Parts of Speech- Foundation of English Grammar
In this article, We will learn what exactly is Parts of Speech, different types of Parts of speech.
What is Parts of Speech?
Every sentence is made of a group of words with a complete thought.
These words are of different types based on usage in the sentence.
For example
Rohan is a good boy.
‘Rohan’ and ‘Boy’ are nouns, ‘is’ is a verb, ‘a’ and ‘good’ are adjectives.
Now, there might be questions in your mind, which are the other types than these parts of speech and how we called certain words as ‘noun’, some word as a ‘verb’ and some as ‘adjectives’.
Type of Parts of Speech
- Noun
- Pronoun
- Verb
- Adverb
- Adjective
- Preposition
- Conjunction
- Interjection
1. Noun
A Noun is a word used as the name of a person, place, thing, or an idea
For example person, like Virat Kohli, captain of the Indian cricket team
place like Mumbai
thing like a Grammar Book
idea like love
These all are examples of nouns.
Lets look into the sentence examples where nouns are being used.
- Sachin is a great player.
- The Sun shines bright.
- The Rose smells sweet.
2. Pronoun
A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun.
For example,
John is a boy, John is in 8th standard, John likes to play cricket.
Here, we have used the word John three times which has made the sentence very hard to read.
Instead, of using the noun, ‘John’ for the second and third time, we can use a pronoun instead which is ‘He’.
So, let me write this example with a pronoun.
John is a boy. He is in 8th standard. He likes to play cricket.
Let’s look into examples where pronouns are used in a sentence.
- Shena is absent because she is ill.
- We need to work hard to complete the task.
- You are good at your studies.
So, A Pronoun is a word used instead of a noun.
3. Verb
A Verb is a word used to express an action or state of a subject; as
Actions may include, play, swim, run
State may include: feel, doubt, appear. Also, ‘to be’ verb like is, am, are, was, where are also, stative verbs which define the state of being.
Let me give you some sentence examples :
- She danced on stage.
- Kolkata is a big city.
4. Adjective
An Adjective is a word used to describe a noun or a pronoun; as,
For example :
He is a boy.
Here, we are simply saying that he is a ‘boy’. but we are not describing anything about him.
Let’s write the sentence again.
He is a brave boy. Here, we are describing the ‘boy’ as ‘brave’. So, ‘brave’ is an adjective here.
5. Adverb
An Adverb is a word used to describe a verb, an adjective, or another adverb; –add something to the meaning of
For example
She danced on stage.
Here, we know that she ‘danced’, but we don’t know how she danced. Let’s add a quality of dance in the sentence.
She danced beautifully on stage. So, it is an adverb.
6. Preposition
A Preposition is a word used to link nouns or pronouns with other words in the sentence.
Link, here means preposition provides a relationship between a noun or pronoun with other words in the sentence and thus makes the sentence complete. These other words may be a noun, verb, or adjective.
Thing denoted by the noun or pronoun stands in relation to something else; as, Preposition denotes direction, time, location of noun w.r.t other words in the sentence.
Lets understand it with an example:
The coffee is the table.
Here, if we read this sentence, we will get to know that we are talking about two nouns, coffee, and table, but,
we are not able to understand the relationship between them.
Here’s when the preposition comes into the picture, let me write the sentence again with a preposition.
The coffee is on the table.
Now, we are clear that where is the coffee w.r.t the table.
7. Conjunction
A Conjunction is a word used to join words or sentences; as,
Join, here means it connects with other words or sentences
For example
Ram and Hari are good at studies.
Here, ‘and’ is the conjunction used to join two words ‘Ram’ and ‘Hari’
8. Interjection
An Interjection is a word that expresses some sudden feeling or emotion of a person; as,
When the prime minister announced lockdown for the first time, what was our initial reaction,
Damn!. We can not go out of our house for 21 days.
Here, ‘Damn’ is a sudden feeling, we used here.
It is to be noted that, interjections are not necessary but they add emotions to the sentence.
