The 9 Parts of Speech Definitions and Examples

A part of speech is a term used in traditional grammar for one of the nine main categories  into which words are classified according to their functions in sentences, such as nouns or verbs. Also known as word classes, these are the building blocks of grammar. Key Takeaways: Parts of Speech Word types divide into nine parts of speech, such as nouns, prepositions, adjectives, and adverbs.Some words can be more than one part of speech, depending on context and usage.Interjections can be sentences on their own. Every sentence you write or say in English includes a few words that fall into the nine parts of speech. These include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections. (Some sources include only eight parts of speech but leave off interjections as a category.) Learning the names of the parts of speech probably wont make you witty, healthy, wealthy, or wise. In fact, learning just the  names  of the parts of speech wont even make you a better writer. However, you will gain a basic understanding of sentence structure  and  the  English language. Word Classes The parts of speech are commonly divided into  open classes  (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and  closed classes  (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections). Although we can add to the open classes of words as language develops, those in the closed classes are pretty much set in stone.  (See examples below.) Some traditional grammars have treated articles  as a distinct part of speech. Modern grammars more often include articles in the category of determiners, which identify or quantify a noun. Even though they modify nouns like adjectives, they are different in that articles are an essential part of the proper syntax of a sentence, and determiners are necessary to convey the meaning of the sentence.  Adjectives are optional parts of a sentence. In contemporary linguistics, the label  part of speech has generally been discarded in favor of the term word class or syntactic category. Noun Nouns are a person, place, or thing (or even an abstraction, such as an idea). They can take on myriad roles in a sentence, from the subject of it all to the object of an action or any other (literal) thing in between. They are capitalized when theyre an official name of something or someone. For example  pirate, Caribbean, ship, freedom, Captain Jack Sparrow Pronoun Pronouns stand in for nouns in a sentence. Examples:​  I, you, he, she, it, ours, them, who, which, anybody, ourselves Verb Verbs are what happens in a sentence. Theyre either action words or show the state of being (is, was) of the subject of the sentence.   They change form based on tense (present, past) and the subject of the sentence (singular or plural). Examples:   sing, dance, believe, seem, finish, eat, drink, be, become Adjective Adjectives describe nouns or pronouns. They specify which one, how much, or what kind. Examples:  hot, lazy, funny, unique, bright, beautiful, poor, smooth Adverb Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, or even other adverbs. They specify when something happened, where, how, why, and how much. Examples:  softly, lazily, often, only, hopefully, softly, sometimes Preposition Prepositions  show a relationship between a noun (or a pronoun) and the other words in a sentence. They come at the start of a prepositional phrase. For example:  up, over, against, by, for, into, close to, out of, apart from Conjunction Conjunctions join words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. Examples:  and, but, or, so, yet, with Articles and Determiners Articles and determiners function like adjectives by modifying nouns, but they are different than adjectives, in that they are necessary for a sentence to have proper syntax. Examples:  articles:  a, an, the; determiners:  these, that, those; enough, much, few; which, what Interjection Interjections are expressions that can stand on their own as complete sentences. They are words that often carry emotion. Examples:  ah, whoops, ouch,  yabba  dabba  do! How to Determine the Part of Speech Only  interjections  (Hooray!) have a habit of standing alone, though they can also appear alongside complete sentences. The other parts of speech come in many varieties and may appear just about anywhere in a sentence. To know for sure what part of speech a word is, look not only at the word itself but also at its meaning, position, and use in a sentence. For example, in the first example here,  work  functions as a noun; in the second sentence, a verb; and in the third sentence, an adjective: Bosco showed up for  work  two hours late.(The noun  work  is the thing Bosco shows up for.)He will have to  work  until midnight.(The verb  work  is the action he must perform.)His  work  permit expires next month.(The  attributive noun  [or converted adjective]  work  modifies the noun  permit.) Dont let this variety of meanings and uses discourage or confuse you. Learning the names of the basic parts of speech is just one way to understand how sentences are constructed. Dissecting Basic Sentences To form a complete sentence, you really only need two things: a noun (or pronoun standing in for a noun) and a verb. The noun gives us the subject, and the verb tells us the action the subject is taking, the predicate.   Birds fly. In this short sentence,  birds  is the noun and  fly  is the verb. The sentence makes sense and gets the point across. Go! You can have a sentence with just one word as well, but it doesnt break the above rule. This short sentence is still complete because its a command to you; the pronoun, standing in for a noun, is just understood to be there. It is the subject. The sentence is really saying (You) go! Its important to note that no other two-word class combinations can form a complete sentence unless it involves an interjection. You always need a verb to have a sentence. You cannot, for instance, use a pronoun and an adverb alone and have a complete sentence:  She softly.  This is not a sentence because we dont know what shes doing softly. Next, we can add more information to our first sentence by including the other parts of speech. Birds fly when migrating before winter. Birds and fly remain the noun and verb.  When  is an adverb because it modifies the verb fly.   The word before  is a little tricky because it can be either a conjunction, preposition, or adverb depending on the context. In this case, its a preposition because a noun follows it. The preposition begins an adverbial phrase (before winter) that answers the question of time when the birds migrate. It is not a conjunction because it does not connect two clauses.