Nouns and verbs
Find who or what the sentence is about, then identify what happens or what the situation is.
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Parts of Speech: Nouns, Verbs and More
Parts of speech tell us the job a word is doing in a sentence. Learning these names makes every later grammar explanation easier to understand.
Important: the same word can sometimes do different jobs. Always look at how the word is used in the sentence.
Learn in stages
Build the language one job at a time
Adjectives and adverbs
See how words add detail to nouns, verbs and descriptions.
Connecting and referring words
Add pronouns, prepositions and conjunctions to connect ideas clearly.
Mixed sentence analysis
Identify each word by the job it performs in a complete sentence.
Reference guide
What job does each part of speech do?
N
Noun
Names a person, place, thing or idea.
- Ask yourself
- Who or what are we talking about?
- Examples
- student · Sydney · course · confidence
- In a sentence
- The student completed the course.
Remember: A noun can be something physical, such as a book, or an idea, such as confidence.
Back to top ↑V
Verb
Shows an action, event or state.
- Ask yourself
- What happens, or what is the situation?
- Examples
- study · improve · be · seem
- In a sentence
- The student studies every evening.
Remember: Every complete sentence needs a verb. Some verbs show actions; others describe states.
Back to top ↑A
Adjective
Adds information about a noun or pronoun.
- Ask yourself
- What kind, which one or how many?
- Examples
- clear · difficult · three · Australian
- In a sentence
- She gave a clear explanation.
Remember: Adjectives do not change for singular or plural nouns in English.
Back to top ↑A
Adverb
Adds information about a verb, adjective, another adverb or a whole sentence.
- Ask yourself
- How, when, where, how often or to what degree?
- Examples
- clearly · often · very · however
- In a sentence
- The teacher explained the rule clearly.
Remember: Many adverbs end in -ly, but not all of them do, and some -ly words are adjectives.
Back to top ↑P
Pronoun
Replaces or points to a noun so we do not repeat it unnecessarily.
- Ask yourself
- Which person or thing does this word refer to?
- Examples
- I · they · it · which
- In a sentence
- Maher taught the class, and he answered every question.
Remember: A pronoun must refer clearly to the right person, thing or idea.
Back to top ↑P
Preposition
Shows a relationship involving place, time, direction or another idea.
- Ask yourself
- How are these words or ideas connected?
- Examples
- in · on · at · for
- In a sentence
- The class starts at 6 pm on Monday.
Remember: Prepositions often occur in fixed combinations, so learn them in useful phrases.
Back to top ↑C
Conjunction
Connects words, phrases or clauses.
- Ask yourself
- What is being joined, and what is the relationship?
- Examples
- and · but · because · although
- In a sentence
- She practised every day because she needed a higher score.
Remember: Conjunctions help show addition, contrast, reason, condition and other relationships.
Back to top ↑Why this comes first
A shared language for every grammar lesson
When another lesson uses a term such as noun or verb, the term will link back to its explanation here.
Next connectionUse nouns to understand a, an, the and zero article.Study articles →
Coming after reviewInteractive levels and mixed parts-of-speech practice.