The Eight Parts of Speech

PART OF SPEECH

BASIC FUNCTION

EXAMPLES

Noun

names a person, place, thing or idea

house, book, New York

Pronoun

takes the place of a noun

I, you, he, she, it, ours, them, who

Verb

Indicates an action or state of being

sing, dance, believe, be, think, study, smell, wait

Adjective

Describes a noun or a pronoun ou modifies a noun

hot, lazy, funny, proud, sad

Adverb

Describes a verb which tells how, where, or when something is done, modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb

softly, lazily, often, carefully, intelligently

Preposition

shows a relationship between a noun (or pronoun) and other words in a sentence

up, over, against, by, for, in, from, under, across,

Conjunction

joins words, phrases, and clauses

and, but, or, yet, because, since, although

Interjection

expresses emotion

ah, whoops, ouch, wow ! oh!no!