What part of speech is the word through

preposition.
through preposition, adverb (PLACE)

Through can be a preposition, a noun, an adjective or an adverb.

Is the word through an adverb?

through ​Definitions and Synonyms ​‌‌‌ Through can be used in the following ways: as a preposition (followed by a noun): They were riding through a forest. as an adverb (without a following noun): There’s a hole in the roof where the rain comes through.

Is through an adverb of place?

An adverb of place can indicate an object’s position in relation to another object. For example: Below, between, above, behind, through, around and so forth. Many adverbs of place indicate movement in a particular direction and end in the letters “-ward or -wards”.

Why is through a preposition?

Through can be used as a preposition or an adverb. When through is used as a preposition, it is followed by a noun. When it is used as an adverb, it is not followed by a noun. Through means from end to end or side to side of.

Is through a preposition word?

Through can be used as a preposition, an adverb, and an adjective. It has several meanings, including “from one side to the other,” “from beginning to end,” and “during an entire period”: He rode his bicycle through the door and onto the street.

Is thru a Scrabble word?

Yes, thru is in the scrabble dictionary.

Is through a preposition of place?

through preposition, adverb (PLACE)
from one end or side of something to the other: They walked slowly through the woods. The boy waded through the water to reach his boat. He struggled through the crowd till he reached the front.

What means through and through?

In every part or aspect, throughout. For example, I was wet through and through, or He was a success through and through. This idiom originally was used to indicate literally penetration, as by a sword. The figurative usage was first recorded in 1410.

What is the verb form of through?

Through is never used as a verb: “He walked home through the park”, not “He walked home threw the park.” To review: Through is a preposition and an adverb. (It can also be used as an adjective).

What type of adverb is through?

through Add to list Share. As an adjective, through means finished or done. As an adverb it can mean backward and forward, completely, up to and including, or all the way to the end. The preposition through means in and out of.

Is behind a preposition?

behind ​Definitions and Synonyms ​‌‌‌ Behind can be used in the following ways: as a preposition (followed by a noun): The car behind us was flashing its lights. as an adverb (without a following noun): I stayed behind to look after the children.

Are you through Meaning?

Are you through? The phrase could be used to ask if the person has finished the task that is being done at the time of or just before(not long ago) asking.

What does it mean when someone is through?

DEFINITIONS1. to have ended a relationship. I’ve told Larry I’m through with him, but he keeps bothering me.

What does thrus mean?

1 : a disease that is caused by a fungus (Candida albicans), occurs especially in infants and children, and is marked by white patches in the oral cavity broadly : candidiasis vaginal thrush. 2 : a suppurative disorder of the feet in various animals (such as a horse)

What is the past tense of through?

The past tense of go through is went through. The third-person singular simple present indicative form of go through is goes through. The present participle of go through is going through. The past participle of go through is gone through or been through.

Where does through and through come from?

Thoroughly, wholly, repeatedly. This expression, which at first meant literally penetrated, dates from about 1500. Hugh Walpole used it in The Fortress (1932): “The mist immediately surrounding him was . . . so wetting that he was already soaked through and through.”

Where do we use by and through?

By and through are two prepositions that are often used in English language. A preposition is a word that indicates the relationship between two things. The main difference between these two prepositions is, by is mostly used when referring to a means of something while through is used in relation to a process.

What is a good sentence for through?

She looked through the binoculars. The bullet had gone through his hand. He just walked through the door. The security guards pushed their way through the crowd.

Is through a root word?

The English prefix per-, which means “through,” appears in hundreds of English vocabulary words, such as perish and person. You can remember that the prefix per- means “through” via the word permanent, for something that is permanent stays intact “through” the years.

Where does the word through come from?

Old English
Through began life as the Old English word spelled either as thurh or thuruh. Old English, used from about 500-1100AD, was a completely phonetic language: in other words, you said every letter in the word. That began to change as English was influenced (through invasions and political upheaval) by Old Norse and French.

through preposition, adverb (PLACE)

What type of word is VIA?

As detailed above, ‘via’ can be a noun or a preposition. Preposition usage: They drove from New York to Los Angeles via Omaha. Preposition usage: You can enter the building via the western gate.

Is the word via a preposition?

via preposition (USING)

What is the use of VIA?

“Via” is a preposition that means “through” or “by way of” or “by means of.” So you can use it in place of any of these words/phrases. For example, “I flew to Paris via London” OR “You can watch the live presentation on TV via the theater’s camera system” OR “I will send you the file via email.”

As an adjective, through means finished or done. As an adverb it can mean backward and forward, completely, up to and including, or all the way to the end. The preposition through means in and out of.

What part of speech is the word dearly?

adverb

Will be dearly missed?

“You are dearly missed” means someone wishes very much that you were in their life more. It is something family or friends would say to someone who has departed to other locales. To miss someone means to long for them emotionally.

What does dearly means in English?

1 : with affection : fondly. 2 : heartily, earnestly prayed so dearly for peace.

What’s another word for dearly?

In this page you can discover 20 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for dearly, like: fondly, affectionately, extremely, greatly, devotedly, profoundly, ardently, deeply, lovingly, sincerely and earnestly.

What is the antonym of dearly?

What is the opposite of dearly?

unwantedly	abandonedly
forsakenly	unimportantly
valuelessly	worthlessly

What is another word for dearly loved?

What is another word for dearly loved?

dear	cherished
treasured	adored
beloved	darling
favouriteUK	favoriteUS
much-loved	precious

What’s another word for Miss?

What is another word for miss?

forfeit	forego
lose	neglect
skip	disregard
ignore	mislay
misplace	blunder

What is an antonym of Miss?

Antonyms: go to, have, attend, impinge on, run into, hit, feature, strike, collide with. Synonyms: drop, omit, lose, neglect, leave out, overleap, pretermit, overlook, lack, escape. neglect, pretermit, omit, drop, miss, leave out, overlook, overleap(verb)

How do you say I miss you in a different way?

Ways to Say I MISS YOU in English

1. I need to see you.
2. I long for you.
3. I yearn for you.
4. I miss your smile.
5. I miss your laugh.
6. I miss you so much.
7. I feel sad without you.
8. I wish you were here.

How do you describe the feeling of missing someone?

The Feeling of Missing Someone The days can feel cold and lonely when you are missing someone. They seem to drag on and on when you would rather they would pass by as effortlessly as they do when you are with that person. You feel like you are kind of stuck and you need the person in your life to set you free.

Why do we miss someone?

We miss someone special when we are in love with that person. It might be infatuation (just for a few days). We respect her/his qualities. That person is always with us when we need someone to lean on.

Can someone feel when you miss them?

The longing that comes from missing someone can range from minor feelings of sadness to downright agony depending on the relationship and the amount of time you’ve been apart. Naturally, missing your boyfriend, girlfriend, or partner is a totally normal reaction to being separated from them.

What do you say when you miss someone?

Top Missing Someone Quotes

• I am summer yearning for a drop of your rain.
• You’re everywhere except right here and it hurts.
• The thing is that you brought this out in me.
• I wish I had done everything on earth with you.
• I miss you in ways that not even words can understand.
• I wake to you everywhere.

How do you say I miss you in a cute way?

Cute Ways To Say “I Miss You”

1. I wish you were here.
2. I think about you all the time.
3. I see you everywhere around me.
4. When will I see you again?
5. I’m counting the days by minutes.
6. I can’t stop thinking about you.
7. I can’t wait to be with you again.
8. I can feel your breath on my neck.

Is it OK to tell someone you miss them?

