Parts of Speech Definitions

Parts of Speech Definitions

Nouns

• Words that refer to a person, place, thing, or idea
• Can be common (cat) or proper (John)
• Can be concrete (book) or abstract (happiness)

Pronouns

• Words that replace nouns in a sentence
• Examples: he, she, it, they, me
• Can be personal (I, you), possessive (my, your), reflexive (myself, yourself), or demonstrative (this, that)

Verbs

• Words that express action or a state of being
• Can be transitive (take the book) or intransitive (laugh)
• Can be action verbs (run, jump) or linking verbs (be, seem)

Adjectives

• Words that describe or modify nouns or pronouns
• Examples: big, happy, blue
• Can be qualitative (describing a quality), quantitative (describing a quantity), or demonstrative (describing a demonstration)

Adverbs

• Words that describe or modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs
• Examples: quickly, very, well
• Can be manner (describing how), time (describing when), place (describing where), frequency (describing how often), or degree (describing to what extent)

Prepositions

• Words that show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence
• Examples: in, on, at, by, with
• Can be used to indicate location, direction, time, or manner

Conjunctions

• Words that connect words, phrases, or clauses in a sentence
• Examples: and, but, or, so
• Can be coordinating (connecting words or phrases of equal importance) or subordinating (connecting a dependent clause to an independent clause)

Interjections

• Words that express emotion or feeling
• Examples: oh, wow, ouch
• Can be used to express strong emotions, such as surprise, excitement, or pain