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Words don’t only mean something; they also do something. In the English language, words are grouped into word classes based on their function, i.e. what they do in a phrase or sentence. In total, there are nine word classes in English.
Word class meaning and example
All words can be categorised into classes within a language based on their function and purpose.
An example of various word classes is ‘The cat ate a cupcake quickly.’
-
The = a determiner
-
cat = a noun
-
ate = a verb
-
a = determiner
-
cupcake = noun
-
quickly = an adverb
Word class function
The function of a word class, also known as a part of speech, is to classify words according to their grammatical properties and the roles they play in sentences. By assigning words to different word classes, we can understand how they should be used in context and how they relate to other words in a sentence.
Each word class has its own unique set of characteristics and rules for usage, and understanding the function of word classes is essential for effective communication in English. Knowing our word classes allows us to create clear and grammatically correct sentences that convey our intended meaning.
Word classes in English
In English, there are four main word classes; nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. These are considered lexical words, and they provide the main meaning of a phrase or sentence.
The other five word classes are; prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are considered functional words, and they provide structural and relational information in a sentence or phrase.
Don’t worry if it sounds a bit confusing right now. Read ahead and you’ll be a master of the different types of word classes in no time!
| All word classes | Definition | Examples of word classification |
| Noun | A word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. | cat, house, plant |
| Pronoun | A word that is used in place of a noun to avoid repetition. | he, she, they, it |
| Verb | A word that expresses action, occurrence, or state of being. | run, sing, grow |
| Adjective | A word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. | blue, tall, happy |
| Adverb | A word that describes or modifies a verb, adjective, or other adverb. | quickly, very |
| Preposition | A word that shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. | in, on, at |
| Conjunction | A word that connects words, phrases, or clauses. | and, or, but |
| Interjection | A word that expresses strong emotions or feelings. | wow, oh, ouch |
| Determiners | A word that clarifies information about the quantity, location, or ownership of the noun | Articles like ‘the’ and ‘an’, and quantifiers like ‘some’ and ‘all’. |
The four main word classes
In the English language, there are four main word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Let’s look at all the word classes in detail.
Nouns
Nouns are the words we use to describe people, places, objects, feelings, concepts, etc. Usually, nouns are tangible (touchable) things, such as a table, a person, or a building.
However, we also have abstract nouns, which are things we can feel and describe but can’t necessarily see or touch, such as love, honour, or excitement. Proper nouns are the names we give to specific and official people, places, or things, such as England, Claire, or Hoover.
Cat
House
School
Britain
Harry
Book
Hatred
‘My sister went to school.‘
Verbs
Verbs are words that show action, event, feeling, or state of being. This can be a physical action or event, or it can be a feeling that is experienced.
Lexical verbs are considered one of the four main word classes, and auxiliary verbs are not. Lexical verbs are the main verb in a sentence that shows action, event, feeling, or state of being, such as walk, ran, felt, and want, whereas an auxiliary verb helps the main verb and expresses grammatical meaning, such as has, is, and do.
Run
Walk
Swim
Curse
Wish
Help
Leave
‘She wished for a sunny day.’
Adjectives
Adjectives are words used to modify nouns, usually by describing them. Adjectives describe an attribute, quality, or state of being of the noun.
Long
Short
Friendly
Broken
Loud
Embarrassed
Dull
Boring
‘The friendly woman wore a beautiful dress.’
Fig 1. Adjectives can describe the woman and the dress
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that work alongside verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. They provide further descriptions of how, where, when, and how often something is done.
Quickly
Softly
Very
More
Too
Loudly
‘The music was too loud.’
All of the above examples are lexical word classes and carry most of the meaning in a sentence. They make up the majority of the words in the English language.
The other five word classes
The other five remaining word classes are; prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These words are considered functional words and are used to explain grammatical and structural relationships between words.
For example, prepositions can be used to explain where one object is in relation to another.
Prepositions
Prepositions are used to show the relationship between words in terms of place, time, direction, and agency.
In
At
On
Towards
To
Through
Into
By
With
‘They went through the tunnel.’
Pronouns
Pronouns take the place of a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence. They often refer to a noun that has already been mentioned and are commonly used to avoid repetition.
Chloe (noun) → she (pronoun)
Chloe’s dog → her dog (possessive pronoun)
There are several different types of pronouns; let’s look at some examples of each.
