TEXT: English Parts of Speech
There are thousands of words in any language. But not all words have the same job. For example, some words express "action". Other words express a "thing". Other words "join" one word to another word. These are the "building blocks" of the language. Think of them like the parts of a house. When we want to build a house, we use concrete to make the foundations or base. We use bricks to make the walls. We use window frames to make the windows, and door frames to make the doorways. And we use cement to join them all together. Each part of the house has its own job. And when we want to build a sentence, we use the different types of word. Each type of word has its own job.
We can categorize English words into 8 basic types or classes. These classes are called "parts of speech".
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 speech | function or "job" | example words | example sentences |
| Verb | action or state | (to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must | EnglishClub.com is a web site. I like EnglishClub.com. |
| Noun | thing or person | pen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John | This is my dog. He lives in my house. We live in London. |
| Adjective | describes a noun | a/an, the, 69, some, good, big, red, well, interesting | My dog is big. I like big dogs. |
| Adverb | describes a verb, adjective or adverb | quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really | My dog eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats really quickly. |
| Pronoun | replaces a noun | I, you, he, she, some | Tara is Indian. She is beautiful. |
| Preposition | links a noun to another word | to, at, after, on, but | We went to school on Monday. |
| Conjunction | joins clauses or sentences or words | and, but, when | I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don't like cats. |
| Interjection | short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence | oh!, ouch!, hi!, well | Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know. |
- Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:
- Lexical Verbs (work, like, run)
- Auxiliary Verbs (be, have, must)
- Determiners may be treated as a separate part of speech, instead of being categorized under Adjectives
Here are some sentences made with different English parts of speech:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| pronoun | verb | preposition | adjective | noun | adverb |
| She | ran | to | the | station | quickly. |
| pron. | verb | adj. | noun | conjunction | pron. | verb | pron. |
| She | likes | big | snakes | but | I | hate | them. |
| interjection | pron. | conj. | adj. | noun | verb | prep. | noun | adverb |
| Well, | she | and | young | John | walk | to | school | slowly. |
It's quite important to recognize parts of speech. This helps you to analyze sentences and understand them. It also helps you to construct good sentences.
In this lesson, we have an overview of the eight parts of speech, followed by a quiz to check your understanding:
Online Learning:
TEXT：
The 8 English Parts of Speech
These are the words that you use to make a sentence. There are only 8 types of word - and the most important is the Verb!
- Verbs be, have, do, work
- Nouns man, town, music
- Adjectives a, the, 69, big
- Adverbs loudly, well, often
- Pronouns you, ours, some
- Prepositions at, in, on, from
- Conjunctions and, but, though
- Interjections ah, dear, er, um
沒有留言:
張貼留言