Parts of Speech

What Are Parts of Speech?

Parts of speech are the building blocks of sentences. Every word in English belongs to a part of speech that tells us what that word does in a sentence.

This A1 lesson focuses on 8 common parts of speech in English:

1. Nouns — people, places, things, and ideas
2. Pronouns — words that replace nouns
3. Verbs — actions or states
4. Articles — small words before nouns
5. Adjectives — describe nouns
6. Adverbs — describe verbs, adjectives, or whole sentences
7. Prepositions — show direction, time, place, or relationship
8. Conjunctions — join words or sentences

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1-2. Nouns & Pronouns

Nouns

Nouns are people, places, or things.

Examples: woman, student, dog, house, city, book, table, phone, apple, teacher, beach, car

Pronouns

Pronouns are words that can take a noun’s place.

Examples: I, you, she, he, we, they, him, us, my, your, theirs, myself

Sentence Position

Nouns and pronouns can be subjects (S) or objects (O) of a sentence:

• Subjects come before the verb (V)
• Objects come after the verb

People like him.

• People = subject (S), like = verb (V), him = object (O)

The girl ate an apple.

• The girl = S, ate = V, an apple = O

She went to Hawaii.

• She = S, went = V, Hawaii = O

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3. Verbs

Verbs show actions or states. They often come after the subject in a sentence.

Action verb examples: run, walk, sing, study, buy, talk, swim, eat, play, read

State verb examples: be, have, know, like, want, need

My sister jogs.

He buys milk once a week.

Jane is a teacher.

They swim every morning.

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4. Articles

Articles introduce nouns. They help show whether a noun is general or specific. They come before a noun.

There are only three articles in English:

Article	Use
a	before consonant sounds (a puppy, a book)
an	before vowel sounds (an orange, an apple)
the	specific nouns (the books, the teacher)

I have a puppy.

She is eating an orange.

The books are on the table.

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5. Adjectives

Adjectives describe nouns. They tell us about size, color, feeling, or quality.

Examples: big, warm, soft, tall, green, tired, happy, exciting, beautiful, comfortable, young, red

Sentence Position

Adjectives come before a noun or after the verb be.

I see a yellow flower. (before the noun)

The flower is yellow. (after be)

Our cat is cute and lazy. (after be)

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6. Adverbs

Adverbs describe verbs. They tell us how or how often something happens.

Examples: quickly, loudly, softly, badly, well, carefully, always, often, sometimes, never

Sentence Position

• How adverbs come after the verb: She runs quickly.
• How often adverbs come before the verb: They always sing.

She runs quickly. (How does she run?)

He speaks softly. (How does he speak?)

They always sing. (How often do they sing?)

My brother never watches TV. (How often does he watch TV?)

Tip: Many adverbs end in -ly.

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7. Prepositions

Prepositions give information about nouns — direction, time, or place. They come before a noun.

Examples: in, on, at, to, over, around, under, between, from, above, with

He is walking to school.

My birthday is in July.

I work at home.

The cat is under the table.

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8. Conjunctions

Conjunctions join two words, two similar parts of speech, or two sentences. They come between the things they join.

Examples: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

I love cake and ice cream.

You can call or text me.

Our cat is cute and lazy.

My brother likes Tracy, but he never says a word to her.

Tip: Remember the common conjunctions with FANBOYS — the first letter of each word: For And Nor But Or Yet So

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Short Forms (Abbreviations)

When labeling parts of speech, we often use short forms:

Short Form	Part of Speech
N	Noun
Pn	Pronoun
V	Verb
Art	Article
Adj	Adjective
Adv	Adverb
Prep	Preposition
Conj	Conjunction

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One Word Can Have Different Jobs

The same word can be a different part of speech in different sentences. Look at the word’s job in the sentence.

Sentence	Word	Job
I drink water.	water	noun
Please water the plants.	water	verb
She has a fast car.	fast	adjective
He runs fast.	fast	adverb

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Practice: Exercises

Exercise 1 — Match the Definition

1 / 27

Which part of speech is an action?

AnounBverbCadjective

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Summary

Part of Speech	What It Does	Position in Sentence	Examples
Noun	person, place, thing	subject or object	woman, city, book
Pronoun	takes a noun’s place	subject or object	I, she, they, him
Verb	action	after the subject	run, eat, is, have
Article	gives noun information	before a noun	a, an, the
Adjective	describes a noun	before noun or after be	big, happy, red
Adverb	describes a verb	before or after verb	quickly, always, softly
Preposition	shows direction/time/place	before a noun	in, on, at, to
Conjunction	joins words/sentences	between two things	and, but, or

Remember: Every word in a sentence has a job. When you know the part of speech, you know what that word is doing!

Keep practicing by choosing one sentence and labeling each word’s job.