- He, she, it, they — personal pronouns
- His, hers, its, theirs, mine, ours — possessive pronouns
- Himself, herself, myself, ourselves, themselves — reflexive pronouns
- This, that, those, these — demonstrative pronouns
- Anyone, somebody, everyone, anything, something — Indefinite pronouns
- Which, what, that, who, who — Relative pronouns
‘She sat on the chair which was broken.’
Determiners
Determiners work alongside nouns to clarify information about the quantity, location, or ownership of the noun. It ‘determines’ exactly what is being referred to. Much like pronouns, there are also several different types of determiners.
- The, a, an — articles
- This, that, those — you might recognise these for demonstrative pronouns are also determiners
- One, two, three etc. — cardinal numbers
- First, second, third etc. — ordinal numbers
- Some, most, all — quantifiers
- Other, another — difference words
‘The first restaurant is better than the other.’
Conjunctions
Conjunctions are words that connect other words, phrases, and clauses together within a sentence. There are three main types of conjunctions;
-
Coordinating conjunctions — these link independent clauses together.
-
Subordinating conjunctions — these link dependent clauses to independent clauses.
- Correlative conjunctions — words that work in pairs to join two parts of a sentence of equal importance.
For, and, nor, but, or, yet, so — coordinating conjunctions
After, as, because, when, while, before, if, even though — subordinating conjunctions
Either/or, neither/nor, both/and — correlative conjunctions
‘If it rains, I’m not going out.’
Interjections
Interjections are exclamatory words used to express an emotion or a reaction. They often stand alone from the rest of the sentence and are accompanied by an exclamation mark.
Oh
Oops!
Phew!
Ahh!
‘Oh, what a surprise!’
Word class: lexical classes and function classes
A helpful way to understand lexical word classes is to see them as the building blocks of sentences. If the lexical word classes are the blocks themselves, then the function word classes are the cement holding the words together and giving structure to the sentence.
Fig 2. Lexical and functional word classes
In this diagram, the lexical classes are in blue and the function classes are in yellow. We can see that the words in blue provide the key information, and the words in yellow bring this information together in a structured way.
Word class examples
Sometimes it can be tricky to know exactly which word class a word belongs to. Some words can function as more than one word class depending on how they are used in a sentence. For this reason, we must look at words in context, i.e. how a word works within the sentence. Take a look at the following examples of word classes to see the importance of word class categorisation.
The dog will bark if you open the door.
The tree bark was dark and rugged.
Here we can see that the same word (bark) has a different meaning and different word class in each sentence. In the first example, ‘bark’ is used as a verb, and in the second as a noun (an object in this case).
I left my sunglasses on the beach.
The horse stood on Sarah’s left foot.
In the first sentence, the word ‘left’ is used as a verb (an action), and in the second, it is used to modify the noun (foot). In this case, it is an adjective.
I run every day
I went for a run
In this example, ‘run’ can be a verb or a noun.
Word Class — Key takeaways
-
We group words into word classes based on the function they perform in a sentence.
-
The four main word classes are nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs. These are lexical classes that give meaning to a sentence.
-
The other five word classes are prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, and interjections. These are function classes that are used to explain grammatical and structural relationships between words.
-
It is important to look at the context of a sentence in order to work out which word class a word belongs to.
Frequently Asked Questions about Word Class
A word class is a group of words that have similar properties and play a similar role in a sentence.
Some examples of how some words can function as more than one word class include the way ‘run’ can be a verb (‘I run every day’) or a noun (‘I went for a run’). Similarly, ‘well’ can be an adverb (‘He plays the guitar well’) or an adjective (‘She’s feeling well today’).
The nine word classes are; Nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions, interjections.
Categorising words into word classes helps us to understand the function the word is playing within a sentence.
Parts of speech is another term for word classes.
The different groups of word classes include lexical classes that act as the building blocks of a sentence e.g. nouns. The other word classes are function classes that act as the ‘glue’ and give grammatical information in a sentence e.g. prepositions.
The word classes for all, that, and the is:
‘All’ = determiner (quantifier)
‘That’ = pronoun and/or determiner (demonstrative pronoun)
‘The’ = determiner (article)
Final Word Class Quiz
Word Class Quiz — Teste dein Wissen
Question
A word can only belong to one type of noun. True or false?
