Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech

Definition: 

The grammatical term "Parts of Speech" is the classification or categorization of words on the basis of their functions in a sentence. A part of speech is a category to which a word is assigned based on its role in a sentence.  

Here is a table showing the classification and functions of words.

Part of Speech	Function	Examples
Noun	The name of everything is called a noun. It can be the name of a person, place, thing, idea or event, etc.	Ali, Man, Pakistan, New York, Election, Beauty, Truth
Pronoun	A word that is used instead of a noun.	He, she, it, me, them, mine, hers, this, that, himself, ourselves, which, what
Adjective	A word that modifies a noun or gives more information about the noun.	Beautiful, good, black, five
Verb	A word that shows action or state of being.	Is, was, help, go, study
Adverb	A word that modifies a verb or gives more information about the verb.	Quickly, slowly, never, sometimes, there
Conjunction	A word that joins words, phrases, clauses, or sentences.	And, but, or, so, because, that
Preposition	A word that shows a relationship between nouns, pronouns, or any other parts of a sentence.	In, at, under, but, for, on
Interjection	A word that expresses feelings or emotion.	Hooray! Ouch! Wow!

 

Abbreviations

We can use abbreviations for parts of speech. Here is a list showing the abbreviations in the table.

Noun	N	Adverb	Adv
Pronoun	Pron/Pro	Conjunction	Conj
Adjective	Adj	Preposition	Prep
Verb	V	Interjection	Interj

 Remember: You may get confused to identify which part of speech a word is if it is not in a sentence. Sometimes, a single word belongs to more than one part of speech. In this regard, you will have to see the function of the word in the sentence.

Examples:

In the following sentences, all underlined words are used as examples to understand easily.

Nouns:

• Ali is a director of a large company.
• Honesty is the best policy.
• We saw a crowd of people on the road.

Pronouns:

• He and his friends play well.
• They said that they were tired.
• I often go with him because he drives carefully.

Adjectives:

• The yellow snake crawled out of a narrow hole.
• She has studied five subjects in the previous semester.
• She is a beautiful girl; her beauty is well-known all over the world.

Verbs:

• John is a good teacher. He teaches English.
• Nadia and Alia have gone to the United States of America.
• He smokes a lot which will destroy his health.

Adverbs:

• Yesterday, our team performed well.
• She always prepares breakfast for us.
• He bravely faced the tiger which was leaping angrily at his throat.

Conjunctions:

• Tom can speak, but John can’t.
• The shopkeeper sells bread and milk.
• This is a shirt that I bought yesterday.

Prepositions:

• Is the cash drawer full of notes?
• That file is on the table in my office.
• They are going on the train, which leaves New York at five o’clock.

Interjections:

• Oh! Is this your new car?
• Attention!
• Ouch! I hurt myself.