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Parts of Speech in English Grammar

A fair knowledge of basic English grammar is essential for improving communicative and writing skills in English. Parts of speech is helpful / useful in framing sentences in the right way.

There are 8 parts of speech in English grammar. These are:
  1. Verb
  2. Noun
  3. Adjective
  4. Adverb
  5. Pronoun
  6. Preposition
  7. Conjunction and
  8. Interjection.

Verb

In simple words a verb is a doing word or an action word. Any word that states that some action is being done, such word is called a verb. E.g: I am learning English grammar. In this sentence, the word learning shows that some action is being done. In this sentence the word learning is a verb.

Noun

Any word in a sentence that states a thing or a person or a place is a noun. In simple words a noun is a naming word.
E.g 1: The girl is playing. In this sentence, girl which states a person is a noun.
E.g 2: The student kept his book on the table. In this sentence there are 3 naming words - student, book and table. These three words are nouns.

Adjective

In a sentence, some words are used to tell something more about a noun.Such words which describe a noun are called adjectives. E.g 1: The teacher told us an interesting story. In this sentence the words 'teacher' and 'story' are nouns and the word interesting tells more about the noun (story). Hence 'interesting' is an adjective.
E.g 2: It is a dense forest. Here 'forest' is noun and dense which describes about the noun is an adjective.

Adverb

An adjective tells more about a noun. In a similar way an adverb is a word that describes more about a verb.
E.g 1: The tortoise walked slowly to the winning point. In this sentence 'walked is verb and the word 'slowly' tells more about the verb. Hence 'slowly' in the sentence is an adverb.
E.g 2: The lion roared ferociously. The word 'roared' is verb and the word 'ferociously' tells more about the verb. Hence 'ferociously' is an adverb.

Pronoun

A word in a sentence which is used in place of a noun is called a pronoun. These are the words that replace the nouns.
E.g: When Tom went out to paint the fence, his aunt shouted at him. In this sentence, observe the words 'his' and 'him', these two words are used to replace the noun 'Tom'. Hence words like'he', 'she', 'her', 'they', 'them' and all such words that replace nouns are called the pronouns

Preposition

This is an important part of speech which gives meaning to a sentence. These words mostly link / connect a noun with a word in the sentence. Prepositions are the linking / connecting words between a noun and other word in a sentence. It is very important to use the correct preposition that goes with a noun. Sometimes even 2-3 different prepositions go with a noun.

E.g: The boy kept his toy in the shelf. In this sentence the word 'in' is a preposition which connects two nouns 'toy' and 'shelf. If you simply say 'the boy kept his toy the shelf', then no message is conveyed in this sentence. But when you add this small word 'in' which is a preposition, you can immediately understand what is being conveyed in the sentence. So important these prepositions are in a sentence.

Conjunction

These are the words that join clauses, words or sentences.
E.g 1: The children went to the park and played there for a long time. In this sentence the word 'and which is used to join two sentences 'the children went to the park', they played there for a long time' is called a conjunction.
E.g 2: Tom woke up late in the morning as he watched a movie till late night. Here the word 'as joins two sentences 'Tom woke up late in the morning' is one sentence, the other sentence is 'he watched a movie till late night'. The word 'as' which is a conjunction joins these two sentences.

Interjection

Though this is not an important part of speech, yet it is used in the sentences for showing short exclamations / expressions mostly with the use of an exclamatory mark.
E.g: Wow!, that's really awesome. The word 'wow' which shows an expression is an interjection.

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