Parts of Speech Table

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.

part of speech	function or "job"	example words	example sentences
Verb	action or state	(to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must	EnglishClub.com is a web site. I like EnglishClub.com.
Noun	thing or person	pen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John	This is my dog. He lives in my house. We live in London.
Adjective	describes a noun	a/an, the, 69, some, good, big, red, well, interesting	My dog is big. I like big dogs.
Adverb	describes a verb, adjective or adverb	quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really	My dog eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats really quickly.
Pronoun	replaces a noun	I, you, he, she, some	Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.
Preposition	links a noun to another word	to, at, after, on, but	We went to school on Monday.
Conjunction	joins clauses or sentences or words	and, but, when	I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don't like cats.
Interjection	short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence	oh!, ouch!, hi!, well	Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know.

* Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or 10 parts of speech. At EnglishClub.com, 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:
- Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)
- Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must)
Determiners may be treated as a separate part of speech, instead of being categorized under Adjectives

Parts of Speech Examples

Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech:

<table cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=7 border=1><tr><td>noun</TD>
<td>verb</TD></TR>
<tr><td>John</TD>
<td>works.</TD></TR></TABLE>

<table cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=7 border=1><tr><td>noun</TD>
<td>verb</TD>
<td>verb</TD></TR>
<tr><td>John</TD>
<td>is</TD>
<td>working.</TD></TR></TABLE>

<table cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=7 border=1><tr><td>pronoun</TD>
<td>verb</TD>
<td>noun</TD></TR>
<tr><td>She</TD>
<td>loves</TD>
<td>animals.</TD></TR></TABLE>

<table cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=7 border=1><tr><td>noun</TD>
<td>verb</TD>
<td>adjective</TD>
<td>noun</TD></TR>
<tr><td>Animals</TD>
<td>like</TD>
<td>kind</TD>
<td>people.</TD></TR></TABLE>

<table cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=7 border=1><tr><td>noun</TD>
<td>verb</TD>
<td>noun</TD>
<td>adverb</TD></TR>
<tr><td>Tara</TD>
<td>speaks</TD>
<td>English</TD>
<td>well.</TD></TR></TABLE>

<table cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=7 border=1><tr><td>noun</TD>
<td>verb</TD>
<td>adjective</TD>
<td>noun</TD></TR>
<tr><td>Tara</TD>
<td>speaks</TD>
<td>good</TD>
<td>English.</TD></TR></TABLE>

pronoun	verb	preposition	adjective	noun	adverb
She	ran	to	the	station	quickly.

pron.	verb	adj.	noun	conjunction	pron.	verb	pron.
She	likes	big	snakes	but	I	hate	them.

Here is a sentence that contains every part of speech:

interjection	pron.	conj.	adj.	noun	verb	prep.	noun	adverb
Well,	she	and	young	John	walk	to	school	slowly.

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