Parts of Speech
Every word belongs to a category of similar words; these categories are called parts of speech. Some words can belong to more than one part of speech depending on how they are used; for example, help can be an action or a thing. Below are descriptions major parts of speech, plus some special sub-categories of each one. You can browse through the categories or click on the links below to go the one you are interested in.
The major parts of speech are:
Nouns
| definition | examples | used in sentences |
| noun: a person, place, or thing | people: Michelle Gonzales, doctor, friend, Joe, Americans | Joe goes to school in Livermore. Michelle Gonzales is his teacher. Ms. Gonzales taught him that Americans must value their freedom. |
| places: Livermore, bedroom, restaurant | ||
| things: table, dog, freedom |
Special Types of Nouns
| definition | examples | used in sentences |
| pronoun: a general noun standing in for a specific one | he, she, it, I, you, we, hers, us | Joanne has been studying French because she would like to travel to France with us. |
| proper noun: a formal name that must be capitalized | Michelle Gonzales, California, Joanne, Las Positas College, French |
Verbs
| definition | examples | used in sentences |
| verb: an action or state of being | action verbs: run, swim, prefer, contemplate, hit, kiss, think, imitate, reflect | My sister is very healthy. She runs three miles every morning. She prefers vegetarian food because she believes that it's healthier than meat. Her health seems better since she started these good habits. |
| being verbs: is, was, were, became, seems |
Adjectives
| definition | examples | used in sentences |
| adjective: describes a noun | beautiful, intelligent, purple, obnoxious, funny, confusing, delicious, abstract, excellent | Ruben is an intelligent man who has an excellent sense of humor. I would like to introduce him to my beautiful friend Celine because they both enjoy long novels and sweet desserts. |
Adverbs
| definition | examples | used in sentences |
| adverb: describes a verb, adjective, or adverb | describes a verb: quickly, hungrily, quietly, yesterday, sadly, outside, forever, well | Anita was very smart and extremely athletic. Her favorite sport was soccer, and she hoped to play forever. She could run quickly and pass well. |
| describes an adjective or adverb: very, quite, extremely, noticeably |
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are linking words. There are two types of conjunctions: coordinating conjunctions, which link two ideas equally, and subordinating conjunctions, which link two ideas making one more important than the other.
Coordinating Conjunctions
| definition | examples | used in sentences |
| coordinating conjunction: links two words, phrases, or clauses (sentences) equally | and, but, or, for, nor, yet, so | Sophia loves dogs and cats. I love pets, but I am allergic to most of them. |
Subordinating Conjunctions
| definition | examples | used in sentences |
| subordinating conjunction: links two ideas and makes one the main idea | because, although, when, which | Michelle can't eat nuts because she is allergic to them. Although she is allergic, she still loves nuts and wishes she could eat them. |
Prepositions
| definition | examples | used in sentences |
| preposition: pairs with a noun or noun phrase (a noun plus description) to add detail to the sentence | to, from, on, between, of, during, despite, against, beside | Despite Pete's nervousness, he swung at the ball with his bat. It went flying over the fence and into the crowd. |
Interjections
| definition | examples | used in sentences |
| interjection: a word expressing emotion. It is not grammatically related to the rest of the sentence. | wow, yikes, ouch, yum, good greif, well, hey, oh no | Good greif, I am exhausted. You think your job is hard, huh? Well, my job is delivering weights to gyms. Wow, those are heavy! |
This page was created by Karin Spirn