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Answer
This is false. A word can belong to multiple categories of nouns and this may change according to the context of the word.
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Question
Name the two principal categories of nouns.
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Answer
The two principal types of nouns are ‘common nouns’ and ‘proper nouns’.
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Question
Which of the following is an example of a proper noun?
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Question
Name the 6 types of common nouns discussed in the text.
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Answer
Concrete nouns, abstract nouns, countable nouns, uncountable nouns, collective nouns, and compound nouns.
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Question
What is the difference between a concrete noun and an abstract noun?
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Answer
A concrete noun is a thing that physically exists. We can usually touch this thing and measure its proportions. An abstract noun, however, does not physically exist. It is a concept, idea, or feeling that only exists within the mind.
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Question
Pick out the concrete noun from the following:
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Question
Pick out the abstract noun from the following:
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Question
What is the difference between a countable and an uncountable noun? Can you think of an example for each?
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Answer
A countable noun is a thing that can be ‘counted’, i.e. it can exist in the plural. Some examples include ‘bottle’, ‘dog’ and ‘boy’. These are often concrete nouns.
An uncountable noun is something that can not be counted, so you often cannot place a number in front of it. Examples include ‘love’, ‘joy’, and ‘milk’.
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Question
Pick out the collective noun from the following:
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Question
What is the collective noun for a group of sheep?
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Answer
The collective noun is a ‘flock’, as in ‘flock of sheep’.
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Question
The word ‘greenhouse’ is a compound noun. True or false?
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Answer
This is true. The word ‘greenhouse’ is a compound noun as it is made up of two separate words ‘green’ and ‘house’. These come together to form a new word.
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Question
What are the adjectives in this sentence?: ‘The little boy climbed up the big, green tree’
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Answer
The adjectives are ‘little’ and ‘big’, and ‘green’ as they describe features about the nouns.
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Question
Place the adjectives in this sentence into the correct order: the wooden blue big ship sailed across the Indian vast scary ocean.
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Answer
The big, blue, wooden ship sailed across the vast, scary, Indian ocean.
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Question
What are the 3 different positions in which an adjective can be placed?
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Answer
An adjective can be placed before a noun (pre-modification), after a noun (post-modification), or following a verb as a complement.
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Question
In this sentence, does the adjective pre-modify or post-modify the noun? ‘The unicorn is angry’.
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Answer
The adjective ‘angry’ post-modifies the noun ‘unicorn’.
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Question
In this sentence, does the adjective pre-modify or post-modify the noun? ‘It is a scary unicorn’.
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Answer
The adjective ‘scary’ pre-modifies the noun ‘unicorn’.
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Question
What kind of adjectives are ‘purple’ and ‘shiny’?
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Answer
‘Purple’ and ‘Shiny’ are qualitative adjectives as they describe a quality or feature of a noun
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Question
What kind of adjectives are ‘ugly’ and ‘easy’?
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Answer
The words ‘ugly’ and ‘easy’ are evaluative adjectives as they give a subjective opinion on the noun.
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Question
Which of the following adjectives is an absolute adjective?
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Question
Which of these adjectives is a classifying adjective?
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Question
Convert the noun ‘quick’ to its comparative form.
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Answer
The comparative form of ‘quick’ is ‘quicker’.
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Question
Convert the noun ‘slow’ to its superlative form.
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Answer
The comparative form of ‘slow’ is ‘slowest’.
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Question
What is an adjective phrase?
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Answer
An adjective phrase is a group of words that is ‘built’ around the adjective (it takes centre stage in the sentence). For example, in the phrase ‘the dog is big’ the word ‘big’ is the most important information.
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Question
Give 2 examples of suffixes that are typical of adjectives.
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Answer
Suffixes typical of adjectives include -able, -ible, -ful, -y, -less, -ous, -some, -ive, -ish, -al.
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Question
What is the difference between a main verb and an auxiliary verb?
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Answer
A main verb is a verb that can stand on its own and carries most of the meaning in a verb phrase. For example, ‘run’, ‘find’. Auxiliary verbs cannot stand alone, instead, they work alongside a main verb and ‘help’ the verb to express more grammatical information e.g. tense, mood, possibility.
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Question
What is the difference between a primary auxiliary verb and a modal auxiliary verb?
