Parts of Speech (Summary)

"Parts of speech" are the basic types of words that English has. Most grammar books say that there are eight parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections. We will add one more type: articles.

1- Noun: A noun is a naming word. It names a person, place, thing, idea, living creature, quality, or action. Examples: Tony, London, table, love, elephant, etc.
2- Verb: A verb is a word which describes an action (doing something) or a state (being something). Examples: laugh, walk, speak, sleep, rest, etc.
3- Adjective: An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It tells you something about the noun. Examples: red, small, thin, fat, big, green, etc.
4- Adverb: An adverb is a word which usually describes a verb. It tells you how something is done. It may also tell you when or where something happened. Examples: quickly, slowly, frequently, etc.
5- Pronoun: A pronoun is used instead of a noun, to avoid repeating the noun. Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they
6- Conjunction: A conjunction joins two words, phrases or sentences together. Examples: but, so, and, because, or
7- Preposition: A preposition usually comes before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase. It joins the noun to some other part of the sentence. Examples: on, in, by, with, under, through, at
8- Interjection: An interjection is an unusual kind of word, because it often stands alone. Interjections are words which express emotion or surprise, and they are usually followed by exclamation marks. Examples: Ouch!, Hello!, Hurray!, Oh no!, Ha!
9- Article: An article is used to introduce a noun. Examples: the, a, an

Why is important to know about Parts of Speech?

Because they are the base of the whole English vocabulary. If we don’t know anything about them, we couldn’t speak English. An English teacher needs to know everything about it and if he doesn’t know parts of the speech, how does he teach English to his students? It’s very important study the parts of speech and learn them.