You miss someone, you can tell them if you so choose. Not telling them isn’t a problem either. Sometimes we tell people we miss them cos we really do and we want them to know how special they are to us. And sometimes we feel sad and bad when it means nothing to them.

What do you say when you miss him?

30 Adorable Ways to Tell Your Man You Miss Him

• I wish you were here right now.
• I miss you like a fat kid on diet misses cake.
• Your arms around me felt like home.
• You don’t even have the slightest idea how much I miss you.
• One of your hugs would be nice right now.
• I just want to be where you are.

Do I tell my ex I miss him?

It is okay to tell your ex that you miss them but only if you know that it is really what you want to do. Make sure that you think long and carefully before you make any rushed decisions that you may later regret. Try and focus on your life and try and get over him before you rush back into anything.

Can I tell my crush I miss him?

Regardless of how long you’ve been crushing on this person, it’s perfectly OK to be missing them, even if it’s only been a few weeks. You’re allowed to feel however you feel, and if you want to let your crush know you’re missing them a little extra tonight, do it!

Why do I miss him so much?

Perhaps you are still in contact with him. It’s hard to let go of someone you’ve been close to, especially if you were together for a long time, but even if it was a short relationship. Perhaps during your relationship, you got mixed signals from him or her, and you felt unwanted or unloved. …

Should you tell him you miss him?

If you are in a relationship with this person, it’s easier to admit that you miss him. However, no one should be afraid of expressing their feelings, you have the liberty to. So, even if you’ve been dating for a while, it’s okay to tell a guy that you miss him, hopefully, he misses you too.

Do I miss him or am I lonely?

When you miss someone, you get sad and you think about the person and / or think about their ways. And when you’re feeling lonely, you want someone to keep you company. And when you just want to be alone, you don’t feel like being bothered.

What do you do when you miss him alot?

It hurts, but don’t make missing him your whole life.

1. Find New Hobbies To Stop Missing Him.
2. Keep Your Hands Busy When You Start to Miss Him.
3. Work It Out!
4. Get Plenty of Sleep To Forget About Missing Him.
5. Look Forward to Something Instead Of Always Missing Him.
6. Keep a Journal.
7. Be Kind to Yourself.

Why do I miss someone I never met?

If this person is someone you’ve been talking to but haven’t actually met in person, You’ve probably created an emotional attachment to them. You don’t have to physically see or feel someone to know how they make you feel. Therefor you miss them because you have an attachment.

Can you ever stop missing someone?

The feeling of missing someone is oftentimes hard to overcome, but one of the big things you need to do is stop thinking about them all the time. But, it isn’t healthy, and sometimes obsessing over that feeling holds you back. The best thing to do is learn to distract yourself.

Can I call my ex when I miss him?

But when men are feeling very hurt, they have a tendency to shut down, so he may or may not call. If you are really missing him and genuinely want to talk again, go ahead and call him. Just be sure to approach him gently, remembering that he’s in a sensitive place.

For those interested in a little info about this site: it’s a side project that I developed while working on Describing Words and Related Words. Both of those projects are based around words, but have much grander goals. I had an idea for a website that simply explains the word types of the words that you search for — just like a dictionary, but focussed on the part of speech of the words. And since I already had a lot of the infrastructure in place from the other two sites, I figured it wouldn’t be too much more work to get this up and running.

The dictionary is based on the amazing Wiktionary project by wikimedia. I initially started with WordNet, but then realised that it was missing many types of words/lemma (determiners, pronouns, abbreviations, and many more). This caused me to investigate the 1913 edition of Websters Dictionary — which is now in the public domain. However, after a day’s work wrangling it into a database I realised that there were far too many errors (especially with the part-of-speech tagging) for it to be viable for Word Type.

Finally, I went back to Wiktionary — which I already knew about, but had been avoiding because it’s not properly structured for parsing. That’s when I stumbled across the UBY project — an amazing project which needs more recognition. The researchers have parsed the whole of Wiktionary and other sources, and compiled everything into a single unified resource. I simply extracted the Wiktionary entries and threw them into this interface! So it took a little more work than expected, but I’m happy I kept at it after the first couple of blunders.

Special thanks to the contributors of the open-source code that was used in this project: the UBY project (mentioned above), @mongodb and express.js.

Currently, this is based on a version of wiktionary which is a few years old. I plan to update it to a newer version soon and that update should bring in a bunch of new word senses for many words (or more accurately, lemma).

English is one of the most influential languages across the globe. It is not only the language of science and technology but also the aviation industry, IT sector, diplomatic relations of countries, and the tourism industry is also linked to English. 

Language Quiz

Language quiz helps us to increase our language skills

1 / 10

What is the term used to describe a word that is spelled the same forwards and backwards?

Palindrome

Antonym

Homonym

Synonym

2 / 10

Choose the correct word: I’m feeling very __________ today.

Tired

Wired

Tiredly

Wiredly

3 / 10

What is the term used to describe words that add meaning to sentences, but are not necessary to form a complete sentence?

Article

Adverb

Adjective

Conjunction

4 / 10

What is the term for a word or phrase that has multiple meanings?

Polyseme

Homophone

Homonym

Synonym

5 / 10

What is the term used to describe a language that has no written form?

Oral language

Spoken language

Written language

Unwritten language

6 / 10

What is the difference between a first language and a second language?

A first language is learned at birth, a second language is learned later

A first language is learned in school, a second language is learned at home

A first language is spoken at home, a second language is spoken at work

A first language is easier to learn, a second language is harder to learn

7 / 10

What is the study of language in use and context called?

Pragmatics

Grammar

Semantics

Lexicology

8 / 10

What is a word or phrase used to describe or evaluate, often in a literary, artistic, or musical context, called?

Hyperbole

Metaphor

Simile

Criticism

9 / 10

Choose the word that is a synonym for «resilient»:

Robust

Fragile

Delicate

Brittle

10 / 10

What is the term used to describe words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs?

Pronoun

Adverb

Adjective

Conjunction

Learning and understanding the English language can help you to reach your goals. It can be a ladder of success. If you have good English skills, your chances of getting a job in multinational companies increase.

That’s why it is essential to have an excellent command of the English language. Grammar is the base for understanding and learning this language.

Prepositions are parts of speech and are the most important ones. Prepositions are also called essential small words.

Prepositions are used to express the time or time of an event, location, or direction or to show the state of something. The real meaning is defined when you link prepositions with nouns, adjectives, and verbs.

Through and throughout are two prepositions that often confuse many of us. There is a similarity in the look and sound of words throughout, but they can’t be used to replace each other.

Key Takeaways

1. “Through” is a preposition that indicates movement from one side of an enclosed space to the other or completion of an action or process, while “throughout” is a preposition that denotes the extension of an action or condition across the entirety of a specified area or period.
2. “Through” implies a direct or linear path, as in “the train went through the tunnel,” whereas “throughout” conveys a more comprehensive coverage or distribution, as in “the flowers were scattered throughout the garden.”
3. “Through” can also be used to express completion or reaching the end of something, like “She worked through the night,” while “throughout” implies ongoing action or presence during an entire period, such as “It rained throughout the weekend.”

Through is used when the continuity of the sentence needs to be shown. For example, You should go through this topic. It represents the movement of passing from within to the outside. Throughout shows, the continuity of the action during particular time period such as she worked throughout the day.

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The difference between these two is similar to the one between a line and a plane in geometry. Throughout mainly covers the whole area of distance or time, while through typically follows a straight line within that area.

The ‘out’ throughout can be a way to remember the difference. There are several differences between “through and throughout”.