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Answer
Primary auxiliary verbs consist of the various forms of ‘to have’, ‘to be’, and ‘to do’ e.g. ‘had’, ‘was’, ‘done’. They help to express a verb’s tense, voice, or mood. Modal auxiliary verbs show possibility, ability, permission, or obligation. There are 9 auxiliary verbs including ‘could’, ‘will’, might’.
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Question
Which of the following are primary auxiliary verbs?
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Is
-
Play
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Have
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Run
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Does
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Could
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Answer
The primary auxiliary verbs in this list are ‘is’, ‘have’, and ‘does’. They are all forms of the main primary auxiliary verbs ‘to have’, ‘to be’, and ‘to do’. ‘Play’ and ‘run’ are main verbs and ‘could’ is a modal auxiliary verb.
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Question
Name 6 out of the 9 modal auxiliary verbs.
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Answer
Answers include: Could, would, should, may, might, can, will, must, shall
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Question
‘The fairies were asleep’. In this sentence, is the verb ‘were’ a linking verb or an auxiliary verb?
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Answer
The word ‘were’ is used as a linking verb as it stands alone in the sentence. It is used to link the subject (fairies) and the adjective (asleep).
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Question
What is the difference between dynamic verbs and stative verbs?
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Answer
A dynamic verb describes an action or process done by a noun or subject. They are thought of as ‘action verbs’ e.g. ‘kick’, ‘run’, ‘eat’. Stative verbs describe the state of being of a person or thing. These are states that are not necessarily physical action e.g. ‘know’, ‘love’, ‘suppose’.
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Question
Which of the following are dynamic verbs and which are stative verbs?
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Drink
-
Prefer
-
Talk
-
Seem
-
Understand
-
Write
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Answer
The dynamic verbs are ‘drink’, ‘talk’, and ‘write’ as they all describe an action. The stative verbs are ‘prefer’, ‘seem’, and ‘understand’ as they all describe a state of being.
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Question
What is an imperative verb?
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Answer
Imperative verbs are verbs used to give orders, give instructions, make a request or give warning. They tell someone to do something. For example, ‘clean your room!’.
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Question
Inflections give information about tense, person, number, mood, or voice. True or false?
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Question
What information does the inflection ‘-ing’ give for a verb?
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Answer
The inflection ‘-ing’ is often used to show that an action or state is continuous and ongoing.
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Question
How do you know if a verb is irregular?
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Answer
An irregular verb does not take the regular inflections, instead the whole word is spelt a different way. For example, begin becomes ‘began’ or ‘begun’. We can’t add the regular past tense inflection -ed as this would become ‘beginned’ which doesn’t make sense.
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Question
Suffixes can never signal what word class a word belongs to. True or false?
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Answer
False. Suffixes can signal what word class a word belongs to. For example, ‘-ify’ is a common suffix for verbs (‘identity’, ‘simplify’)
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Question
A verb phrase is built around a noun. True or false?
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Answer
False. A verb phrase is a group of words that has a main verb along with any other auxiliary verbs that ‘help’ the main verb. For example, ‘could eat’ is a verb phrase as it contains a main verb (‘could’) and an auxiliary verb (‘could’).
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Question
Which of the following are multi-word verbs?
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Shake
-
Rely on
-
Dancing
-
Look up to
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Answer
The verbs ‘rely on’ and ‘look up to’ are multi-word verbs as they consist of a verb that has one or more prepositions or particles linked to it.
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Question
What is the difference between a transition verb and an intransitive verb?
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Answer
Transitive verbs are verbs that require an object in order to make sense. For example, the word ‘bring’ requires an object that is brought (‘I bring news’). Intransitive verbs do not require an object to complete the meaning of the sentence e.g. ‘exist’ (‘I exist’).
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Answer
An adverb is a word that gives more information about a verb, adjective, another adverb, or a full clause.
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Question
What are the 3 ways we can use adverbs?
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Answer
We can use adverbs to modify a word (modifying adverbs), to intensify a word (intensifying adverbs), or to connect two clauses (connecting adverbs).
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Question
What are modifying adverbs?
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Answer
Modifying adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They add further information about the word.
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Question
‘Additionally’, ‘likewise’, and ‘consequently’ are examples of connecting adverbs. True or false?
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Answer
True! Connecting adverbs are words used to connect two independent clauses.
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Question
What are intensifying adverbs?
