What Are Parts of Speech?
Eight categories that every English word belongs to — the building blocks of every sentence you'll ever read or write.
Every Word Has a Job
In a sentence, every word plays a specific role — just like every player on a sports team has a position. These roles are called parts of speech. English has eight main parts of speech, and understanding them helps you write better sentences, catch errors, and understand how language works at a deeper level.
The same word can sometimes play different roles. "Run" can be a verb ("I run every morning") or a noun ("That was a great run"). The part of speech depends on how the word is used in the sentence.
1. Nouns — The Namers
A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. "Dog," "school," "Maria," "happiness," and "Tuesday" are all nouns. Nouns are the most common part of speech — they're the subjects and objects that sentences revolve around. Proper nouns (like "Texas" or "Dr. Smith") name specific things and are capitalized. Common nouns (like "state" or "doctor") are general and lowercase.
2. Verbs — The Action Words
A verb tells what the subject does or is. Action verbs describe movement or activity: "jump," "write," "think," "eat." Linking verbs connect the subject to more information: "is," "was," "seem," "become." Every complete sentence needs at least one verb — it's the engine that makes the sentence go.
3. Adjectives — The Describers
An adjective describes or modifies a noun. It answers questions like "what kind?", "how many?", or "which one?" In "the tall, green tree," both "tall" and "green" are adjectives describing the noun "tree." Adjectives add color, detail, and specificity to your writing — the difference between "a dog" and "a massive, fluffy, golden dog."
4. Adverbs — Describing the Action
An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. It answers "how?", "when?", "where?", or "how much?" Many adverbs end in -ly: "quickly," "carefully," "happily." But not all — "very," "always," "never," "here," and "soon" are also adverbs. In "She sang beautifully," the adverb "beautifully" describes how she sang.
5. Pronouns — The Stand-Ins
A pronoun takes the place of a noun so you don't have to repeat it. Instead of "Maria told Maria's mom that Maria was hungry," you say "Maria told her mom that she was hungry." Common pronouns include "he," "she," "it," "they," "we," "them," "who," and "this." Pronouns make language flow smoothly instead of sounding repetitive.
6. Prepositions — Showing Relationships
A preposition shows the relationship between a noun and another word in the sentence — usually involving location, time, or direction. "The cat is on the table," "We'll meet after school," "She walked through the park." Common prepositions include "in," "on," "at," "to," "from," "with," "between," "under," "above," and "during."
7. Conjunctions — The Connectors
A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses together. The most common ones are and, but, and or — you can remember the coordinating conjunctions with the acronym FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so). "I like pizza and pasta." "She's tired but happy." Conjunctions are the glue that holds complex sentences together.
8. Interjections — The Emotion Words
Interjections express sudden emotion or reaction. "Wow!", "Ouch!", "Hooray!", "Oh no!" They're often followed by exclamation marks and can stand alone as their own sentence. Interjections add feeling and personality to writing, but in formal writing, they're used sparingly.
The word "set" holds the record for the most definitions of any English word — over 430 meanings in the Oxford English Dictionary. It can be a noun ("a chess set"), a verb ("set the table"), or an adjective ("a set schedule"). Context is everything!
Last reviewed: April 2026