Word classes (or parts of speech)

All words belong to categories called word classes (or parts of speech) according to the part they play in a sentence. The main word classes in English are listed below.

Noun

Verb

Adjective

Adverb

Pronoun

Preposition

Conjunction

Determiner

Exclamation

Noun

A noun is a word that identifies

a person (man, girl, engineer, friend)

a thing (horse, wall, flower, country)

an idea, quality, or state (anger, courage, life, luckiness)

Verb

A verb describes what a person or thing does or what happens. For example, verbs describe:

an action – jump, stop, explore

an event – snow, happen

a situation – be, seem, have

a change – evolve, shrink, widen

Adjective

An adjective is a word that describes a noun, giving extra information about it. For example:

an exciting adventure

a green apple

a tidy room

Adverb

An adverb is a word that’s used to give information about a verb, adjective, or other adverb. They can make the meaning of a verb, adjective, or other adverb stronger or weaker, and often appear between the subject and its verb (She nearly lost everything.)

Pronoun

Pronouns are used in place of a noun that is already known or has already been mentioned. This is often done in order to avoid repeating the noun. For example:

Laura left early because she was tired.

Anthony brought the avocados with him.

That is the only option left.

Something will have to change.

Personal pronouns are used in place of nouns referring to specific people or things, for example I, me, mine, you, yours,his, her, hers, we, they, or them. They can be divided into various different categories according to their role in a sentence, as follows:

• subjective pronouns
• objective pronouns
• possessive pronouns
• reflexive pronouns

Preposition

A preposition is a word such as after, in, to, on, and with. Prepositions are usually used in front of nouns or pronouns and they show the relationship between the noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. They describe, for example, the position of something, the time when something happens, or the way in which something is done.  

Conjunction

A conjunction (also called a connective) is a word such as and, because, but, for, if, or, and when. Conjunctions are used to connect phrases, clauses, and sentences.The two main kinds are known as coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.

Determiner

A determiner is a word that introduces a noun, such as a/an, the, every, this, those, or many (as in a dog, the dog, this dog, those dogs, every dog, many dogs). 

The determiner the is sometimes known as the definite article and the determiner a (or an) as the indefinite article.

Exclamation

An exclamation (also called an interjection) is a word or phrase that expresses strong emotion, such as surprise, pleasure, or anger. Exclamations often stand on their own, and in writing they are usually followed by an exclamation mark rather than a full stop.