Grammar

The 8 parts of speech, explained

Every word in English does a job in a sentence. Those jobs fall into eight groups called the parts of speech. Knowing them helps you understand how sentences are built — and how to fix them when they go wrong.

The eight parts of speech

1. Noun

A noun names a person, place, thing or idea: teacher, school, pencil, freedom. A proper noun names a specific one and starts with a capital letter: Sarah, London.

2. Pronoun

A pronoun stands in for a noun so you do not have to repeat it: he, she, it, they, we, you. Instead of “Sarah lost Sarah’s book,” we say “Sarah lost her book.”

3. Verb

A verb shows an action or a state of being: run, think, is, become. Every complete sentence needs at least one verb.

4. Adjective

An adjective describes a noun: the bright star, a tall tree. Adjectives answer questions like which one, what kind, or how many.

5. Adverb

An adverb describes a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Many end in -ly: she ran quickly, a very loud noise.

6. Preposition

A preposition shows the relationship between words, often in time or place: in, on, under, before, between. “The cat sat on the mat.”

7. Conjunction

A conjunction joins words, phrases or clauses: and, but, or, because, although. “I was tired but happy.”

8. Interjection

An interjection is a short exclamation that shows emotion: Wow! Ouch! Hooray!

See it in action

The best way to learn the parts of speech is to spot them in real sentences. Paste any sentence into our Parts-of-Speech Highlighter and it will colour-code every word for you.