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Comparison Table

Parameter of Comparison	Through	Throughout
Use	Through can be used to indicate how something is achieved	Throughout cannot be used to show how something is achieved
Location	It can be used to indicate the location (from one place to another or across something)	It can be used to indicate every part of a place or object
Time	It can be used to indicate time (during the whole period of activity)	It can be used to indicate time (from the beginning to the end of a period of training)
Example	The medicine moved slowly through the plastic tube into her vein.	The medicine spread throughout her body.

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When to Use the Word Through?

Through is a preposition. Prepositions are a small yet vital set of words used to link up a noun or pronoun to parts of a sentence.

Through can be used to indicate how something is achieved, the location, and the time of activity. 

It can indicate the location (from one place to another or across something). For example, He entered through the doorway.

As an adjective, through is used for a finished activity or its meaning is done. When used as an adverb, it means backward and frontal direction, ultimately, or to the end of something.

It can also be used to indicate the time of activity. For example, he studied through the night. It can show the means of achievement or how something was achieved. For instance, Snake entered the shop through a small hole in the wall.

When to Use the Word Throughout?

Through is also a preposition. Throughout, it is used adjective also as prepositions. It is similar to all over, right through, all around, etc.

It has two important meanings. One meaning covers the section of a place or object. For example, the howling of dogs reverberated throughout the jungle.

The other meaning is from start to finish or endpoint or end period. For example, the blog contained essential data throughout the month.  

Throughout can be used to show each section or place of the object to indicate the period of activity.

As adverb throughout is used to indicate from first to last. For example, the play was excellent end-to-end.

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Main Differences Between Through and Throughout

Both these words and throughout are different from each other. The main difference between through and throughout lies in its operation, which depends on the surroundings, environment, or external factors.

It can refer to several meanings; generally, its meaning is ‘use.’ While throughout means in every part of a place or an object.

1. When used as a preposition, the word through gives the meaning of from one side of an opening to another; on the other hand, throughout means each section, all through.
2. Through means from one point to another, throughout is labelled as entirely through or a way through.
3. The use of through as an adjective gives a meaning of; is passing from one corner or side of the object to the other. But when used as an adverb, it means from one side to another through the interior.
4. Through can be used for the indication of achievement. While throughout, it can’t be used for achievement.
5. Through indicates the location from one place to another. But throughout, it can indicate every part of a place or object.

References

1. https://www.macmillandictionary.com/dictionary/british/through
2. https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/another-word-for/throughout.html

Emma Smith holds an MA degree in English from Irvine Valley College. She has been a Journalist since 2002, writing articles on the English language, Sports, and Law. Read more about me on her bio page.

The word “THE” is a Definite Article and an Adverb.Take a look at the definitions and examples below and you will see how this little word can be used as different parts of speech.

 1. Definite Article

This word “The” is considered as a definite article because it is used to refer to something specific. It is also placed before a noun, if the audience already knows what is being referred to (there is only one or the subject has already been mentioned). For example, let’s look at the sentence below:

“The pope will visit the Philippines in 2015.”

“The” is used because there is only one pope in the whole world.

Definition:

a. used to indicate a person or thing that has already been mentioned or seen or is clearly understood from the situation

• Joe is the tallest boy in class.

b. used to refer to things or people that are common in daily life

• The moon is aligned between the Sun and the Earth.

c. used to refer to things that occur in nature

• The inner planets of the solar system are denser compared to the outer planets.

2. Adverb

Aside from acting as a definite article, “The” can also be used as an adverb. Take for example the sentence below:

“Since getting a new computer, he was able to produce outputs all the quicker.”

In that sentence, “the” serves as an adverb because it modifies the adjective quicker. Take note that the word can only be used as an adverb if it is used together with an adjective or another adverb which is in the comparative degree.

Definition:

a. than before: than otherwise —used before a comparative

• The sooner the better.

b. to what extent

• Mercury is the most cratered planet in our Solar System.

c. beyond all others

• The more the merrier.

If you’ve ever found yourself wondering what part of speech a word is, you’re not alone. In this lesson, we’ll explore how to answer that question as well as why that answer can seem a bit confusing. You’ll also find a quiz at the bottom of the page so that you can test yourself, along with a free PDF download. Jackpot!

Pop quiz, hot shot! Let’s say you’re at the grocery store deciding between chunky and creamy peanut butter (tough choice) when someone walks up to you and asks, «What part of speech is the word love?»

Obviously, the first thing to do is run away from this person. But then, your mind might linger on that question, and you might start to wonder Hmm … what part of speech is the word love anyway?

At that point, you would probably think of some example sentences to figure it out.

I love peanut butter. 

From this sentence, you might conclude that love is a verb since you know that verbs express action, and love is showing an action in this sentence.

You wouldn’t be wrong, but then you might think of this sentence:

Love for peanut butter brought me to the store today. 

Wait a minute! Here, love is a noun. It’s an idea, and it’s the subject of the sentence. What’s the deal? How can love be a verb and a noun?

Here’s a secret about the parts of speech that many people don’t realize: 

Many words can function as more than one part of speech.

They will only be doing one part-of-speech job at a time, though. In our example sentences above, we can see that love can be a verb and a noun, and we can also see that it’s doing just one of those jobs in each sentence.

How can you figure out what part(s) of speech a word can be, and how will you know what the word is acting as in any given sentence?

The first thing to do is to study the parts of speech and understand how they work. 

Here’s what you can do after you have a sense of what the parts of speech are and how they work:

Let’s look at two examples of words acting as different parts of speech.

We’ll look at the words for and iron, and we’ll see them acting as different parts of speech. We’ll also take a peek at what the dictionary says for each word. 

What part of speech are the words in bold?

For

I asked for pie. (preposition)

I cried, for I knew that the pie was gone. (conjunction)

Iron

Where is the iron? (noun)

Please iron my shirt. (verb)

Test Yourself

I. Label the Parts of Speech

Directions: Name the part of speech for the underlined word in each sentence. Use a dictionary if you need one. For extra credit, diagram the sentences. Scroll down to see the answers.

II. Write Your Own Sentences

Directions: Write your own sentences using the words below. Make sure the word is being used as the part of speech indicated on the left side. Underline the word in your sentence. The first one is done for you. Feel free to use a dictionary!

1. Drive

Noun: The long drive through the countryside lifted my spirits.

Verb: I always drive within the speed limit.

2. Baby

Noun: ___________________________________

Adjective: ________________________________

Verb: ___________________________________

3. Up

Preposition: ________________________________

Adverb: ___________________________________

Answers

I. Label the Parts of Speech

* The sentence diagrams for 4, 5, 9, and 10 are available in the downloadable version of this lesson.

Answers for II. Write Your Own Sentences are also available in the free, downloadable version of this lesson.

Would you like to see another example of this concept? Let’s look at how the word balance can be a noun or a verb, and how it can help you think about your life.

If you’re trying to learn the grammatical rules of English, you’ve probably been asked to learn the parts of speech. But what are parts of speech and how many are there? How do you know which words are classified in each part of speech? 

The answers to these questions can be a bit complicated—English is a difficult language to learn and understand. Don’t fret, though! We’re going to answer each of these questions for you with a full guide to the parts of speech that explains the following: 

• What the parts of speech are, including a comprehensive parts of speech list
• Parts of speech definitions for the individual parts of speech. (If you’re looking for information on a specific part of speech, you can search for it by pressing Command + F, then typing in the part of speech you’re interested in.) 
• Parts of speech examples
• A ten question quiz covering parts of speech definitions and parts of speech examples

We’ve got a lot to cover, so let’s begin!

