PARTS OF SPEECH OVERVIEW

Definition

 In the English language, words can be considered as the smallest

elements that have distinctive meanings.
 Based on their use and functions, words are categorized into several
types or parts of speech.
 This article will offer definitions and examples for the 8 major parts of
speech in English
grammar: noun, pronoun, verb, adverb, adjective,conjunction, prepos
ition, and interjection.

Parts of Speech - Identification

Noun :

Simply we can call it as the Naming Word. A name of a Person, Place,

Animal, Thing, etc..

Examples :Shivani, Bangalore, Tiger, Table, etc..,

Pronoun :

A word used for or in the place of noun.

Examples : She, It, They etc.,

Adjective :

A word that qualifies or describes a noun or a pronoun.

www.indiajobslive.com
Examples :

 Our team played a good game

 Every sentence that he spoke was listened to with great attention.

 All these proposals are good.

Note : Some words are used either as pronouns or as adjectives as in the

following examples.

Verb :

A verb expresses what the subject of a sentence is or does, or has, or what

is done to it.

Examples :

 Shivani teaches Maths.

 She has taught the subject for twenty-five years.
 She is a capable teacher

Adverb :

A word that modifies an adjective or a verb or another adverb.

Example :

 I am deeply grateful to you for your timely help.

 This horse runs very fast.

www.indiajobslive.com
PARTS OF SPEECH

Words are divided into different kinds or classes, called Parts of Speech,
according to their use; that is, according to the work they do in a sentence.
The parts of speech are eight in number:

 Noun.
 Adjective.
 Pronoun.
 Verb.
 Adverb.
 Preposition.
 Conjunction.
 Interjection.

NOUN:

A Noun is a word used as the name of a person, place, or thing; as,

 Akbar was a great King.

 Kolkata is on the Hooghly.
 The rose smells sweet.
 The sun shines bright.
 His courage won him honour.

Note: The word thing includes (i) all objects that we can see, hear, taste,
touch, or smell; and (ii) something that we can think of, but cannot perceive
by the senses.

www.indiajobslive.com
ADJECTIVE:

An Adjective is a word used to add something to the meaning of a noun; as,

 He is a brave boy.
 There are twenty boys in this class.

PRONOUN:

A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun; as,

 John is absent, because he is ill.

 The book are where you left them

VERB:

A Verb is a word used to express an action or state; as

 The girl wrote a letter to her cousin.

 Kolkata is a big city.
 Iron and copper are useful metals.

ADVERB:

An Adverb is a word used to add something to the meaning of a verb, an

adjective, or another adverb; as,

 He worked the sum quickly.

 This flower is very beautiful.
 She pronounced the word quite correctly.

www.indiajobslive.com
PREPOSITION:

A Preposition is a word used with a noun or a pronoun to show how the

person or thing denoted by the noun or pronoun stands in relation to
something else; as,

 There is a cow in the garden.

 The girl is fond of music.
 A fair little girl sat under a tree.

CONJUCTION:

A Conjunction is a word used to join words or sentences; as,

 Rama and Hari are cousins.

 Two and two make four.
 I ran fast, but missed the train.

INTERJECTION

An Interjection is a word which expresses some sudden feeling; as

 Hurrah! We have won the game.

 Alas! She is dead.

Some modern grammars include determiners among the parts of speech.

Determiners are words like a, an, the, this, that, these, those, every, each,
some, any, my, his, one, two, etc., which determine or limit the meaning of
the nouns that follow. In this book, as in many traditional grammars, all
determiners except a, an and the are classed among adjectives.

www.indiajobslive.com
As words are divided into different classes according to the work they do in
sentences, it is clear that we cannot say to which part of speech a word
belongs unless we see it used in a sentence.

 They arrived soon after. (Adverb)

 They arrived after us. (Preposition)
 They arrived after we had left. (Conjunction)

From the above examples we see that the same word can be used as
different parts of speech.

Exercise:

Name the part of speech of each italicized word in the following sentences,
giving in each case your reason for the classification:

 Still waters run deep.

 He still lives in that house
 After the storm comes the calm
 The after effects of the drug are bad.
 The up train is late.
 It weights about a pound.
 He told us all about the battle.
 He was only a yard off me.
 Suddenly one of the wheels came off.
 Mohammedans fast in the month of Ramzan.
 He kept the fast for a week.
 He is on the committee.
 Let us move on.
 Sit down and rest a while.
 I will watch while you sleep.

www.indiajobslive.com
They while away their evenings with books and games

EXERCISE: Decide which parts of speech are the underlined

words(verb, adverb, adjective, pronoun, conjunction, interjection,
preposition, noun)

1. You have to believe in yourself if you ever expect to be successful at

something.
2. We left for the mountain just before six in the morning.
3. We first went to the store to buy a few things.
4. We had a breakfast at a café near the rail station.
5. My friend wasn't strong enough to lift his heavy rucksack.
6. I helped him carry it.
7. The weather was very cold.
8. My friend said, "Oh! What a cold weather!"
9. We didn't spend the night there.
10. We got back home late at night but we didn't go to sleep immediately.
We were very hungry.

Answers:

1. Pronoun
2. Verb
3. Preposition
4. Noun
5. Adjective
6. Pronoun
7. Adverb
8. Interjection
9. Adverb
10. Conjunction

www.indiajobslive.com
Choose the correct answer.

Steve can play the trumpet.

1. Auxiliary
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

Do you like dogs?

1. Auxiliary
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

They listen to music every day.

1. Auxiliary
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb She is an old lady.

5. Auxiliary
6. Verb
7. Adjective
8. Adverb

www.indiajobslive.com
The group went climbing in the mountains.

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

This is a fast car.

1. Auxiliary
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

He did well in the test.

1. Auxiliary
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

My father drives carefully.

1. Auxiliary
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

Has your father ever been to Australia?

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective

www.indiajobslive.com
 4. Adverb

The play was fantastic.

1. Auxiliary
2. Verb
3. Noun
4. Adverb

I bought a beautiful dress at the mall.

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

What did she ask you to do?

1. Pronoun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

I left my shoes under the kitchen table.

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Preposition
4. Adverb

www.indiajobslive.com
If we finish our work quickly we can go to the movies.

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

On Saturdays I work from nine to five.

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

I want to go to a university in the United States.

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

I'm sure I have met your girlfriend before.

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

Well, I don't think I will be here to answer the phone.

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Interjection

www.indiajobslive.com
 4. Adverb

John knocked on the door but nobody answered.

1. Noun
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Conjunction

After lunch let's go out for a coffee.

1. Preposition
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Adverb

www.indiajobslive.com