The 8 PARTS OF SPEECH | English Grammar |

Introduction

The parts of speech are a way of classifying different categories of words. You can use them to help you understand and analyze sentences. There are eight main parts of speech in English, which we will cover here: nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections. Hopefully, at the end of this article, you will have a better understanding of English grammar.

Nouns

A noun is a person, place, or thing. It can be seen as the name of a person, place, or thing.
Common nouns are usually used in everyday speech and writing. Some examples of common nouns include ‘the United States’, ‘the sun’, and ‘a dog’. They refer to things that everyone knows about or has heard of before and they don’t require any particular description to make themselves known to others.
Proper nouns are proper names for specific individuals (e.g., John Doe), places (e.g., Chicago), and organizations (e.g., Microsoft). Proper nouns always start with capital letters when written in full form; however, possessive pronouns such as his/her/its should not be capitalized when they are used before proper nouns: “Everyone’s attention was focused on Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.”
Singular vs Plural Nouns: Singular Nouns – A singular noun refers to only one individual item of its kind such as a car, cupboard, or tree whereas a plural noun refers to more than one item such as cars, cupboards, or trees etc; this means that if there is more than one then it becomes plural! Plurals can also be made by changing their pronunciation from singular into plural e g ‘book’ becomes ‘books’.

• Concrete Nouns – ‘Concrete’ is another word for something real. These nouns refer to tangible objects in the world such as people, places, things, or ideas like love or peace which are abstract in nature * Abstract Nouns – An abstract word refers to an idea or concept that cannot be experienced physically with our senses such as happiness.
• Collective Nouns – A collective noun is a word that refers to a group of people, places or things such as team, herd, or pack etc; so for example when you talk about your family this could include parents, children, and relatives all grouped together under one name.
• Compound Nouns – Sometimes two words can be put together to form a different word with a new meaning e g ‘airplane’ becomes ‘aircraft carrier’. These types of nouns are called composite or compound nouns.
• Countable Nouns – These nouns can be counted by adding numbers before them e g ‘one book’ or ‘two books’. * Uncountable Nouns – Uncountable nouns cannot be counted in the same way as countable nouns because their quantity is not known e g ‘water’ could refer to a glassful or an ocean’s worth so it would not make sense to say one water.
• Here is a links to test your knowledge: “Nouns Exercise | English Grammar”.
• PRONOUNS
  
• Pronouns are words that replace nouns. They are used to avoid repeating the same noun and/or using a personal pronoun. There are nine types of pronouns:
• Personal pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we)
• Possessive pronouns (mine, yours, etc.)
• Demonstrative pronouns(this, that)
• Interrogative pronouns (who? what?)
• The relative pronoun (“that”, “which”)
• Indefinite pronoun (“all”, “someone”)
• Demonstrable indefinite Pronouns (“everybody” etc.) Here is a link to a Pronoun exercise page: “Pronoun Exercise For ESL Students” ‹ Education.
  
• Verbs
  The verb is a part of speech that is used to show action, state of being, or mode.
  Verbs can be classified into transitive and intransitive verbs. Transitive verbs are followed by objects while intransitive verbs are not. This means that the subject of a transitive verb must have an object while the subject of an intransitive verb does not need an object to complete its meaning. Transitive verbs can also be called ditransitive because they take two nouns (or pronouns) in their structure: one which represents the person or thing affected by the action, another one that represents what is affected by it, e.g., I drink milk every day at midnight (subject).
  Intransitives cannot be used with objects because they express actions but don’t have any objects themselves; e.g., I go home every day at 11 pm (subject). The main purpose of using a verb in sentence construction is generally making your writing interesting and easy to understand for readers because there will be some conflict created by using verbs properly that make sense within context; therefore readers would not feel bored when reading through your sentences if you use them efficiently enough throughout each paragraph/chapter etc…
  Adverbs
• 
  Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They answer the question how in an action verb phrase. Adverbs describe a verb, adjective or another adverb by answering these questions:
• When did he arrive?
• Where are they going?
• How many do they have?
  Adverbs of manner are used to tell how something happens. For example, the adverb quickly tells how a person walked. The adverb loudly tells how someone sang. Adverbs of time are used to tell when something happens. For example, the adverb yesterday tells when he arrived. The adverb now tells when they are going. Adverbs of place are used to tell where something happens. For example, the adverb here tells where they live, and the adverb there
  tells where they are going. Adverbs of degree are used to tell to what extent or degree. For example, the adverb almost tells how many they have. The adverb very tells how well you speak English. The adverbs of time in the list below can be divided into three groups: 1) The first group includes those that refer to a specific point in time: at last, now, at this moment, by now, for a moment, for two years. For a more in-depth description here is a link: “ADVERBS | English Grammar”.

