The Eight Parts of Speech (Vocabulary: Language Study Terms)

THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH (Vocabulary: Language Study Terms)

All English words belong to one (or more) of eight parts of speech. The part of a word sometimes depends on how it's used: "bank" can be a noun (a place) or a verb (to do business at a bank). Here are the eight parts and what they do:

• Noun: names a person, place, thing, or idea: BARBERS, BEIJING, BUTTERFLIES, and BEAUTY.
• Pronoun: takes the place of a noun. Subject: I, YOU, HE, etc. Object: ME, YOU, HIM, etc. Possessive: MINE, YOURS, HIS.
• Adjective: modifies a noun or pronoun, telling which, whose, what kind, and how many about the nouns and pronouns they modify. THE LITTLE BROWN dog ran free in A PUBLIC park--LUCKY her!
• Verb: describes the action (EAT, ATE, EATEN, EATING) or condition (IS happy, SMELLS nice).
• Adverb: Here, really modifies a verb ("really RAN"); ("really RAN"); an adjective ("a really BIG race"); or another adverb ("ran really FAST.")
• Conjunction: joins words ("I like books AND music"); phrases ("I like to read books OR listen to music"); or clauses ("I like to read books, BUT you like to listen to music.") AND, OR, and BUT are the most common, but there are many more.
• Preposition: shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun ("the object of the preposition") and a verb or other noun in a sentence. Verb to noun (sat UNDER table): "The dog sat UNDER the table." Noun to noun (vase WITH flowers): "The vase WITH the flowers was beautiful."
• Interjection: shows emotion, and has no grammatical relationship to the words around it, such as WOW! OH? HELLO! and YES.

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