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Answer
Intensifying adverbs are words used to strengthen the meaning of an adjective, another adverb, or a verb. In other words, they ‘intensify’ another word.
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Question
Which of the following are intensifying adverbs?
-
Calmly
-
Incredibly
-
Enough
-
Greatly
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Answer
The intensifying adverbs are ‘incredibly’ and ‘greatly’. These strengthen the meaning of a word.
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Question
Name the main types of adverbs
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Answer
The main adverbs are; adverbs of place, adverbs of time, adverbs of manner, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of degree, adverbs of probability, and adverbs of purpose.
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Question
What are adverbs of time?
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Answer
Adverbs of time are the ‘when?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘when is the action done?’ e.g. ‘I’ll do it tomorrow’
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Question
Which of the following are adverbs of frequency?
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Usually
-
Patiently
-
Occasionally
-
Nowhere
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Answer
The adverbs of frequency are ‘usually’ and ‘occasionally’. They are the ‘how often?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘how often is the action done?’.
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Question
What are adverbs of place?
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Answer
Adverbs of place are the ‘where?’ adverbs. They answer the question ‘where is the action done?’. For example, ‘outside’ or ‘elsewhere’.
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Question
Which of the following are adverbs of manner?
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Never
-
Carelessly
-
Kindly
-
Inside
Show answer
Answer
The words ‘carelessly’ and ‘kindly’ are adverbs of manner. They are the ‘how?’ adverbs that answer the question ‘how is the action done?’.
Show question
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On these pages we look at vocabulary categorised by word class (verbs, nouns, adjectives etc) and by word form (contractions, prefixes, suffixes etc). These pages deal mainly with vocabulary, for example word lists, meanings and sample sentences with the words in context. But see also the grammar of word classes.
Word Classes
Modern grammars normally recognise four major word classes (verb, noun, adjective, adverb) and five other word classes (determiners, preposition, pronoun, conjunction, interjection), making nine word classes (or parts of speech) in total. But note that some grammarians use different systems and may recognise eight or ten different word classes.
Verbs
Verbs are action or state words like: run, work, study, be, seem
Nouns
Nouns are words for people, places or things like: mother, town, Rome, car, dog
Adjectives
Adjectives are words that describe nouns, like: kind, clever, expensive
Adverbs
Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs, like: quickly, back, ever, badly, away generally, completely
Prepositions
Prepositions are words usually in front of a noun or pronoun and expressing a relation to another word or element, like: after, down, near, of, plus, round, to
Pronouns
Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns, like: me, you, his, it, this, that, mine, yours, who, what
Interjections
Interjections have no grammatical value — words like: ah, hey, oh, ouch, um, well
Word Forms
Prefixes with Prefixes Quiz
List of prefixes with examples: non-, inter-, post-
Suffixes
Lists of suffixes and examples in use: -ation, -al, -ize
Words starting with mono- and poly-
Lists of words starting with the combining forms mono- and poly-
Contractions
Shortened forms of words and phrases, common in speech: I’m, aren’t, here’s, gonna
WH Question Words
The words we use to make question word questions: WHo, WHat, HoW
Without grammar very little can be conveyed; without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.D.A. Wilkins, Linguistics in Language Teaching
Verbs, nouns, prepositions – we use these words on a daily basis and ever since elementary school, we hardly gave them any bigger thought. Yet, native speakers and learners of English alike can profit from knowing about the word classes (or parts of speech) we have in the English language, which words belong to which class.
This overview will give you a quick and easy to understand explanation of the individual word classes as well as providing a few explanatory examples.
Word Classes in English
First of all, lets have a look at the word classes that are present in modern English. The following classification is adapted and followed by most English dictionaries and consists of eight (sometimes nine) word classes.
- Adjective
- Adverb
- Article
- Conjunction
- Interjection
- Noun
- Preposition
- Pronoun
- Verb
In many European languages, inflection shows in which category a word belongs. Unfortunately, in English his is a lot more difficult to distinguish. Furthermore, some words can belong to more than one word class, for example google which can be used as either a noun or a verb. The following explanations of the different word classes, however, will make it easier for you to distinguish what word belongs to which class.
These word classes can be further divided into two linguistic classes, an open and a closed one. The difference between those is that the open classes allow for new word to be invented and added, while there will never be words added to a closed class.
| Open word classes | Closed word classes |
|
|
Adjectives
Adjectives are used to describe either a noun or pronoun (see below). They modify other words and give them more detail.
