Parts of Speech

September 17, 2025

Posted by STLCC in Tutoring Resources 

Understanding the parts of speech helps you see how words function in a sentence and improves your writing and grammar. This guide defines the eight main parts of speech—such as nouns, verbs, adjectives and more—and gives examples so you can apply them confidently in your essays and communication. 

Noun

A noun identifies a person, place, thing, or idea.

Common nouns are generic: girl, boy, city, ship, desk, courage

Proper nouns are specific: Juliet, Romeo, St. Louis, Titanic

Pronoun

A pronoun renames or refers back to the person, place, thing, or idea mentioned earlier in a sentence.

Personal pronouns: I, me, you, they, them, she, her, he, him, it, we, us

Relative pronouns: who, whom, whose, which, that, what

Interrogative pronouns: who, which, what, whose

Demonstrative pronouns: this, that, these, those

Indefinite pronouns: all, anybody, anyone, both, each, everyone, everybody, many, none, several, someone

Verb

A verb expresses action or state of being. “Helping” verbs (modals and auxiliary verbs) are used with base verbs to make a verbal phrase.

Action verbs: see, run, jump, sing, study, dance, cry, shout, buy, sell, fix, think, wonder

State of being verbs: am, is, was, were, will be, became, appear, seem, look, feel

Modal verbs: can, could, will, would, shall, should, ought, must, may, might

Auxiliary verbs: am, is, are, was, were, have, had

In a verbal phrase, the modal or auxiliary verb may be separated from the main verb, especially in a question:

• Did you hear me call?
• She is not going with us.
• How long have you been working at McDonald’s?

Adjective

An adjective describes or modifies a noun or pronoun.

Examples:

• brown eyes
• that person
• ten players

Adjectives tell:

• what kind: brown eyes
• which one: that person
• how many: ten players

Adverb

An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. It often answers: how, when, where, why, how often, how much, or to what degree.

• The orchestra played beautifully. (How?)
• The band has played there. (Where?)
• The choir sang long. (To what extent?)
• He is extremely capable. (How capable?)
• She danced very slowly. (How slowly?)

Preposition

A preposition shows a relationship between a noun or pronoun and another word.

The English language has more than forty prepositions, including: above, across, behind, below, down, in, off, on, under, through, into, of, on account of, in spite of.

Conjunction

A conjunction joins words or groups of words. There are three major classes:

Subordinate conjunctions: when, while, although, because, since, if, until, even though

Coordinate conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so

Correlative conjunctions: neither/nor, either/or, not only/but also, both/and

Interjection

An interjection expresses an emotion such as delight, surprise, or disgust. It often appears at the beginning of a sentence and may be followed by an exclamation point.

Delight: Wow! Gosh! Golly! For heaven’s sake!

Surprise: Oh! Ah! Yikes! Gee!

Disgust: Yuck! Ugh! Bah!

A Word as More Than One Part of Speech

A word can be used as more than one part of speech. The function of a word determines how it is classified.

• Appearances can be deceiving. (Can is a modal verb.)
• The tin can of tomatoes is dented. (Can is a noun.)
• We should can peaches and plums. (Can is an action verb.)
• The French actress danced the can-can. (Can-can is a noun.)