Feature Image: (Gavina S / Wikimedia Commons)

What Are Parts of Speech? 

The parts of speech definitions in English can vary, but here’s a widely accepted one: a part of speech is a category of words that serve a similar grammatical purpose in sentences. 

To make that definition even simpler, a part of speech is just a category for similar types of words. All of the types of words included under a single part of speech function in similar ways when they’re used properly in sentences.

In the English language, it’s commonly accepted that there are 8 parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, interjections, and prepositions. Each of these categories plays a different role in communicating meaning in the English language. Each of the eight parts of speech—which we might also call the “main classes” of speech—also have subclasses. In other words, we can think of each of the eight parts of speech as being general categories for different types within their part of speech. There are different types of nouns, different types of verbs, different types of adjectives, adverbs, pronouns…you get the idea. 

And that’s an overview of what a part of speech is! Next, we’ll explain each of the 8 parts of speech—definitions and examples included for each category. 

There are tons of nouns in this picture. Can you find them all? 

#1: Nouns

Nouns are a class of words that refer, generally, to people and living creatures, objects, events, ideas, states of being, places, and actions. You’ve probably heard English nouns referred to as “persons, places, or things.” That definition is a little simplistic, though—while nouns do include people, places, and things, “things” is kind of a vague term. It’s important to recognize that “things” can include physical things—like objects or belongings—and nonphysical, abstract things—like ideas, states of existence, and actions. 

Since there are many different types of nouns, we’ll include several examples of nouns used in a sentence while we break down the subclasses of nouns next!

Subclasses of Nouns, Including Examples

As an open class of words, the category of “nouns” has a lot of subclasses. The most common and important subclasses of nouns are common nouns, proper nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns, and count and mass nouns. Let’s break down each of these subclasses!

Common Nouns and Proper Nouns

Common nouns are generic nouns—they don’t name specific items. They refer to people (the man, the woman), living creatures (cat, bird), objects (pen, computer, car), events (party, work), ideas (culture, freedom), states of being (beauty, integrity), and places (home, neighborhood, country) in a general way. 

Proper nouns are sort of the counterpart to common nouns. Proper nouns refer to specific people, places, events, or ideas. Names are the most obvious example of proper nouns, like in these two examples: 

Whereas “state” is a common noun, Arizona is a proper noun since it refers to a specific state. Whereas “the election” is a common noun, “Election Day” is a proper noun. Another way to pick out proper nouns: the first letter is often capitalized. If you’d capitalize the word in a sentence, it’s almost always a proper noun. 

Concrete Nouns and Abstract Nouns

Concrete nouns are nouns that can be identified through the five senses. Concrete nouns include people, living creatures, objects, and places, since these things can be sensed in the physical world. In contrast to concrete nouns, abstract nouns are nouns that identify ideas, qualities, concepts, experiences, or states of being. Abstract nouns cannot be detected by the five senses. Here’s an example of concrete and abstract nouns used in a sentence: 

See the difference? A weedeater and the lawn are physical objects or things, and freedom and peace are not physical objects, though they’re “things” people experience! Despite those differences, they all count as nouns. 

Collective Nouns, Count Nouns, and Mass Nouns

Nouns are often categorized based on number and amount. Collective nouns are nouns that refer to a group of something—often groups of people or a type of animal. Team, crowd, and herd are all examples of collective nouns. 

Count nouns are nouns that can appear in the singular or plural form, can be modified by numbers, and can be described by quantifying determiners (e.g. many, most, more, several). For example, “bug” is a count noun. It can occur in singular form if you say, “There is a bug in the kitchen,” but it can also occur in the plural form if you say, “There are many bugs in the kitchen.” (In the case of the latter, you’d call an exterminator…which is an example of a common noun!) Any noun that can accurately occur in one of these singular or plural forms is a count noun. 

Mass nouns are another type of noun that involve numbers and amount. Mass nouns are nouns that usually can’t be pluralized, counted, or quantified and still make sense grammatically. “Charisma” is an example of a mass noun (and an abstract noun!). For example, you could say, “They’ve got charisma,” which doesn’t imply a specific amount. You couldn’t say, “They’ve got six charismas,” or, “They’ve got several charismas.” It just doesn’t make sense! 

Verbs are all about action…just like these runners. 

#2: Verbs

A verb is a part of speech that, when used in a sentence, communicates an action, an occurrence, or a state of being. In sentences, verbs are the most important part of the predicate, which explains or describes what the subject of the sentence is doing or how they are being. And, guess what? All sentences contain verbs!

There are many words in the English language that are classified as verbs. A few common verbs include the words run, sing, cook, talk, and clean. These words are all verbs because they communicate an action performed by a living being. We’ll look at more specific examples of verbs as we discuss the subclasses of verbs next!

Subclasses of Verbs, Including Examples

Like nouns, verbs have several subclasses. The subclasses of verbs include copular or linking verbs, intransitive verbs, transitive verbs, and ditransitive or double transitive verbs. Let’s dive into these subclasses of verbs!

Copular or Linking Verbs

Copular verbs, or linking verbs, are verbs that link a subject with its complement in a sentence. The most familiar linking verb is probably be. Here’s a list of other common copular verbs in English: act, be, become, feel, grow, seem, smell, and taste. 

So how do copular verbs work? Well, in a sentence, if we said, “Michi is,” and left it at that, it wouldn’t make any sense. “Michi,” the subject, needs to be connected to a complement by the copular verb “is.” Instead, we could say, “Michi is leaving.” In that instance, is links the subject of the sentence to its complement. 

Transitive Verbs, Intransitive Verbs, and Ditransitive Verbs

Transitive verbs are verbs that affect or act upon an object. When unattached to an object in a sentence, a transitive verb does not make sense. Here’s an example of a transitive verb attached to (and appearing before) an object in a sentence: 

Please take the clothes to the dry cleaners.

In this example, “take” is a transitive verb because it requires an object—”the clothes”—to make sense. “The clothes” are the objects being taken. “Please take” wouldn’t make sense by itself, would it? That’s because the transitive verb “take,” like all transitive verbs, transfers its action onto another being or object. 

Conversely, intransitive verbs don’t require an object to act upon in order to make sense in a sentence. These verbs make sense all on their own! For instance, “They ran,” “We arrived,” and, “The car stopped” are all examples of sentences that contain intransitive verbs. 

Finally, ditransitive verbs, or double transitive verbs, are a bit more complicated. Ditransitive verbs are verbs that are followed by two objects in a sentence. One of the objects has the action of the ditransitive verb done to it, and the other object has the action of the ditransitive verb directed towards it. Here’s an example of what that means in a sentence: 

I cooked Nathan a meal.

In this example, “cooked” is a ditransitive verb because it modifies two objects: Nathan and meal. The meal has the action of “cooked” done to it, and “Nathan” has the action of the verb directed towards him. 

Adjectives are descriptors that help us better understand a sentence. A common adjective type is color.

#3: Adjectives

Here’s the simplest definition of adjectives: adjectives are words that describe other words. Specifically, adjectives modify nouns and noun phrases. In sentences, adjectives appear before nouns and pronouns (they have to appear before the words they describe!). 

Adjectives give more detail to nouns and pronouns by describing how a noun looks, smells, tastes, sounds, or feels, or its state of being or existence.. For example, you could say, “The girl rode her bike.” That sentence doesn’t have any adjectives in it, but you could add an adjective before both of the nouns in the sentence—”girl” and “bike”—to give more detail to the sentence. It might read like this: “The young girl rode her red bike.”  You can pick out adjectives in a sentence by asking the following questions: 

We’ll look at more examples of adjectives as we explore the subclasses of adjectives next!

