Parts of Speech Table

This is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click on each part
of speech.

You can also see these parts of speech examples

part of
function or "job" example words example sentences
speech
(to) be, have, do, like, EnglishClub is a web site. I like
Verb action or state
work, sing, can, must EnglishClub.
pen, dog, work, music,
This is my dog. He lives in my
Noun thing or person town, London, teacher,
house. We live in London.
John
a/an, the, 2, some,
I have two dogs. My dogs are
Adjective describes a noun good, big, red, well,
big. I like big dogs.
interesting
My dog eats quickly. When he
describes a verb, quickly, silently, well,
Adverb is very hungry, he eats really
adjective or adverb badly, very, really
quickly.
Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, some Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.
links a noun to another
Preposition to, at, after, on, but We went to school on Monday.
word
I like dogs and I like cats. I like
joins clauses or
Conjunction and, but, when cats and dogs. I like dogs but I
sentences or words
don't like cats.
short exclamation,
Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are
Interjection sometimes inserted into oh!, ouch!, hi!, well
you? Well, I don't know.
a sentence

* Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or 10 parts of speech. At EnglishClub, we use
the traditional categorization of 8 parts of speech. Examples of other categorizations are:

Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:

o Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)
o Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must)
Determiners may be treated as a separate part of speech, instead of being categorized
under Adjectives
Parts of Speech:
The words that we use can be divided into these classes:

noun - A noun is a type of word that represents a person, thing, or place, like
mother, apple, or valley.
verb - A verb is a type of word that describes an action or a state of being, like
wiggle, walk, run, jump, be, do, have, or think.
pronoun - A pronoun is a substitute for a noun. Some pronouns are: I, me, she,
hers, he, him, it, you, they, them, etc.
 adjective - An adjective is a word that describes something (a noun). Some
adjectives are: big, cold, blue, and silly. One special type of adjective is an
article, a word that introduces a noun and also limits or clarifies it; in English,
the indefinite articles are a and an, the definite article is the.
adverb - An adverb is a word that tells "how," "when," "where," or "how
much". Some adverbs are: easily, warmly, quickly, mainly, freely, often, and
unfortunately.
preposition - A preposition shows how something is related to another word. It
shows the spatial (space), temporal (time), or logical relationship of an object to
the rest of the sentence. The words above, near, at, by, after, with and from are
prepositions.
conjunction - A conjunction is a word that joins other words, phrases, clauses
or sentences. Some conjunctions are: and, as, because, but, or, since, so, until,
and while.
interjection - An interjection is a word that expresses emotion. An interjection
often starts a sentence but it can be contained within a sentence or can stand
alone. Some interjections are oh, wow, ugh, hurray, eh, and ah.