The word some is what part of speech are they

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• Parts of Speech for Some

Gramatical Hierarchy

• Adjective

• Noun
• Noun modifier
• Quantifier

• Adverb

• Pronoun

Grammatically «Some» is a adjective, to be more precise even a quantifier. But also it is used as a noun, specifically a quantifier. Part of speech depends on meaning of this word.

All about some Download all about some in pdf

Today’s the day for you to learn about this important grammatical concept! But first…let’s see what the parts of speech have to do with your clothes.

Imagine that it’s laundry day, and you’ve just finished washing and drying your clothes. You dump the contents of the laundry basket onto your bed, and you begin to organize everything. You fold matching socks together, you create a pile of perfectly folded shirts that you would be proud to show Marie Kondo, and you do the same thing with your pants, jackets, and everything else.

In the same way that we organize our clothes into groups based on each item’s function and features, we organize our words into categories based on each word’s function and features. We call these categories of words the parts of speech.

Some people categorize words into eight parts of speech, and some people categorize them into nine parts of speech. Neither one is wrong; they’re just two ways of looking at things. We’ll go over these categories below. Here at English Grammar Revolution, we categorize words into eight groups, but I’ll tell you about the ninth one as well.

There’s one important thing for you to know before we look at these categories: most words can function as more than one part of speech. They will only do one job at a time, but they can do different things in different sentences. Look at the word love in the following sentences.

My love of grammar inspired me to make this website.

Here, love is functioning as a noun. It’s the subject of the sentence. 

I love you.

Now, love is acting as a verb! It’s telling us an action.

The only way we can know how to categorize a word is to look at how it’s acting within a sentence.

Okay, let’s check out the parts of speech!

1. Nouns

Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas. They’re important parts of our sentences because they perform important jobs (subjects, direct objects, predicate nouns, etc.).

Sometimes people get bogged down with this part of speech because there are also many subcategories of nouns. This is similar to the way that we have subcategories for our clothes. You may have a whole drawer full of pants, but you may also have different types of pants that you use for different purposes (workout pants, lounge pants, work pants, etc.). This is similar to the way that we can further categorize nouns into smaller groups. 

Here are a few of the subcategories of nouns: proper nouns, common nouns, collective nouns, possessive nouns, and compound nouns.

Tip: Other parts of speech also have subcategories. If you’re studying this information for the first time, ignore the subcategories and focus on learning about each broader category.

2. Pronouns

Pronouns take the place of nouns. When most people hear the word pronoun, they think of words like I, we, me, he, she, and they. These are indeed all pronouns, but they’re a part of a subcategory called personal pronouns. Know that there are other kinds of pronouns out there as well. Here are some examples: myself, his, someone, and who.

Here are a few of the subcategories of pronouns: reflexive pronouns, indefinite pronouns, possessive pronouns, and relative pronouns. 

3. Verbs

Verbs show actions or states of being. They are integral elements of sentences.   

In the Montessori tradition of education, they use a large red circle or ball to symbolize a verb, and they often teach children to think of verbs as a sun providing the energy of a sentence. Isn’t that a lovely way to think of verbs?

I know that you’re getting tired of hearing about subcategories, but linking verbs, action verbs, and helping verbs are described on the verb page here. 

Modal verbs are described on that link, and you can learn even more about action verbs and linking verbs from those links.

4. Adjectives

Adjectives describe, or modify, nouns and pronouns. I like to think of them as adding color to language. It would be hard to describe a beautiful sunset or the way a touching story makes us feel without using adjectives.

One helpful strategy for learning about and identifying adjectives is to learn how they are diagrammed. Sentence diagrams are pictures of sentences that help us see how all of the words are grammatically related. Since adjectives modify nouns and pronouns, we diagram them on slanted lines under the nouns/pronouns that they are modifying. 

Book is a noun. It’s the subject of this sentence. My, green, and white are all adjectives describing book, so we diagram them on slanted lines underneath book. Isn’t that a great way to SEE what adjectives do?

5. Adverbs

Adverbs modify (describe) verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Adverbs are similar to adjectives in that they both modify things. 

Sentence diagrams also make it really easy to see what adverbs do. Take a look at this diagram. What do you notice about the way the adverbs are diagrammed? 

Did you notice that the adverbs are diagrammed on slanted lines under the words that they are modifying?

Ran is a verb. Quickly is an adverb telling us more about the verb ran. Very is an adverb telling us more about the adverb quickly.

