noun or a pronoun. Essentially, it provides more information about a person, place, or thing. For instance, in the sentenceFrank is a tall, skinny man, bothtallandskinnyare adjectives as they are used to describe Frank.

Adverb

Similar to adjectives, an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. In the sentenceSusan walked slowly towards the door, the wordslowlyserves as an adverb since it describes how she walked.

A word or phrase that modifies or qualifies an adjective, verb, or other adverb or a word group, expressing a relation of place, time, circumstance, manner, cause, degree, etc. (e.g.,gently,quite,then,there).

An adverb is a word that is used to change, modify or qualify several types of words including an adjective, a verb, a clause, another adverb, or any other type of word or phrase, with the exception of determiners and adjectives, that directly modify nouns. A good way to understand adverbs is to think about them as the words that provide context. Specifically, adverbs provide a description of how, where, when, in what manner and to what extent something is done or happens. Normally, we can spot an adverb by the fact that it often ends in --ly, but there are lots of adverbs that don't end in this way. Moreover, adverbs can be used in many combinations with each other.

https://www.gingersoftware.com/content/grammar-rules/adverb

Preposition

A preposition shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and some other word in the sentence. This relationship is spatial, temporal, or directional. For instance, in the sentenceMark walked towards the house, the wordtowardsis a preposition since it shows direction. When linked with nouns or pronouns, prepositions create word groups referred to as prepositional phrases. (In the previous example, towards the houseis a prepositional phrase.)

Conjunction

Conjunctions are used to link words or parts of sentences together. There are four different types of conjunctions: coordinating, subordinating, adverb, and correlative.

  • Coordinating conjunctions(for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) are used to connect similar words or independent clauses (sentences) together. Coordinating conjunctions are often referred to with the acronym FANBOYS.
  • Subordinating conjunctionscome at the beginning of subordinate clauses and are used to connect the subordinate clause to the rest of the sentence (also referred to as the independent clause). Common subordinating conjunctions include after, as, although, because, before, even though, if, once, rather than, since, that, though, unless, until, when, whenever, whereas, while.
  • Conjunctive adverbsare transitional words used to connect one sentence to another. Common conjunctive adverbs include additionally, in addition, moreover, also, consequently, furthermore, otherwise, instead, for instance, for example, however, on the other hand, conversely, nevertheless, accordingly, therefore, generally, in fact, in other words, in conclusion, finally.
  • Correlative conjunctionsare a combination of a coordinating conjunction and another word (example: In the sentencebothJohnandI are having a hard time with the homework, both...andare the correlative conjunctions.)

Interjection

An interjection is a word added to a sentence to convey emotion and is not grammatically related to any other part of the sentence. Interjections can also serve as a single word sentence (ex: Wow!). Interjections are rarely used in academic writing and their use should be avoided in most essays.

https://www.aims.edu/student/online-writing-lab/grammar/parts-of-speech.php

Gerund

a verb form which functions as a noun

in Latin ending in-ndum(declinable), in English ending in-ing

e.g.asking indo you mind my asking you?