Subclasses of Adjectives, Including Examples

Subclasses of adjectives include adjective phrases, comparative adjectives, superlative adjectives, and determiners (which include articles, possessive adjectives, and demonstratives). 

Adjective Phrases

An adjective phrase is a group of words that describe a noun or noun phrase in a sentence. Adjective phrases can appear before the noun or noun phrase in a sentence, like in this example: 

The extremely fragile vase somehow did not break during the move.

In this case, extremely fragile describes the vase. On the other hand, adjective phrases can appear after the noun or noun phrase in a sentence as well: 

The museum was somewhat boring. 

Again, the phrase somewhat boring describes the museum. The takeaway is this: adjective phrases describe the subject of a sentence with greater detail than an individual adjective. 

Comparative Adjectives and Superlative Adjectives

Comparative adjectives are used in sentences where two nouns are compared. They function to compare the differences between the two nouns that they modify. In sentences, comparative adjectives often appear in this pattern and typically end with -er. If we were to describe how comparative adjectives function as a formula, it might look something like this: 

Noun (subject) + verb + comparative adjective + than + noun (object).

Here’s an example of how a comparative adjective would work in that type of sentence: 

The horse was faster than the dog.

The adjective faster compares the speed of the horse to the speed of the dog. Other common comparative adjectives include words that compare distance (higher, lower, farther), age (younger, older), size and dimensions (bigger, smaller, wider, taller, shorter), and quality or feeling (better, cleaner, happier, angrier). 

Superlative adjectives are adjectives that describe the extremes of a quality that applies to a subject being compared to a group of objects. Put more simply, superlative adjectives help show how extreme something is. In sentences, superlative adjectives usually appear in this structure and end in -est: 

Noun (subject) + verb + the + superlative adjective + noun (object).

Here’s an example of a superlative adjective that appears in that type of sentence: 

Their story was the funniest story. 

In this example, the subject—story—is being compared to a group of objects—other stories. The superlative adjective “funniest” implies that this particular story is the funniest out of all the stories ever, period. Other common superlative adjectives are best, worst, craziest, and happiest…though there are many more than that! 

It’s also important to know that you can often omit the object from the end of the sentence when using superlative adjectives, like this: “Their story was the funniest.” We still know that “their story” is being compared to other stories without the object at the end of the sentence.

Determiners

The last subclass of adjectives we want to look at are determiners. Determiners are words that determine what kind of reference a noun or noun phrase makes. These words are placed in front of nouns to make it clear what the noun is referring to. Determiners are an example of a part of speech subclass that contains a lot of subclasses of its own. Here is a list of the different types of determiners: 

Here are some examples of how determiners can be used in sentences: 

Though some of the words above might not seem descriptive, they actually do describe the specificity and definiteness, relationship, and quantity or amount of a noun or noun phrase. For example, the definite article “the” (a type of determiner) indicates that a noun refers to a specific thing or entity. The indefinite article “an,” on the other hand, indicates that a noun refers to a nonspecific entity. 

One quick note, since English is always more complicated than it seems: while articles are most commonly classified as adjectives, they can also function as adverbs in specific situations, too. Not only that, some people are taught that determiners are their own part of speech…which means that some people are taught there are 9 parts of speech instead of 8! 

It can be a little confusing, which is why we have a whole article explaining how articles function as a part of speech to help clear things up. 

Adverbs can be used to answer questions like «when?» and «how long?»

#4 Adverbs

Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives (including determiners), clauses, prepositions, and sentences. Adverbs typically answer the questions how?, in what way?, when?, where?, and to what extent? In answering these questions, adverbs function to express frequency, degree, manner, time, place, and level of certainty. Adverbs can answer these questions in the form of single words, or in the form of adverbial phrases or adverbial clauses. 

Adverbs are commonly known for being words that end in -ly, but there’s actually a bit more to adverbs than that, which we’ll dive into while we look at the subclasses of adverbs!

Subclasses Of Adverbs, Including Examples

There are many types of adverbs, but the main subclasses we’ll look at are conjunctive adverbs, and adverbs of place, time, manner, degree, and frequency. 

Conjunctive Adverbs

Conjunctive adverbs look like coordinating conjunctions (which we’ll talk about later!), but they are actually their own category: conjunctive adverbs are words that connect independent clauses into a single sentence. These adverbs appear after a semicolon and before a comma in sentences, like in these two examples: 

Though conjunctive adverbs are frequently used to create shorter sentences using a semicolon and comma, they can also appear at the beginning of sentences, like this: 

He chopped the vegetables. Meanwhile, I boiled the pasta. 

One thing to keep in mind is that conjunctive adverbs come with a comma. When you use them, be sure to include a comma afterward! 

There are a lot of conjunctive adverbs, but some common ones include also, anyway, besides, finally, further, however, indeed, instead, meanwhile, nevertheless, next, nonetheless, now, otherwise, similarly, then, therefore, and thus.  

Adverbs of Place, Time, Manner, Degree, and Frequency

There are also adverbs of place, time, manner, degree, and frequency. Each of these types of adverbs express a different kind of meaning. 

Adverbs of place express where an action is done or where an event occurs. These are used after the verb, direct object, or at the end of a sentence. A sentence like “She walked outside to watch the sunset” uses outside as an adverb of place. 

Adverbs of time explain when something happens. These adverbs are used at the beginning or at the end of sentences. In a sentence like “The game should be over soon,” soon functions as an adverb of time. 

Adverbs of manner describe the way in which something is done or how something happens. These are the adverbs that usually end in the familiar -ly.  If we were to write “She quickly finished her homework,” quickly is an adverb of manner. 

Adverbs of degree tell us the extent to which something happens or occurs. If we were to say “The play was quite interesting,” quite tells us the extent of how interesting the play was. Thus, quite is an adverb of degree.  

Finally, adverbs of frequency express how often something happens. In a sentence like “They never know what to do with themselves,” never is an adverb of frequency. 

Five subclasses of adverbs is a lot, so we’ve organized the words that fall under each category in a nifty table for you here: 

Adverbs of Place	Adverbs of Time	Adverbs of Manner	Adverbs of Degree	Adverbs of Frequency
Above	Afterwards	Badly	Almost	Again
Below	Already	Happily	Much	Always
Here	Always	Sadly	Nearly	Ever
Outside	Immediately	Slowly	Quite	Frequently
Over there	Last (month, week, year)	Quickly	Really	Generally
There	Now	Well	So	Hardly ever
Under	Soon	Hard	Too	Nearly
Upstairs	Then	Fast	Very	Never
	Yesterday			Occasionally

It’s important to know about these subclasses of adverbs because many of them don’t follow the old adage that adverbs end in -ly. 

Here’s a helpful list of pronouns.
(Attanata / Flickr)

#5: Pronouns

Pronouns are words that can be substituted for a noun or noun phrase in a sentence. Pronouns function to make sentences less clunky by allowing people to avoid repeating nouns over and over. For example, if you were telling someone a story about your friend Destiny, you wouldn’t keep repeating their name over and over again every time you referred to them. Instead, you’d use a pronoun—like they or them—to refer to Destiny throughout the story. 

Pronouns are typically short words, often only two or three letters long. The most familiar pronouns in the English language are they, she, and he. But these aren’t the only pronouns. There are many more pronouns in English that fall under different subclasses!

