Parts of Speech Table

This is a summary of the 8 parts of speech*. You can find more detail if you click on each part of
speech.

part of
function or "job" example words example sentences
speech

(to) be, have, do,

EnglishClub.com is a web site. I
Verb action or state like, work, sing, can,
like EnglishClub.com.
must

pen, dog, work,

This is my dog. He lives in my
Noun thing or person music, town, London,
house. We live in London.
teacher, John

a/an, the, 69, some,

Adjective describes a noun good, big, red, well, My dog is big. I like big dogs.
interesting

My dog eats quickly. When he is

describes a verb, quickly, silently, well,
Adverb very hungry, he eats really
adjective or adverb badly, very, really
quickly.

Pronoun replaces a noun I, you, he, she, some Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.

links a noun to another

Preposition to, at, after, on, but We went to school on Monday.
word

I like dogs and I like cats. I like

joins clauses or
Conjunction and, but, when cats and dogs. I like dogs but I
sentences or words
don't like cats.

short exclamation,
Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are
Interjection sometimes inserted into oh!, ouch!, hi!, well
you? Well, I don't know.
a sentence

* Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or 10 parts of speech. At EnglishClub.com, we

use the traditional categorization of 8 parts of speech. Examples of other categorizations are:

Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:

o Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)
o Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must)
Determiners may be treated as a separate part of speech, instead of being categorized
under Adjectives