Basics of Grammar: The 8 Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech: There are eight parts of speech. Each part of speech explains how the word is used. The same word can be a noun in one sentence and a verb or adjective in the next. The different parts of speech are explained below along with their examples.

1. Noun: Of all the parts of speech, nouns are perhaps the most important. A noun is a word that identifies a person, animal, place, thing, or idea. Examples: boy, theatre, school, idea, tree, happiness etc.
The inspector looked at all the records.

2. Pronoun: A pronoun is used instead of a noun, to avoid repeating the noun.
Examples: I, you, he, she, it, we, they etc.
We will meet at the Cafe at 3:30 p.m.

3. Adjective: An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It tells you something about the noun.
Examples: big, small, thin, horrible, beautiful, quick, slow etc.
He is the most intelligent boy I have ever met.

4. Verb: A verb is a word which describes an action (doing something) or a state (being something).
Examples: Move, talk, think, believe, live, like etc.
He finished the task in the evening.

5. Adverb: An adverb is a word which usually describes a verb, adjective and adverb. It tells you how something is done. It may also tell you when or where something happened.
Examples: slowly, intelligently, well, yesterday, here etc.
Tommy was extremely enthusiastic about doing his homework.
This is a very sweet mango.
He speaks too slowly.

6. Preposition: A preposition joins the noun to some other part of the sentence.
Examples: on, in, by, with, under, through, at etc.
He entered into the room.

7. Conjunction: A conjunction joins two words, phrases or sentences together.
Examples: but, so, and, because, or etc.
Although the employees were tired, yet they came to the office.

8. Interjection: Interjections are words which express emotion or surprise, and they are usually followed by exclamation marks.
Examples: Wow! , Alas!, Hurray!, Oh no! Etc.
Oh! I am late for the office.