Doesn’t the diagram make it easier to SEE what adverbs do?

6. Prepositions

Prepositions are probably the most difficult part of speech to explain, but people generally have an easier time understanding them when they look at lots of examples. So…let’s start with some examples of commonly used prepositions! 

in, for, of, off, if, until

I’m so convinced that memorizing some of the prepositions will be helpful to you that I’ll teach you a preposition song. 

Okay, now that we’ve looked at some examples, let’s look at the definition of a preposition. 

Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun and some other word in the rest of the sentence. 

Sentence diagrams will come to the rescue again to help us visualize what prepositions do. Think of prepositions as «noun hooks» or «noun bridges.» In the diagram below, notice how the preposition down links the noun tree to the rest of the sentence.  

Since prepositions always function as «noun hooks,» they’ll always be accompanied by a noun. The preposition plus its noun is called a prepositional phrase.

If you find a word from the preposition list that’s not a part of a prepositional phrase, it’s not functioning as a preposition. (You remember that words can function as different parts of speech, right?)

7. Conjunctions

Conjunctions join things together. They can join words or groups of words (phrases and clauses).

The hummingbird sat and waited.

The conjunction and is joining the words sat and waited.

Do you live near the park or near the hospital?

The conjunction or is joining the phrases near the park and near the hospital. 

The two conjunctions we just looked at (and and or) belong to a subcategory called coordinating conjunctions, but there are other subcategories of conjunctions as well. The other one that we use most often is subordinating conjunctions. Subordinating conjunctions are a little trickier to learn because they involve a more complicated concept (dependent adverb clauses).

For now, just know that all conjunctions, no matter what type they are, connect things together. In fact, let’s LOOK at how they do this by looking at a sentence diagram.

Here is a sentence diagram showing how the coordinating conjunction and connects two clauses. 

8. Interjections

Interjections show excitement or emotion. 

They are different from the other parts of speech in that they’re not grammatically related to the rest of the sentence, and the way that we diagram them reflects that. Look at how we diagram interjections:

The interjection yes sit sits there on its own line floating above the rest of the sentence. This helps show that it’s not grammatically related to the other words in the sentence. 

Summary

It’s time to review what we covered on this page.

• We can categorize the words that we use into groups based on their functions and features. We call these groups the parts of speech.
• Many words can function as multiple parts of speech. You need to look at each word in the context of a sentence in order to say what part of speech it is. 
• The eight parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, conjunctions, prepositions, and interjections. 
• You just learned about all of the parts of speech. Give yourself a high five! 

A part of speech is a term used in traditional grammar for one of the nine main categories into which words are classified according to their functions in sentences, such as nouns or verbs. Also known as word classes, these are the building blocks of grammar.

Every sentence you write or speak in English includes words that fall into some of the nine parts of speech. These include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections. (Some sources include only eight parts of speech and leave interjections in their own category.)

Learning the names of the parts of speech probably won’t make you witty, healthy, wealthy, or wise. In fact, learning just the names of the parts of speech won’t even make you a better writer. However, you will gain a basic understanding of sentence structure and the English language by familiarizing yourself with these labels.

Open and Closed Word Classes

The parts of speech are commonly divided into open classes (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and closed classes (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections). The idea is that open classes can be altered and added to as language develops and closed classes are pretty much set in stone. For example, new nouns are created every day, but conjunctions never change.

In contemporary linguistics, the label part of speech has generally been discarded in favor of the term word class or syntactic category. These terms make words easier to qualify objectively based on word construction rather than context. Within word classes, there is the lexical or open class and the function or closed class.

Read about each part of speech below and get started practicing identifying each.

Noun

Nouns are a person, place, thing, or idea. They can take on a myriad of roles in a sentence, from the subject of it all to the object of an action. They are capitalized when they’re the official name of something or someone, called proper nouns in these cases. Examples: pirate, Caribbean, ship, freedom, Captain Jack Sparrow.

Pronoun

Pronouns stand in for nouns in a sentence. They are more generic versions of nouns that refer only to people. Examples:​ I, you, he, she, it, ours, them, who, which, anybody, ourselves.

Verb

Verbs are action words that tell what happens in a sentence. They can also show a sentence subject’s state of being (is, was). Verbs change form based on tense (present, past) and count distinction (singular or plural). Examples: sing, dance, believes, seemed, finish, eat, drink, be, became

Adjective

Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. They specify which one, how much, what kind, and more. Adjectives allow readers and listeners to use their senses to imagine something more clearly. Examples: hot, lazy, funny, unique, bright, beautiful, poor, smooth.

