Whether someone is studying English as a second language or looking to improve his or her writing and speech skills, it is important to know what the basic parts of speech in English are. Parts of speech are the basic grammatical units in English phrases and sentences. This article provides an introduction to these units, and a definition of each category.
Grammatical Parts of Speech
Grammar need not be a dry, boring subject. People often think that they don't know grammar, and don't know how to use it. This is wrong. Everyone uses grammar every day, whether they are aware of it or not. There are plenty of books and websites citing the "correct" ways to use grammar. What is more interesting, and useful, however, is describing the way grammar and language is actually used.
Here is a list of the most common parts of speech in English:
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Adverbs
- Adjectives
- Determiners
- Prepositions
This is not a completely comprehensive list, but it does list all the main categories that a person needs to form a basic phrase or sentence in English. Here is a look at the way each of these work in an English sentence:
Basic Parts of Speech in English
The first major part of speech in English is the noun. Nouns are commonly taught in school as being a "naming" word. The basic definition people get taught of nouns is that they are things or places. Although this is sometimes true, what really determines a noun is its grammatical function in a phrase or sentence.
Nouns usually function in a sentence as either the subject or object of the sentence. They are also able to be counted and pluralised. Nouns are also able to take a determiner before them ("a dog", "the dog").
Verbs as a Part of Speech
In English, a verb denotes a change of state. Humans are always interested in "what has happened." Who has done what, to who? That is why, in English, verbs form the centre of clauses and sentences.
A verb lets people know what has happened. They often describe an action, an event, or a change in events.Verbs also tell people when an event happened, and take different tenses. Verbs are able to be qualified by adverbs (see below).
Adverbs and Adjectives
Adverbs qualify, or describe, verbs. In English an adverb usually comes after a verb ("they clapped loudly"). Adverbs usually end with a -ly suffix. They tell people something about the verb; how it was performed and to what degree.
Adjectives behave in similar ways to adverbs, however, adjectives qualify nouns. They usually proceed a noun ("the red ball"). They give people further information about the noun. What colour was it, what kind of thing was it, how big was it, etc.
Determiners and Prepositions
Determiners are also known as articles in English. They usually proceed a noun, and they let people which specific thing is being talked about. Determiners include words like "the", "a", "an," etc. A way of remembering them is to know that they "determine" a thing. They point out specific objects: "the dog", "the hat," etc.
Prepositions locate things in time and space. They let people know where something is, or when it was done. Common prepositions include "on", "over", "at" and "by." In a sentence, a preposition tells someone about the location of an event or a thing, for example, "the hat on the table."
Other Parts of Speech
These are only the six major parts of speech definitions. They are the most important ones to know for anyone who is studying English grammar, or linguistics. English grammar can get quite complicated, and there are always more rules to learn. It is advisable to first lean the basics above, and then look into further definitions and parts of speech use.
Sources:
Website: Parts of Speech at University of Ottawa
Website: Definitions of Basic Sentence Parts
Join the Conversation