Parts of Speech

Every word in English can be classified as one of eight parts of speech. The term part of speech refers to the role a word plays in a sentence. And like in any workplace or on any TV show with an ensemble cast, these roles were designed to work together.

Read on to learn about the different parts of speech that the words we use every day fall into, and how we use them together to communicate ideas clearly.

Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place, concept, or object. Basically, anything that names a “thing” is a noun, whether you’re talking about a basketball court, San Francisco, Cleopatra, or self-preservation.

Nouns fall into two categories: common nouns and proper nouns. Common nouns are general names for things, like planet and game show. Proper nouns are names or titles for specific things, like Jupiter and Jeopardy!

Nouns are everywhere in our writing. But what are all the types of nouns you come across, and how do you use them?

A noun is a word that names something, such as a person, place, thing, or idea. In a sentence, nouns can play the role of subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, object complement, appositive, or modifier.

Some noun examples include: cat, bicycle, Taylor Swift, Kuala Lumpur

Pronouns

Pronouns are words you substitute for specific nouns when the reader or listener already knows which specific noun you’re referring to.

You might say, “Jennifer was supposed to be here at eight,” then follow it with “She’s always late; next time I’ll tell her to be here a half hour earlier.”

Instead of saying Jennifer’s name three times in a row, you substituted she and her, and your sentences remained grammatically correct. Pronouns are divided into a number of categories, and we cover them all in our guide to pronouns:

Adjectives

Adjectives are the words that describe nouns. Think about your favorite movie. How would you describe it to a friend who’s never seen it?

You might say the movie was funny, engaging, well-written, or suspenseful. When you’re describing the movie with these words, you’re using adjectives. An adjective can go right before the noun it’s describing (“I have a black dog”), but it doesn’t have to. Sometimes, adjectives are at the end of a sentence (“My dog is black”).

Verbs

Go! Be amazing! Run as fast as you can! Win the race! Congratulate every participant who put in the work and competed!

Those bolded words are verbs. Verbs are words that describe specific actions, like running, winning, and being amazing.

Not all verbs refer to literal actions, though. Verbs that refer to feelings or states of being, like to love and to be, are known as nonaction verbs. Conversely, the verbs that do refer to literal actions are known as action verbs.

Adverbs

An adverb is a word that describes an adjective, a verb, or another adverb.

Quietly is describing how you entered (verb) the room.

Always is describing how frequently a cheetah is faster (adjective) than a lion.

Example: A cheetah is always faster than a lion.

Example: I entered the room quietly.

Prepositions

Prepositions tell you the relationships between other words in a sentence.

You might say, “I left my bike leaning against the garage.” In this sentence, against is the preposition because it tells us where you left your bike.

Here’s another example: “She put the pizza in the oven.” Without the preposition in, we don’t know where the pizza is.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions make it possible to build complex sentences that express multiple ideas.

“I like marinara sauce. I like alfredo sauce. I don’t like puttanesca sauce.” Each of these three sentences expresses a clear idea. There’s nothing wrong with listing your preferences like this, but it’s not the most efficient way to do it.

Consider instead: “I like marinara sauce and alfredo sauce, but I don’t like puttanesca sauce.

In this sentence, and and but are the two conjunctions that link your ideas together.