Parts of Speech in English

Words can be divided into 9 categories according to their use. These categories are called "parts of speech" or "word classes". Knowing all the parts of speech is important to construct grammatically correct sentences. In English, the basic parts of speech are noun, pronoun, adjective, determiner, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. In some sources, determiners are not a separate part of speech because they are classed as adjectives.

Parts of Speech Table

The table below shows a summary of the English parts of speech.

Part of speech	Function	Examples	Example sentences
Noun	refers to a person or thing	doctor, teacher, Italy, school, coffee, Ann	Ann is a teacher. She goes to school.
Pronoun	is used instead of a noun	you, he, she, it, mine, this	I’d asked Peter but he didn’t come.
Adjective	describes a noun or pronoun	big, deep, happy, red	The water is deep here. He swam indeep water.
Determiner	introduce a noun	a, the, my, 2, every, many	My two best friends are Brian and Earl.
Verb	expresses an action or state	go, know, learn, dance, (to) be	Do you know English? I’m learning.
Adverb	describes a noun, adjective or another adverb	very, too, quickly, kindly, mainly	He runs very quickly. He’s too young.
Proposition	connects a noun to another word	at, in, on, to, by,	She goes to work by bus.
Conjunction	connects words, phrases or sentences	and, but, or	I learn English and French.
Interjection	a short word, sound or phrase that expresses an emotion	hey!, ah!, ouch! ow!, hi!	Oh, that’s so sweet! Hi, there!

Parts of Speech Examples

• Enjoy! [v]
• Anna talks. [n.] [v.]
• Ouch! That hurts. [interj] [pron.] [v.]
• Joe is crying. [n.] [v.] [v.]
• I love music. [pron.] [v.] [n.]
• Ben often drinks beer. [n.] [adv.] [v.] [n.]
• They have two small children. [pron.] [v.] [determ.] [adj.] [n.]

We listened carefully to the instructions. [pron.] [v.] [adv.] [prep.] [determ.] [n.]

• John tried hard but he failed his exam. [n.] [v.] [adv.] [conj.] [pron.] [v.] [adv.] [n.]

Words used as different parts of speech

Some words can be used as more than one part of speech. For example, the word drink can be a noun in one sentence and a verb in another sentence. 

• Can I have a drink? [n.]
• What would you like to drink? [v.]

To recognize the part of speech in a particular sentence, you have to look at how the word functions in meaning.

Look at the following examples.

The word brick can be a noun and an adjective.

• The church is built of brick. [n.]

• The school is surrounded by a brick wall. [adj.]

The word calm can be an adjective, a noun, and a verb.

• I tried to remain calm. [adj.]
• It is the calm before the storm. [n.]
• I need some tea to calm my nerves. [v.]

The word like serves as six parts of speech. They are noun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition and conjunction.

• I like VocabularyPage. [v.]
• We have a lot of likes on Facebook. [n.]
• She looks like her sister.  [prep.]