Examples:
beautiful, big, sad, angry, grey, artificial, exciting, tidy, Spanish
More about Adjectives
Adverb
Adverbs are, despite their name, close related to adjectives and not to verbs when it comes to their function in a sentence. They have the function of describing or modifying other word classes like verbs and adjectives. They add even more detail and description to your writing.
Examples:
very, typically, quite, fast, greatly, loudly, yesterday, soon
While the suffix -ly is a typical indication for an adverb, not all adverbs are formed by adding it to an adjective. Adverbs like fast, quite and very are not created this way. Also, not all words that end in -ly are adverbs (friendly, ugly).
More about Adverbs
Article
Articles, sometimes also referred to as determiners, are small words that mark either definiteness or indefiniteness. In English, there is only one definite article while other European language (e.g. German and French) have articles that are gender-sensitive (der, die, das & le, la, l’)
Examples:
the, an, a, these, this
More about Articles
Conjunction
Conjunctions are words that either connect words or even whole sentences with each other.
Examples:
and, or, but, until, because
More about Conjunctions
Interjection
Interjections or exclamations are words or whole phrases that express emotion. Surprise, pleasure, anger, shock and other strong feelings can be expressed in a text using this word class.
Examples:
Hurray, Alas, Ow!, Well done
More about Interjections
Noun
Nouns are words that describe an abstract or concrete entity. This includes things and items, ideas, actions or qualities, persons and places.
Examples:
house, boat, love, dream, Sara, baker, necklace, sadness, tiredness, New York, suburb
In English, we also differentiate between count nouns and non-count nouns. The difference between those two lies within their countability. Count nouns can be modified by a numeral or a word that describes a quantity like each or several. They occur in both singular and plural form, even though they sometimes do not differ in spelling.
Examples:
We would have invited more guests to the party, but we have only three tables.
We would have needed several tables to invite the whole group.
Non-count nouns or mass nouns can not be described using a number. They consist of entities that can not be divided into one or a distinct number of entities itself.
Examples:
I fear we are running out of water.
I drank six waters yesterday. ?
They brought several waters to the shelter. ?
More about Nouns
Preposition
Prepositions are there to create relations between words in a sentence.
Examples:
in, after, on, with, to, by, because of
Pronoun
Pronouns are very similar to nouns. They appear in the same positions in a sentence and are, basically, replacements for nouns that are known by all parties of the conversation.
Examples:
that, he, she, they, them, us, our, themselves
Michael bought a strange pet yesterday. He really thought a python was a good idea.
More about Pronouns
Verb
Verbs belong to the most essential word classes. Without a verb, forming a proper sentence is impossible. Verbs describe an action, state of being (be) or an occurrence (happen). Verbs change depending on tense and agreement to the subject of a sentence.
Examples:
talk, enjoy, feel, is, did, jump, seem, expand, rain, run, have
More about Verbs
Word classes are parts of speech. They’re the building blocks that form every sentence ever uttered. They are categorized by the role they play in your sentences.
Everyone agrees on the following four main word classes:
- Noun
- Verb
- Adjective
- Adverb
There are varying opinions as to whether the following are word classes or word forms. So we went straight to the experts: the Oxford and Cambridge Dictionaries. Per these two highly learned sources, the following are considered word classes also:
- Pronoun (e.g. I, you, me, we, mine, someone, he, she)
- Preposition (e.g. at, in, on, across, behind, for)
- Conjunction (e.g. and, but, when, if, because)
- Determiner (e.g. a, the, an, this, etc.)
- Exclamation or Interjection (e.g. oh, ah, wow, ouch)
The four main classes have thousands of members, and new nouns, verbs, and other words are being created every day. Consider the verb “google.” This verb didn’t exist just a few years ago and now it is firmly entrenched in everyday language. Just last month a new noun, “intersectionality” (the study of overlapping social identities and related systems of discrimination), was just added to Dictionary.com. Can you think of any other words that have recently been created and entered your own vocabulary?
