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Each word in English belongs to one of the eight parts of speech. Each word is also either a
content word or a function word. Let's think about what these two types mean:
Content Words vs. Function Words
•Content = information, meaning
•Function = necessary words for grammar
In other words, content words give us the most important information while
function words are used to stitch those words together.
Content Word Types
Content words are usually nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. A noun tells us
which object, a verb tells us about the action happening, or the state. Adjectives
give us details about objects and people and adverbs tell us how, when or where
something is done. Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs give us important
information required for understanding.
•Noun = person, place or thing
•Verb = action, state
•Adjective = describes an object, person, place or thing
•Adverb = tells us how, where or when something happens
Examples:
Nouns Verbs
house enjoy
computer purchase
student visit
lake understand
Peter believe
science look forward to
Examples:
Adjectives Adverbs
heavy slowly
difficult carefully
careful sometimes
expensive thoughtfully
soft often
fast suddenly
Other Content Words
While nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are the most important content words, there are a few
other words that are also key to understanding. These include negatives like no, not and never;
demonstrative pronouns including this, that, these and those; and question words like what, where,
when, how and why.
Function Word Types
Function words help us connect important information. Function words are important for
understanding, but they add little meaning beyond defining the relationship between two words.
Function words include auxiliary verbs, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and pronouns.
Auxiliary verbs are used to establish the tense, prepositions show relationships in time and space,
articles show us something that is specific or one of many, and pronouns refer to other nouns.