Parts of Speech in Use
Identify the eight parts of speech and use them correctly in sentences.
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Every word in a sentence has a job. The job a word does is called its part of speech.
In this lesson you will:
- Name the eight parts of speech.
- Identify the part of speech of a word in context.
- Use the parts of speech to improve a sentence.
The Eight Parts
Words are classified by the work they do in a sentence.
- Noun — names a person, place, thing or idea: teacher, Uyo, courage.
- Pronoun — replaces a noun: he, they, it.
- Verb — shows action or state: run, is, believe.
- Adjective — describes a noun: tall, careful, Nigerian.
- Adverb — describes a verb, adjective or adverb: quickly, very, yesterday.
- Preposition — shows relationship: in, under, beside.
- Conjunction — joins words or clauses: and, but, because.
- Interjection — expresses feeling: oh, alas, hooray.
Context Decides
The same word can change its part of speech. In "She runs fast", runs is a verb. In "He went for a run", run is a noun. Always look at how the word is used.
Label the words
The diligent student answered quickly.
The — article (a kind of adjective); diligent — adjective; student — noun; answered — verb; quickly — adverb.
Tip A dictionary tells you possible parts of speech. The sentence tells you which one is actually being used.
Practice
- Name the eight parts of speech and give one example of each.
- Identify the part of speech of every word in: "The hungry children ate their food quietly."
- Write a sentence using book as a noun and another using it as a verb.
Recap
A word's part of speech depends on its job in the sentence, not just on the word itself.
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