THE PARTS OF SPEECH

All words in the English language can be classified as one of the eight
different parts of speech. Understanding the different parts of speech is
important in understanding how words can and should be joined
together to make sentences that are both grammatically correct and
readable. An understanding of the parts of speech is also important for
knowing how to correctly punctuate sentences.
The eight parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives,
adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections.

Noun – A noun is generally defined as a person, place, or thing;

however, ideas are also nouns. For example, love is not a tangible thing
that can be seen or held, but clearly it exists, so it is a also a noun.

Nouns can be divided into two main categories: proper nouns and
common nouns. Proper nouns are the names of people or places that
are capitalized (Aims Community College, John Smith, etc.). Common
nouns are names that do not require capitalization (book, chair, school,
etc).

Verb – A verb is a word that describes action or a state of being. The

second part of this definition is important, as many believe that verbs
are always action words that can be visualized. This is true of action
verbs: run, walk, play, jump, sing, scream, etc.

However, there are also linking verbs, and these types of verbs do not
express action; instead, they express identity, classification, or
existence. (The following are the most common linking verbs: is, am,
was, were, are, and verb phrases ending in be, been, being.)

Verbs often change their form as different endings are added to them.
These endings are changed to show a verb’s relationship to time. This
is referred to as verb tense.

Pronoun – A pronoun is a word that is used to replace a noun For

example, instead of saying “Sam likes pizza” we can use “He” as a
substitute for Sam. Writers need to be careful with pronoun use, as
pronouns should only be used after a noun has been used first, and it
must be clear which noun the pronoun is replacing.

Adjective – An adjective modifies (limits or describes) a noun or a

pronoun. Essentially, it provides more information about a person,
place, or thing. For instance, in the sentence Frank is a tall, skinny
man, both tall and skinny are adjectives as they are used to describe
Frank.
Adverb – Similar to adjectives, an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective,
or another adverb. In the sentence Susan walked slowly towards the
door, the word slowly serves as an adverb since it describes how she
walked.

Preposition – A preposition shows the relationship between a noun or

pronoun and some other word in the sentence. This relationship is
spatial, temporal, or directional. For instance, in the sentence Mark
walked towards the house, the word towards is a preposition since it
shows direction. When linked with nouns or pronouns, prepositions
create word groups referred to as prepositional phrases. (In the
previous example, towards the house is a prepositional phrase.)

Conjunction – Conjunctions are used to link words or parts of

sentences together. There are four different types of conjunctions:
coordinating, subordinating, adverb, and correlative.

 Coordinating conjunctions (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) are
used to connect similar words or independent clause s (sentences)
together. Coordinating conjunctions are often referred to with the
acronym FANBOYS.
 Subordinating conjunctions come at the beginning of
subordinate clauses and are used to connect the subordinate
clause to the rest of the sentence (also referred to as the
independent clause). Common subordinating conjunctions
include after, as, although, because, before, even though, if,
once, rather than, since, that, though, unless, until, when,
whenever, whereas, while.
 Conjunctive adverbs are transitional words used to connect one
sentence to another. Common conjunctive adverbs include
additionally, in addition, moreover, also, consequently,
furthermore, otherwise, instead, for instance, for example,
however, on the other hand, conversely, nevertheless,
accordingly, therefore, generally, in fact, in other words, in
conclusion, finally.
 Correlative conjunctions are a combination of a coordinating
conjunction and another word (example: In the
sentence both John and I are having a hard time with the
homework, both…and are the correlative conjunctions.)

For more information about conjunctions and how to use and punctuate
them, view the using conjunctions page.

Interjection – An interjection is a word added to a sentence to convey

emotion and is not grammatically related to any other part of the
sentence. Interjections can also serve as a single word sentence (ex:
Wow!). Interjections are rarely used in academic writing and their use
should be avoided in most essays.