English Grammar – Parts Of Speech: Overview

Parts of Speech Table

As learners of English who are looking forward to improving their English grammar, you probably want to start learning parts of speech, also known as word classes. In English, there are nine parts of speech: adjectives, nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Most of these parts of speech can be categorized into types. For example, nouns can be categorized into proper names (David), common nouns (table) concrete nouns (cake). Prepositions can be categorized in prepositions of time (before lunch), prepositions of place (to school).

It is very important to master parts of speech in order to improve grammar and writing skills. In this post, I will provide an overview of parts of speech with examples. Bear in mind that sometimes the same word can be two different parts of speech, for example, comment. It can be a verb as I commented on the post you shared and a noun as in I liked her comment so much.

This is a summary of the 9 parts of speech.

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Part of speech	Function or “job”	Example words	Example sentences
Verb	State or Action	(to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must	Tom is a funny cat. I like Tom.
Noun	Words that name thing or person	Sophia, john, table, pen, pencil, bag, car, shirt, clothes,	This is my school bag. He doesn’t live in my house. We used to live in London.
Adjectives	A word that describes a noun	Good, big, red, bad, shocking, Amazing, green	My cat is fat. I like fat cats.
Adverb	A word that describes a verb, adjective or adverb	Quickly, Slowly, Badly, Really	My cat eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats pancake He runs really quickly.
Pronoun	Replaces a noun	I, you, he, she, some	Bob is my brother; She is so gorgeous.
Preposition	Connects a noun to another word	before, in, on, under, above	We went to the beach yesterday.
Conjunction	Links clauses or sentences or words	and, but, when, for, nor, or, yet, so, since,	I like dogs and cats. I like swimming, but I don’t like ice-skating.
Interjection	Short exclamation, often embedded into a sentence or a short text	Oh! Ouch! Hi! Well. Wow	Ouch! That really hurts! Well, I have no idea.

In English, verbs can be divided into four different types.

1.Linking Verbs (be, seem, appear, look)

He is smart
She looks happy
You seem exhausted

2. Helping Verbs or Auxiliary verbs are always followed by another verb, but sometimes they are the verbs in the sentence. Check these examples: (be, have, must)