Adjectives

An adjective is a word used to describe a noun or pronoun. It can be used before or after the word it describes. Adjectives in English are categorized into one of two types: qualitative and possessive.
When an adjective comes before a noun, it’s often referred to as a “qualitative” adjective and includes words like beautiful, nice, ugly, etc.
If we say: I am handsome today! We use the adjective ‘handsome’ which is qualitative because adjectives are describing my state of being handsome (I am handsome). So the meaning becomes clearer if we change it into ‘I am good-looking’ so that now we know that this is what we want to say without any confusion about whether you’re good-looking or ugly!

See the following article for further discussion and exercises on this topic. “LEARN ESSENTIAL ENGLISH | Adjectives”.

Prepositions

• Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and another word in the sentence. For example, “The dog was on the couch” means that it was laying on top of it or sleeping next to it.
  Prepositions are also used to show time (when something happened), place (where something happens), direction (where you are going) and possession (who owns something).
  For example:
  I keep my wallet ___ the dresser.
  I’m going to __ park today.
  The book is ___ table!
• These are the most common prepositions used: at, by, for, from, in, into/into; of/of; off, onto(to)/onto; out of /out-of; through: under – upon – within* with * of/of *
• You can go to the following link to test your knowledge of the subject. “STUDYING ENGLISH PREPOSITIONS“.
• Conjunctions
  Conjunctions are a part of speech that connects words, phrases, clauses and sentences. They are used to show relationships between words and ideas. The following is a list of some common conjunctions:
• And
• But
• Or
• Yet
• So
  The most commonly used conjunction is the word “and.” There are four types of conjunctions: Coordinating Conjunctions Subordinating Conjunctions Correlative Conjunctions Transitional Phrases (also called conjunctive adverbs) A coordinating conjunction connects words, phrases, or clauses that have the same grammatical function but are not part of the same sentence. The most common coordinating conjunctions are and, but, or, nor, and for
• You can find a more detailed explanation at this Link with exercises: “Conjunctions | English Grammar for Beginners”.
  Interjections
  An interjection is a word added to a sentence to express emotion. Interjections are not used as a part of speech, so they do not have any grammatical rules or properties of their own; they simply add emphasis to the sentence. For example: “Wow! That cake was delicious!” In this sentence, the interjection wow conveys surprise and delight at the taste of the cake.
  There are many different types of interjections: exclamatory words, onomatopoeic words (words that imitate sounds), emotive verbs (verbs expressing emotions), discourse markers (words indicating shifts in topic), and expletives (unnecessary statements). Here is a deeper look into this subject with Exercise: “What Is an Interjection? | English Grammar”.
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  Conclusion
  The eight parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions.
• Nouns: Nouns are words that represent people, places, things, or ideas. They can be concrete (such as “dog” or “book”) or abstract (such as “love” or “freedom”) and serve as the subjects or objects of sentences.
• Pronouns: Pronouns are words that are used in place of nouns to avoid repetition. Examples include “he,” “she,” “it,” “they,” and “we,” which help maintain clarity and efficiency in communication.
• Adjectives: Adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns or pronouns, providing additional information about their qualities. They can express characteristics like size (“large”), color (“red”), or opinion (“beautiful”) to enhance the specificity and vividness of the nouns they modify.
• Verbs: Verbs are action words that express actions, states, or occurrences. They demonstrate what the subject of a sentence does (“run”), what happens to the subject (“fall”), or what the subject is like (“is”). Verbs are essential for constructing meaningful sentences.
• Adverbs: Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, providing information about how, when, where, or to what extent an action or description occurs. They can indicate manner (“quickly”), time (“yesterday”), place (“here”), or degree (“very”) and add details to the sentence.
• Prepositions: Prepositions are words that establish relationships between nouns (or pronouns) and other words in a sentence. They indicate the location (“in,” “on”), direction (“to,” “through”), time (“during,” “before”), or manner (“with,” “by”), among other relationships.
• Conjunctions: Conjunctions are connecting words that join words, phrases, or clauses within a sentence. They can be coordinating conjunctions like “and,” “but,” or “or,” which connect words or phrases of equal importance, or subordinating conjunctions like “because” or “although,” which introduce dependent clauses.
• In conclusion, understanding the functions of nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions allows for effective communication and the construction of coherent and meaningful sentences. Now that you know about the parts of speech, you’re ready to start learning how to use them in your own writing! It can be a little bit overwhelming at first, but don’t worry—you’ll get the hang of it soon enough.