Parts of Speech Defined

The English language consists of the parts of speech listed below. Every word you will ever say or write falls into one of these categories (with the exception of the articles “a,” “an,” and “the”). Some words fall into more than one category depending upon their use in a sentence.

Noun–is a word used to name a person, place, thing, or idea. A noun can be a proper noun or a common noun.

Examples:
George Washington, Charlotte Bronte (people, proper nouns)
man, woman (people, common nouns)
Maplewood Park, Chicago, Illinois (places, proper nouns)
playground, town (places, common nouns)
baseball bat, tennis ball (things)
independence, freedom (ideas)

Pronoun–is a word that replaces a person, place, thing, or idea. Pronouns can act as subjects or objects, and some can show possession.

Examples:
I, you, he, she, it, we, they (nominative case acts as subject)
me, you, him, her, it, us, them (objective case acts as object)
my, mine, your, yours, his, her, hers, its, our, ours, their, theirs (possessive case shows possession)

Adjective–is a word used to describe, or modify, a noun or a pronoun. An adjective describes “what kind,” “which one,” “how many,” or “how much.”

Examples:
the brown dog (Which dog?)
the colonial house (What kind of house?)
the two cars (How many cars?)
She is blonde. (What kind of hair?)
He is tall. (What kind of height?)

Verb–is a word that shows action or that indicates a condition or a state of being.

Examples:
I run. Polly talks. The boys eat.
I am sick. She is tired. The people are free.

Note: It is best to use strong action verbs that paint a vivid picture in the readers' mind (e.g. race, waddle, chomp). The verb "to be" (e.g. is, are, was, were...) is not descriptive, so requires the use of adverbs.

Adverb–is a word used to describe, or modify, a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. An adverb describes how, when, where, or to what extent the verb performs.

Examples:
I run fast. (How fast do I run?) The boys are eating now. (When are the boys eating?)
I am very sick. She is extremely tired. The people are finally free. (These examples all show to what extent the verb performs.)

Preposition–is a word used to show a relationship between a noun or a pronoun and some other word in the sentence. Prepositions often show direction, location, or time.

Examples:
in the morning, up in the sky, down south, in a minute, at 2:00 p.m., before bed, by my side, without a doubt, over the hill, after school, through the door, across the street, around the world

Conjunction–is a word that connects other words or groups of words to each other. There are three types of conjunctions: coordinating, subordinating, and correlative.

Examples:
Steve and Sally are going to the store. (coordinating)
Sally is going to the store because she likes Steve. (subordintating)
Sally likes Steve whether he likes her or not. (correlative)

Interjection–is a word used to express emotion that has no grammatical relationship to other words in the sentence. Interjections should be used sparingly and usually only belong in narrative dialogue.

Examples:
Uh oh, I made a mistake!
Oh no, I forgot to call Jane!
Well, what are you going to do?