Subclasses of Pronouns, Including Examples

There are many subclasses of pronouns, but the most commonly used subclasses are personal pronouns, possessive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, indefinite pronouns, and interrogative pronouns. 

Personal Pronouns

Personal pronouns are probably the most familiar type of pronoun. Personal pronouns include I, me, you, she, her, him, he, we, us, they, and them. These are called personal pronouns because they refer to a person! Personal pronouns can replace specific nouns in sentences, like a person’s name, or refer to specific groups of people, like in these examples: 

In both of the examples above, a pronoun stands in for a proper noun to avoid repetitiveness. Her replaces Gia in the first example, and they replaces the Cycling Club in the second example. 

(It’s also worth noting that personal pronouns are one of the easiest ways to determine what point of view a writer is using.) 

Possessive Pronouns

Possessive pronouns are used to indicate that something belongs to or is the possession of someone. The possessive pronouns fall into two categories: limiting and absolute. In a sentence, absolute possessive pronouns can be substituted for the thing that belongs to a person, and limiting pronouns cannot. 

The limiting pronouns are my, your, its, his, her, our, their, and whose, and the absolute pronouns are mine, yours, his, hers, ours, and theirs. Here are examples of a limiting possessive pronoun and absolute possessive pronoun used in a sentence: 

Limiting possessive pronoun: Juan is fixing his car. 

In the example above, the car belongs to Juan, and his is the limiting possessive pronoun that shows the car belongs to Juan. Now, here’s an example of an absolute pronoun in a sentence: 

Absolute possessive pronoun: Did you buy your tickets? We already bought ours. 

In this example, the tickets belong to whoever we is, and in the second sentence, ours is the absolute possessive pronoun standing in for the thing that “we” possess—the tickets. 

Demonstrative Pronouns, Interrogative Pronouns, and Indefinite Pronouns

Demonstrative pronouns include the words that, this, these, and those. These pronouns stand in for a noun or noun phrase that has already been mentioned in a sentence or conversation. This and these are typically used to refer to objects or entities that are nearby distance-wise, and that and those usually refer to objects or entities that are farther away. Here’s an example of a demonstrative pronoun used in a sentence: 

The books are stacked up in the garage. Can you put those away? 

The books have already been mentioned, and those is the demonstrative pronoun that stands in to refer to them in the second sentence above. The use of those indicates that the books aren’t nearby—they’re out in the garage. Here’s another example: 

Do you need shoes? Here…you can borrow these. 

In this sentence, these refers to the noun shoes. Using the word these tells readers that the shoes are nearby…maybe even on the speaker’s feet! 

Indefinite pronouns are used when it isn’t necessary to identify a specific person or thing. The indefinite pronouns are one, other, none, some, anybody, everybody, and no one. Here’s one example of an indefinite pronoun used in a sentence: 

In this example, the person speaking in the second two sentences isn’t referring to any particular people who they won’t tell the secret to. They’re saying that, in general, they won’t tell anyone. That doesn’t specify a specific number, type, or category of people who they won’t tell the secret to, which is what makes the pronoun indefinite. 

Finally, interrogative pronouns are used in questions, and these pronouns include who, what, which, and whose. These pronouns are simply used to gather information about specific nouns—persons, places, and ideas. Let’s look at two examples of interrogative pronouns used in sentences: 

In the first glass, the speaker wants to know more about which glass belongs to whom. In the second sentence, the speaker is asking for more clarity about a specific time. 

Conjunctions hook phrases and clauses together so they fit like pieces of a puzzle.

#6: Conjunctions

Conjunctions are words that are used to connect words, phrases, clauses, and sentences in the English language. This function allows conjunctions to connect actions, ideas, and thoughts as well. Conjunctions are also used to make lists within sentences. (Conjunctions are also probably the most famous part of speech, since they were immortalized in the famous “Conjunction Junction” song from Schoolhouse Rock.) 

You’re probably familiar with and, but, and or as conjunctions, but let’s look into some subclasses of conjunctions so you can learn about the array of conjunctions that are out there!

Subclasses of Conjunctions, Including Examples

Coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions are three subclasses of conjunctions. Each of these types of conjunctions functions in a different way in sentences!

Coordinating Conjunctions

Coordinating conjunctions are probably the most familiar type of conjunction. These conjunctions include the words for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so (people often recommend using the acronym FANBOYS to remember the seven coordinating conjunctions!). 

Coordinating conjunctions are responsible for connecting two independent clauses in sentences, but can also be used to connect two words in a sentence. Here are two examples of coordinating conjunctions that connect two independent clauses in a sentence: 

Next, here are two examples of coordinating conjunctions that connect two words: 

The two examples above show that coordinating conjunctions can connect different types of words as well. In the first example, the coordinating conjunction “or” connects two verbs; in the second example, the coordinating conjunction “yet” connects two adjectives. 

But wait! Why does the first set of sentences have commas while the second set of sentences doesn’t? When using a coordinating conjunction, put a comma before the conjunction when it’s connecting two complete sentences. Otherwise, there’s no comma necessary. 

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions are used to link an independent clause to a dependent clause in a sentence. This type of conjunction always appears at the beginning of a dependent clause, which means that subordinating conjunctions can appear at the beginning of a sentence or in the middle of a sentence following an independent clause. (If you’re unsure about what independent and dependent clauses are, be sure to check out our guide to compound sentences.) 

Here is an example of a subordinating conjunction that appears at the beginning of a sentence: 

Because we were hungry, we ordered way too much food. 

Now, here’s an example of a subordinating conjunction that appears in the middle of a sentence, following an independent clause and a comma: 

Rakim was scared after the power went out. 

See? In the example above, the subordinating conjunction after connects the independent clause Rakim was scared to the dependent clause after the power went out. Subordinating conjunctions include (but are not limited to!) the following words: after, as, because, before, even though, one, since, unless, until, whenever, and while. 

Correlative Conjunctions

Finally, correlative conjunctions are conjunctions that come in pairs, like both/and, either/or, and neither/nor. The two correlative conjunctions that come in a pair must appear in different parts of a sentence to make sense—they correlate the meaning in one part of the sentence with the meaning in another part of the sentence. Makes sense, right? 

Here are two examples of correlative conjunctions used in a sentence: 

Other pairs of correlative conjunctions include as many/as, not/but, not only/but also, rather/than, such/that, and whether/or. 

Interjections are single words that express emotions that end in an exclamation point. Cool!

#7: Interjections 

Interjections are words that often appear at the beginning of sentences or between sentences to express emotions or sentiments such as excitement, surprise, joy, disgust, anger, or even pain. Commonly used interjections include wow!, yikes!, ouch!, or ugh! One clue that an interjection is being used is when an exclamation point appears after a single word (but interjections don’t have to be followed by an exclamation point). And, since interjections usually express emotion or feeling, they’re often referred to as being exclamatory. Wow! 

Interjections don’t come together with other parts of speech to form bigger grammatical units, like phrases or clauses. There also aren’t strict rules about where interjections should appear in relation to other sentences. While it’s common for interjections to appear before sentences that describe an action or event that the interjection helps explain, interjections can appear after sentences that contain the action they’re describing as well. 

Subclasses of Interjections, Including Examples

There are two main subclasses of interjections: primary interjections and secondary interjections. Let’s take a look at these two types of interjections!

Primary Interjections 

Primary interjections are single words, like oh!, wow!, or ouch! that don’t enter into the actual structure of a sentence but add to the meaning of a sentence. Here’s an example of how a primary interjection can be used before a sentence to add to the meaning of the sentence that follows it: 

Ouch! I just burned myself on that pan!

