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.
