Advanced English Grammar

The Eight Parts of Speech

The eight parts of speech are commonly known as: verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Yes, some people are now saying that there are ten parts of speech by splitting nouns into two categories (more on this on the Noun page) and counting the articles (a, an & the) as a separate part of speech. (They have typically been considered adjectives.)

For our purposes -- and to stay with the more traditional view -- we'll stick with the eight parts of speech, although this site does contain information regarding the other items. To learn more about those items, you can use the menu at the left of this page

So, what do these eight parts of speech do?

Briefly, they explain how words are used in a sentence. Many words can be nouns, verbs, and adjectives depending on how and where they are used in a sentence.

The following is a brief introduction concerning the eight parts of speech with more information for the various parts on their respective pages which can be reached from the MENU at the left.

Verbs = show actions, events, or a state of being. Verbs are typically referred to as being regular or irregular, transitive or intransitive, main or auxiliary or modal. More on these divisions on the verb page.

Nouns = are persons, places, things, or ideas (concepts). Nouns can be used in a variety of ways including being the subject or object of a sentence. They can also be indirect objects, subject or object complements or adjectives.

Pronouns = as one of the eight parts of speech are used to replace nouns, noun phrases or even other pronouns.

Adjectives = modify nouns and pronouns by giving more information by describing, quantifying, or identifying the words.

Adverbs = modify verbs, adjectives, adverbs, or phrases by answering the 'how' something is done by indicating manner, time, place, cause, or degree.

Conjunctions = link words, phrases, and clauses. "FANBOYS" (i.e., for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so.)

Prepositions = link nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence by showing time, manner, movement, place or position.

Interjections = are one of the eight parts of speech used to express emotion or illustrate a feeling of exclamation.

For more information regarding the eight parts of speech and how they are used, the preceding link will take you to a Wikipedia page with some additional information. For more information regarding each part of speech use the MENU at the left.

For information on a variety of grammar items, plus many free exercises designed to help you improve your knowledge of English grammar, please visit our home page.

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