While someone who hears, I just burned myself on that pan might assume that the person who said that is now in pain, the interjection Ouch! makes it clear that burning oneself on the pan definitely was painful. 

Secondary Interjections

Secondary interjections are words that have other meanings but have evolved to be used like interjections in the English language and are often exclamatory. Secondary interjections can be mixed with greetings, oaths, or swear words. In many cases, the use of secondary interjections negates the original meaning of the word that is being used as an interjection. Let’s look at a couple of examples of secondary interjections here: 

You probably know that the words well and heck weren’t originally used as interjections in the English language. Well originally meant that something was done in a good or satisfactory way, or that a person was in good health. Over time and through repeated usage, it’s come to be used as a way to express emotion, such as surprise, anger, relief, or resignation, like in the example above. 

This is a handy list of common prepositional phrases.
(attanatta / Flickr) 

#8: Prepositions

The last part of speech we’re going to define is the preposition. Prepositions are words that are used to connect other words in a sentence—typically nouns and verbs—and show the relationship between those words. Prepositions convey concepts such as comparison, position, place, direction, movement, time, possession, and how an action is completed. 

Subclasses of Prepositions, Including Examples

The subclasses of prepositions are simple prepositions, double prepositions, participle prepositions, and prepositional phrases. 

Simple Prepositions

Simple prepositions appear before and between nouns, adjectives, or adverbs in sentences to convey relationships between people, living creatures, things, or places. Here are a couple of examples of simple prepositions used in sentences: 

In the first example, the preposition before appears between the noun ink and the personal pronoun we to convey a relationship. In the second example, the preposition beside appears between the verb was and the possessive pronoun your.

In both examples, though, the prepositions help us understand how elements in the sentence are related to one another. In the first sentence, we know that the speaker currently has ink but needs more before it’s gone. In the second sentence, the preposition beside helps us understand how the wallet and the phone are positioned relative to one another! 

Double Prepositions

Double prepositions are exactly what they sound like: two prepositions joined together into one unit to connect phrases, nouns, and pronouns with other words in a sentence. Common examples of double prepositions include outside of, because of, according to, next to, across from, and on top of. Here is an example of a double preposition in a sentence: 

I thought you were sitting across from me. 

You see? Across and from both function as prepositions individually. When combined together in a sentence, they create a double preposition. (Also note that the prepositions help us understand how two people—you and I—are positioned with one another through spacial relationship.)  

Prepositional Phrases

Finally, prepositional phrases are groups of words that include a preposition and a noun or pronoun. Typically, the noun or pronoun that appears after the preposition in a prepositional phrase is called the object of the preposition. The object always appears at the end of the prepositional phrase. Additionally, prepositional phrases never include a verb or a subject. Here are two examples of prepositional phrases: 

The cat sat under the chair. 

In the example above, “under” is the preposition, and “the chair” is the noun, which functions as the object of the preposition. Here’s one more example: 

We walked through the overgrown field. 

Now, this example demonstrates one more thing you need to know about prepositional phrases: they can include an adjective before the object. In this example, “through” is the preposition, and “field” is the object. “Overgrown” is an adjective that modifies “the field,” and it’s quite common for adjectives to appear in prepositional phrases like the one above. 

While that might sound confusing, don’t worry: the key is identifying the preposition in the first place! Once you can find the preposition, you can start looking at the words around it to see if it forms a compound preposition, a double preposition of a prepositional phrase. 

10 Question Quiz: Test Your Knowledge of Parts of Speech Definitions and Examples

Since we’ve covered a lot of material about the 8 parts of speech with examples (a lot of them!), we want to give you an opportunity to review and see what you’ve learned! While it might seem easier to just use a parts of speech finder instead of learning all this stuff, our parts of speech quiz can help you continue building your knowledge of the 8 parts of speech and master each one. 

Are you ready? Here we go:  

So, how did you do? If you got 1C, 2C, 3A, 4B, 5A, 6A, 7B, 8A, 9B, and 10A, you came out on top! There’s a lot to remember where the parts of speech are concerned, and if you’re looking for more practice like our quiz, try looking around for parts of speech games or parts of speech worksheets online!

What’s Next? 

You might be brushing up on your grammar so you can ace the verbal portions of the SAT or ACT. Be sure you check out our guides to the grammar you need to know before you tackle those tests! Here’s our expert guide to the grammar rules you need to know for the SAT, and this article teaches you the 14 grammar rules you’ll definitely see on the ACT.

When you have a good handle on parts of speech, it can make writing essays tons easier. Learn how knowing parts of speech can help you get a perfect 12 on the ACT Essay (or an 8/8/8 on the SAT Essay). 

While we’re on the topic of grammar: keep in mind that knowing grammar rules is only part of the battle when it comes to the verbal and written portions of the SAT and ACT. Having a good vocabulary is also important to making the perfect score! Here are 262 vocabulary words you need to know before you tackle your standardized tests.  

Have friends who also need help with test prep? Share this article!

In grammar, a part of speech or part-of-speech (abbreviated as POS or PoS, also known as word class^[1] or grammatical category^[2]) is a category of words (or, more generally, of lexical items) that have similar grammatical properties. Words that are assigned to the same part of speech generally display similar syntactic behavior (they play similar roles within the grammatical structure of sentences), sometimes similar morphological behavior in that they undergo inflection for similar properties and even similar semantic behavior. Commonly listed English parts of speech are noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun, preposition, conjunction, interjection, numeral, article, and determiner.

Other terms than part of speech—particularly in modern linguistic classifications, which often make more precise distinctions than the traditional scheme does—include word class, lexical class, and lexical category. Some authors restrict the term lexical category to refer only to a particular type of syntactic category; for them the term excludes those parts of speech that are considered to be function words, such as pronouns. The term form class is also used, although this has various conflicting definitions.^[3] Word classes may be classified as open or closed: open classes (typically including nouns, verbs and adjectives) acquire new members constantly, while closed classes (such as pronouns and conjunctions) acquire new members infrequently, if at all.

Almost all languages have the word classes noun and verb, but beyond these two there are significant variations among different languages.^[4] For example:

• Japanese has as many as three classes of adjectives, where English has one.
• Chinese, Korean, Japanese and Vietnamese have a class of nominal classifiers.
• Many languages do not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs, or between adjectives and verbs (see stative verb).

Because of such variation in the number of categories and their identifying properties, analysis of parts of speech must be done for each individual language. Nevertheless, the labels for each category are assigned on the basis of universal criteria.^[4]

History[edit]

The classification of words into lexical categories is found from the earliest moments in the history of linguistics.^[5]

India[edit]

In the Nirukta, written in the 6th or 5th century BCE, the Sanskrit grammarian Yāska defined four main categories of words:^[6]

1. नाम nāma – noun (including adjective)
2. आख्यात ākhyāta – verb
3. उपसर्ग upasarga – pre-verb or prefix
4. निपात nipāta – particle, invariant word (perhaps preposition)

These four were grouped into two larger classes: inflectable (nouns and verbs) and uninflectable (pre-verbs and particles).