Some words, however, can fall in multiple word classes depending on their context:
- Put your money in the bank. (noun)
- He began to bank the airplane into the wind. (verb)
- Come warm up by the fire. (noun)
- He will certainly fire her for coming in late again. (verb)
- A book is a source of endless reading pleasure. (noun)
- Book your holiday plans soon to get the best deal. (verb)
- She loves fast cars. (adjective)
- He’s driving fast to get to work on time. (adverb)
- Her hourly complaints have got to stop. (adjective)
- The weather report is reported hourly. (adverb)
The next step is to use your word classes to form phrase classes, like noun phrases, verb phrases, adjective phrases, etc. But we’ll save that for another post.
In English grammar, a word class is a set of words that display the same formal properties, especially their inflections and distribution. The term «word class» is similar to the more traditional term, part of speech. It is also variously called grammatical category, lexical category, and syntactic category (although these terms are not wholly or universally synonymous).
The two major families of word classes are lexical (or open or form) classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) and function (or closed or structure) classes (determiners, particles, prepositions, and others).
Examples and Observations
- «When linguists began to look closely at English grammatical structure in the 1940s and 1950s, they encountered so many problems of identification and definition that the term part of speech soon fell out of favor, word class being introduced instead. Word classes are equivalent to parts of speech, but defined according to strict linguistic criteria.» (David Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2003)
- «There is no single correct way of analyzing words into word classes…Grammarians disagree about the boundaries between the word classes (see gradience), and it is not always clear whether to lump subcategories together or to split them. For example, in some grammars…pronouns are classed as nouns, whereas in other frameworks…they are treated as a separate word class.» (Bas Aarts, Sylvia Chalker, Edmund Weiner, The Oxford Dictionary of English Grammar, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press, 2014)
Form Classes and Structure Classes
«[The] distinction between lexical and grammatical meaning determines the first division in our classification: form-class words and structure-class words. In general, the form classes provide the primary lexical content; the structure classes explain the grammatical or structural relationship. Think of the form-class words as the bricks of the language and the structure words as the mortar that holds them together.»
The form classes also known as content words or open classes include:
- Nouns
- Verbs
- Adjectives
- Adverbs
The structure classes, also known as function words or closed classes, include:
- Determiners
- Pronouns
- Auxiliaries
- Conjunctions
- Qualifiers
- Interrogatives
- Prepositions
- Expletives
- Particles
«Probably the most striking difference between the form classes and the structure classes is characterized by their numbers. Of the half million or more words in our language, the structure words—with some notable exceptions—can be counted in the hundreds. The form classes, however, are large, open classes; new nouns and verbs and adjectives and adverbs regularly enter the language as new technology and new ideas require them.» (Martha Kolln and Robert Funk, Understanding English Grammar. Allyn and Bacon, 1998)
One Word, Multiple Classes
«Items may belong to more than one class. In most instances, we can only assign a word to a word class when we encounter it in context. Looks is a verb in ‘It looks good,’ but a noun in ‘She has good looks‘; that is a conjunction in ‘I know that they are abroad,’ but a pronoun in ‘I know that‘ and a determiner in ‘I know that man’; one is a generic pronoun in ‘One must be careful not to offend them,’ but a numeral in ‘Give me one good reason.'» (Sidney Greenbaum, Oxford English Grammar. Oxford University Press, 1996)
Suffixes as Signals
«We recognize the class of a word by its use in context. Some words have suffixes (endings added to words to form new words) that help to signal the class they belong to. These suffixes are not necessarily sufficient in themselves to identify the class of a word. For example, -ly is a typical suffix for adverbs (slowly, proudly), but we also find this suffix in adjectives: cowardly, homely, manly. And we can sometimes convert words from one class to another even though they have suffixes that are typical of their original class: an engineer, to engineer; a negative response, a negative.» (Sidney Greenbaum and Gerald Nelson, An Introduction to English Grammar, 3rd ed. Pearson, 2009)
A Matter of Degree
«[N]ot all the members of a class will necessarily have all the identifying properties. Membership in a particular class is really a matter of degree. In this regard, grammar is not so different from the real world. There are prototypical sports like ‘football’ and not so sporty sports like ‘darts.’ There are exemplary mammals like ‘dogs’ and freakish ones like the ‘platypus.’ Similarly, there are good examples of verbs like watch and lousy examples like beware; exemplary nouns like chair that display all the features of a typical noun and some not so good ones like Kenny.» (Kersti Börjars and Kate Burridge, Introducing English Grammar, 2nd ed. Hodder, 2010)