We can categorize English words into 9 basic types called "parts of speech" or "word classes". 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.
Parts of Speech Table
This is a summary of the 9 parts 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 | Oxford English Club is a web site. I like Oxford English Club. |
| 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 | good, big, red, well, interesting | My dogs are big. I like big dogs. |
| Determiner | limits or "determines" a noun | a/an, the, 2, some, many | I have two dogs and some rabbits. |
| 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. |
