Parts of Speech The Basics

The Nine Parts of Speech Nouns Verbs Pronouns Adjectives Adverbs Conjunctions Articles Prepositions Interjections Every word in a sentence has a particular function.

NOUN | person, place, thing, or idea Mr. Garcia likes to eat spinach. San Diego is an old town. To cook, you need a pot. Honesty is an important value to have.

Verb | shows action or state of being Action: He was running through the forest. State of being: Steven was sad to hear that he failed the Algebra test.

Pronoun | replaces a noun John Henry was studying for the mid-term exam when he realized that it was three o’clock in the morning. Note: there are many types of pronouns: Personal Interrogative Subject Object Indefinite Relative Possessive Reflexive Check the class website for more information!

Adjective | describes a noun The happy woman sings every morning. The rainy day made us even sadder.

Adverb | describes a verb or another adverb The math student walked happily to the Algebra class. The man hungrily ate the hot stew.

Conjunctions | join words, phrases, or sentences Brahndo and Janet love to cook. You will go to school, or you will fail. I am happy because I just received my final grade. It has been cloudy since the morning.

Article | points out a noun The bicycle was red and shiny. A yellow moon appears in October. An excellent student studies to pass her exams. Note: there are two types of articles: definite (the) [specific] indefinite (a, an) [not specific]

Preposition | word or phrases that comes before a noun to show the noun's relationship to another word in the sentence. The cat was on the table. The dog was under the chair. Common prepositions: for on to up at under above toward with between in behind from upon into off

Interjection | expressive word Wow, you knocked that ball out of the park! Oh, you really need to take care of yourself. Huh, what did you say? Ah, now I understand the problem!

Practice Identify the part of speech for each word in the following sentence. The happy student was walking slowly on the cool lawn, and he was reading an Algebra book about polynomials and quadratic equations, which he enjoyed.

quadratic equations, which he enjoyed. Practice The happy student was walking slowly on article adj noun verb verb adv prep the cool lawn, and he was reading an article adj noun conj pron verb verb article Algebra book about polynomials and adj noun prep noun conj quadratic equations, which he enjoyed. adj noun prep pron verb

Let’s try some! Parts of Speech