Parts of Speech (Definitions and Examples)

Let's get into it.

She is ‘read-ing’ and ‘drink-ing’ (present participle or ‘gerunds’).

Our last post starts to review the main parts of speech. The main parts of speech in English grammar are:

1. Nouns

2. Verbs

3. Pronouns

4. Adjectives

5. Adverb

6. Prepositions

7. Conjunctions

8. Interjections!!

As you’d expect, each category divides into its subset of ‘types’ (of nouns, verbs, adjectives, and so on).

Mass nouns (also, uncountable nouns) name substances or concepts, things which cannot be ‘counted’ or easily quantified.

1. Nouns

Nouns name places, people, things, or ideas.

Sentences with nouns:

• Henry VIII was a charismatic king.

• This is my dog, Bruno.

• Adam brought mangoes from the market.

The types of nouns include:

1. Proper: Henry VIII, Susan, Paris, an iPhone

2. Common: lakes, an actor, philosophy, a restaurant

3. Abstract: motherhood, ambition, generosity, democracy, love, time

4. Concrete: man, dog, table, laptop, boxes, mail

5. Countable: men, houses, a fox, pens, boxes, mangoes.

6. Uncountable/mass: sand, knowledge, justice, milk, software, happiness, research, altruism

7. Collective: an army, staff, a jury, a committee, a gaggle of geese

8. Possessive: my mother-in-law’s recipe, James’s car, the boy’s book

2. Verbs

Verbs are action words and often express states of being. After nouns, verbs are likely the broadest category of speech. While verbs are called “action words”, they’re not limited to describing actions, and often mention states of being or simply existing.

There are 11 main types of verbs:

1. Active: kick, eat, jump, work, sleep, ride, talk, laugh

2. Stative: agree, believe, doubt, look, see, seem

3. Transitive: rides, kicks, buy, lay

4. Intransitive: sleep, laugh, think, fall

5. Copulas/linking verbs: forms of ‘to be’

6. Auxiliaries: was, is, are, am, has, had, have

7. Phrasal: get up, turn off, look up, give up

8. Infinitives: to be, to drink, to wonder, to dance

9. Modals: can, could, may, might, will, would, should, must

10. Gerunds: swimming, running, reading, writing, singing

11. Regular vs. irregular: walked, played, talked, went, ate, saw, do, are, read

3. Adjectives

The types of adjectives are:

1. Proper: French, Shakespearean, Japanese

2. Descriptive: pleasant, smart, shorter, most intelligent

3. Demonstrative: this, that, these, those

4. Possessive: my, your, his, her, its, our, their

5. Interrogative: which, what, whose

6. Quantitative: some, a lot, two, several, whole, first

7. Numeral: one, two, five, ten, first, second, third

8. Compound: absent-minded, happy-go-lucky, two-year-old, well-known, open-minded, French-speaking

4. Pronouns

1. personal: I, you, he, she, it, we, they

2. possessive: mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs

3. relative: who, whom, whose, which, that

4. reflexive: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves

5. indefinite: someone, anyone, everyone, nobody

6. demonstrative: this, that, these, those

7. interrogative: who, whom, which, what

8. intensive: myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself

5. Adverbs

The main types of adverbs include:

1. time: yesterday, now, soon, later

2. frequency: always, often, rarely, seldom

3. manner: quickly, slowly, carefully, swiftly, thoughtfully

4. degree or quantity: very, quite, almost, hardly, extremely

5. affirmation and negation: definitely, certainly, never, not

6. reason: because, since, as, therefore