Adverb

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and even other adverbs. They specify when, where, how, and why something happened and to what extent or how often. Examples: softly, lazily, often, only, hopefully, softly, sometimes.

Preposition

Prepositions show spacial, temporal, and role relations between a noun or pronoun and the other words in a sentence. They come at the start of a prepositional phrase, which contains a preposition and its object. Examples: up, over, against, by, for, into, close to, out of, apart from.

Conjunction

Conjunctions join words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. There are coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions. Examples: and, but, or, so, yet, with.

Articles and Determiners

Articles and determiners function like adjectives by modifying nouns, but they are different than adjectives in that they are necessary for a sentence to have proper syntax. Articles and determiners specify and identify nouns, and there are indefinite and definite articles. Examples: articles: a, an, the; determiners: these, that, those, enough, much, few, which, what.

Some traditional grammars have treated articles as a distinct part of speech. Modern grammars, however, more often include articles in the category of determiners, which identify or quantify a noun. Even though they modify nouns like adjectives, articles are different in that they are essential to the proper syntax of a sentence, just as determiners are necessary to convey the meaning of a sentence, while adjectives are optional.

Interjection

Interjections are expressions that can stand on their own or be contained within sentences. These words and phrases often carry strong emotions and convey reactions. Examples: ah, whoops, ouch, yabba dabba do!

How to Determine the Part of Speech

Only interjections (Hooray!) have a habit of standing alone; every other part of speech must be contained within a sentence and some are even required in sentences (nouns and verbs). Other parts of speech come in many varieties and may appear just about anywhere in a sentence.

To know for sure what part of speech a word falls into, look not only at the word itself but also at its meaning, position, and use in a sentence.

For example, in the first sentence below, work functions as a noun; in the second sentence, a verb; and in the third sentence, an adjective:

• Bosco showed up for work two hours late.
  • The noun work is the thing Bosco shows up for.
• He will have to work until midnight.
  • The verb work is the action he must perform.
• His work permit expires next month.
  • The attributive noun [or converted adjective] work modifies the noun permit.

Learning the names and uses of the basic parts of speech is just one way to understand how sentences are constructed.

Dissecting Basic Sentences

To form a basic complete sentence, you only need two elements: a noun (or pronoun standing in for a noun) and a verb. The noun acts as a subject and the verb, by telling what action the subject is taking, acts as the predicate. 

• Birds fly.

In the short sentence above, birds is the noun and fly is the verb. The sentence makes sense and gets the point across.

You can have a sentence with just one word without breaking any sentence formation rules. The short sentence below is complete because it’s a command to an understood «you».

• Go!

Here, the pronoun, standing in for a noun, is implied and acts as the subject. The sentence is really saying, «(You) go!»

Constructing More Complex Sentences

Use more parts of speech to add additional information about what’s happening in a sentence to make it more complex. Take the first sentence from above, for example, and incorporate more information about how and why birds fly.

• Birds fly when migrating before winter.

Birds and fly remain the noun and the verb, but now there is more description. 

When is an adverb that modifies the verb fly. The word before is a little tricky because it can be either a conjunction, preposition, or adverb depending on the context. In this case, it’s a preposition because it’s followed by a noun. This preposition begins an adverbial phrase of time (before winter) that answers the question of when the birds migrate. Before is not a conjunction because it does not connect two clauses.

What is an adverb? What is a preposition? What is a…?

These are questions that students sometimes ask when a teacher is explaining a grammar point.

The different parts of speech (or all of those “grammar words” as some students call them) are important to know when learning English, or any other language.

In order to help solve doubts about what the different parts of speech are and what functions they have, I created a summary chart and a video explaining the main differences between each one.

Parts of Speech in English – ESL Video

In our ESL video, we look at the eight parts of speech in traditional English grammar.
These parts of speech, sometimes called word classes, include:
Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Interjections.

We give an explanation of how each word class is used and have included example sentences. For some of the parts of speech we also look at sub-classes such as subject pronouns and possessive pronouns, the different types of adverbs such as adverbs of manner, adverbs of frequency, etc.

In the final section we talk about how some teachers sometimes include a 9th part of speech which can be either Articles or Determiners. Again, we include examples.

This ESL video to ideal to give students a general overview of the different parts of speech in English.

Summary Chart

English Teacher Resource

We have created the following summary charts that can be used in the classroom or for homeschooling: