Why do words have classes?
A word class (also called a part of speech) tells us what job a word does in a sentence. To find the class, ask: what is this word doing here? The same word can do different jobs. Play is a verb in "We play" and a noun in "The play was funny".
Noun and pronoun
Noun: the name of a person, place, thing or idea. Meena, Delhi, river, kindness. Common nouns are general (city); proper nouns start with a capital (Mumbai).
Pronoun: a word used in place of a noun, so we do not repeat the noun. Types of pronoun:
- Personal: I, you, he, she, it, we, they
- Possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, ours, theirs
- Reflexive: myself, himself, themselves
- Demonstrative: this, that, these, those
- Relative: who, which, that (joins a describing part to a noun)
- Interrogative: who, what, which (for questions)
- Indefinite: someone, everybody, none
Verb
A verb shows an action (run), a state (is, seem) or helps another verb (will, has, can). Every full sentence has at least one verb. Verbs change for time: see the lesson on verb tenses.
Adjective, comparison and adverb
Adjective: describes a noun or pronoun. A tall tree, three red balls.
Adjectives can compare: positive (tall), comparative (taller, used for two things), superlative (tallest, used for three or more). Long adjectives use more and most: more beautiful, most beautiful. A few are irregular: good, better, best.
Adverb: tells how, when, where or how much. It can describe a verb (runs quickly), an adjective (very tall) or another adverb (quite slowly). Many adverbs end in -ly.
Preposition, conjunction, interjection, determiner
- Preposition: links a noun or pronoun to another word and shows place, time or direction: in the park, after school, towards the gate.
- Conjunction: joins words, phrases or sentences: and, but, or, because, although.
- Interjection: a short word for a sudden feeling: Wow! Oh! Ouch!
- Determiner (article): comes before a noun: a, an, the, this, my, some.
Same idea in other languages
Every language sorts words into classes, but the lists differ a little. Korean grammar usually counts nine classes: noun, pronoun, numeral, verb, adjective, determiner, adverb, interjection and particle. Korean particles are small words stuck to a noun to show its role, a job that English does with word order and prepositions. In French and Spanish, adjectives and determiners change with the gender and number of the noun, which English does not do.
Key formulas and definitions
- Noun = name Pronoun = stands for a noun
- Verb = action / state Adjective = describes a noun
- Adverb = describes verb / adjective / adverb
- Preposition + noun = place, time, direction Conjunction = joiner Interjection = feeling
- Comparison: tall โ taller โ tallest; beautiful โ more beautiful โ most beautiful; good โ better โ best
Worked examples
1. Name the part of speech of each word: "Ravi quickly ate the sweet mango."
Ravi: noun. quickly: adverb. ate: verb. the: article (determiner). sweet: adjective. mango: noun.
2. Which word is the pronoun? "Meena lost her bag, but she found it."
Her, she and it are pronouns. "But" is a conjunction.
3. Give the comparative and superlative of "happy".
happy, happier, happiest (change y to i before -er and -est).
4. Identify the class of "light" in each: "Turn on the light." / "This bag is light."
In the first it names a thing: noun. In the second it describes the bag: adjective. The job decides the class.
5. Pick the preposition: "The cat jumped onto the roof after dinner."
Onto (place) and after (time) are prepositions.
6. Complete with the right word: "He ran ___ than his brother." (fast)
Two people are compared, so use the comparative: "faster".
Common mistakes
- Judging the class from the spelling alone. Always check the job in the sentence.
- Using the superlative for two things: say "the taller of the two", not "the tallest of the two".
- Calling every -ly word an adverb: "friendly" is an adjective.
- Mixing adjective and adverb: "He sings good" should be "He sings well".