The ancient work on the grammar of the Tamil language, Tolkāppiyam, argued to have been written around 2nd century CE,^[7] classifies Tamil words as peyar (பெயர்; noun), vinai (வினை; verb), idai (part of speech which modifies the relationships between verbs and nouns), and uri (word that further qualifies a noun or verb).^[8]

Western tradition[edit]

A century or two after the work of Yāska, the Greek scholar Plato wrote in his Cratylus dialogue, «sentences are, I conceive, a combination of verbs [rhêma] and nouns [ónoma]».^[9] Aristotle added another class, «conjunction» [sýndesmos], which included not only the words known today as conjunctions, but also other parts (the interpretations differ; in one interpretation it is pronouns, prepositions, and the article).^[10]

By the end of the 2nd century BCE, grammarians had expanded this classification scheme into eight categories, seen in the Art of Grammar, attributed to Dionysius Thrax:^[11]

1. ‘Name’ (ónoma) translated as «Noun«: a part of speech inflected for case, signifying a concrete or abstract entity. It includes various species like nouns, adjectives, proper nouns, appellatives, collectives, ordinals, numerals and more.^[12]
2. Verb (rhêma): a part of speech without case inflection, but inflected for tense, person and number, signifying an activity or process performed or undergone
3. Participle (metokhḗ): a part of speech sharing features of the verb and the noun
4. Article (árthron): a declinable part of speech, taken to include the definite article, but also the basic relative pronoun
5. Pronoun (antōnymíā): a part of speech substitutable for a noun and marked for a person
6. Preposition (próthesis): a part of speech placed before other words in composition and in syntax
7. Adverb (epírrhēma): a part of speech without inflection, in modification of or in addition to a verb, adjective, clause, sentence, or other adverb
8. Conjunction (sýndesmos): a part of speech binding together the discourse and filling gaps in its interpretation

It can be seen that these parts of speech are defined by morphological, syntactic and semantic criteria.

The Latin grammarian Priscian (fl. 500 CE) modified the above eightfold system, excluding «article» (since the Latin language, unlike Greek, does not have articles) but adding «interjection».^[13][14]

The Latin names for the parts of speech, from which the corresponding modern English terms derive, were nomen, verbum, participium, pronomen, praepositio, adverbium, conjunctio and interjectio. The category nomen included substantives (nomen substantivum, corresponding to what are today called nouns in English), adjectives (nomen adjectivum) and numerals (nomen numerale). This is reflected in the older English terminology noun substantive, noun adjective and noun numeral. Later^[15] the adjective became a separate class, as often did the numerals, and the English word noun came to be applied to substantives only.

Classification[edit]

Works of English grammar generally follow the pattern of the European tradition as described above, except that participles are now usually regarded as forms of verbs rather than as a separate part of speech, and numerals are often conflated with other parts of speech: nouns (cardinal numerals, e.g., «one», and collective numerals, e.g., «dozen»), adjectives (ordinal numerals, e.g., «first», and multiplier numerals, e.g., «single») and adverbs (multiplicative numerals, e.g., «once», and distributive numerals, e.g., «singly»). Eight or nine parts of speech are commonly listed:

1. noun
2. verb
3. adjective
4. adverb
5. pronoun
6. preposition
7. conjunction
8. interjection
9. article* or (more recently) determiner

Additionally, there are other parts of speech including particles (yes, no)^[a] and postpositions (ago, notwithstanding) although many fewer words are in these categories.

Some traditional classifications consider articles to be adjectives, yielding eight parts of speech rather than nine. And some modern classifications define further classes in addition to these. For discussion see the sections below.

The classification below, or slight expansions of it, is still followed in most dictionaries:

Noun (names)

a word or lexical item denoting any abstract (abstract noun: e.g. home) or concrete entity (concrete noun: e.g. house); a person (police officer, Michael), place (coastline, London), thing (necktie, television), idea (happiness), or quality (bravery). Nouns can also be classified as count nouns or non-count nouns; some can belong to either category. The most common part of speech; they are called naming words.

Pronoun (replaces or places again)

a substitute for a noun or noun phrase (them, he). Pronouns make sentences shorter and clearer since they replace nouns.

Adjective (describes, limits)

a modifier of a noun or pronoun (big, brave). Adjectives make the meaning of another word (noun) more precise.

Verb (states action or being)

a word denoting an action (walk), occurrence (happen), or state of being (be). Without a verb, a group of words cannot be a clause or sentence.

Adverb (describes, limits)

a modifier of an adjective, verb, or another adverb (very, quite). Adverbs make language more precise.

Preposition (relates)

a word that relates words to each other in a phrase or sentence and aids in syntactic context (in, of). Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun with another word in the sentence.

Conjunction (connects)

a syntactic connector; links words, phrases, or clauses (and, but). Conjunctions connect words or group of words

Interjection (expresses feelings and emotions)

an emotional greeting or exclamation (Huzzah, Alas). Interjections express strong feelings and emotions.

Article (describes, limits)

a grammatical marker of definiteness (the) or indefiniteness (a, an). The article is not always listed among the parts of speech. It is considered by some grammarians to be a type of adjective^[16] or sometimes the term ‘determiner’ (a broader class) is used.

English words are not generally marked as belonging to one part of speech or another; this contrasts with many other European languages, which use inflection more extensively, meaning that a given word form can often be identified as belonging to a particular part of speech and having certain additional grammatical properties. In English, most words are uninflected, while the inflected endings that exist are mostly ambiguous: -ed may mark a verbal past tense, a participle or a fully adjectival form; -s may mark a plural noun, a possessive noun, or a present-tense verb form; -ing may mark a participle, gerund, or pure adjective or noun. Although -ly is a frequent adverb marker, some adverbs (e.g. tomorrow, fast, very) do not have that ending, while many adjectives do have it (e.g. friendly, ugly, lovely), as do occasional words in other parts of speech (e.g. jelly, fly, rely).

Many English words can belong to more than one part of speech. Words like neigh, break, outlaw, laser, microwave, and telephone might all be either verbs or nouns. In certain circumstances, even words with primarily grammatical functions can be used as verbs or nouns, as in, «We must look to the hows and not just the whys.» The process whereby a word comes to be used as a different part of speech is called conversion or zero derivation.

Functional classification[edit]

Linguists recognize that the above list of eight or nine word classes is drastically simplified.^[17] For example, «adverb» is to some extent a catch-all class that includes words with many different functions. Some have even argued that the most basic of category distinctions, that of nouns and verbs, is unfounded,^[18] or not applicable to certain languages.^[19][20] Modern linguists have proposed many different schemes whereby the words of English or other languages are placed into more specific categories and subcategories based on a more precise understanding of their grammatical functions.

Common lexical category set defined by function may include the following (not all of them will necessarily be applicable in a given language):

• Categories that will usually be open classes:
  • adjectives
  • adverbs
  • nouns
  • verbs (except auxiliary verbs)
  • interjections
• Categories that will usually be closed classes:
  • auxiliary verbs
  • clitics
  • coverbs
  • conjunctions
  • determiners (articles, quantifiers, demonstrative adjectives, and possessive adjectives)
  • particles
  • measure words or classifiers
  • adpositions (prepositions, postpositions, and circumpositions)
  • preverbs
  • pronouns
  • contractions
  • cardinal numbers

Within a given category, subgroups of words may be identified based on more precise grammatical properties. For example, verbs may be specified according to the number and type of objects or other complements which they take. This is called subcategorization.

Many modern descriptions of grammar include not only lexical categories or word classes, but also phrasal categories, used to classify phrases, in the sense of groups of words that form units having specific grammatical functions. Phrasal categories may include noun phrases (NP), verb phrases (VP) and so on. Lexical and phrasal categories together are called syntactic categories.

Open and closed classes[edit]

Word classes may be either open or closed. An open class is one that commonly accepts the addition of new words, while a closed class is one to which new items are very rarely added. Open classes normally contain large numbers of words, while closed classes are much smaller. Typical open classes found in English and many other languages are nouns, verbs (excluding auxiliary verbs, if these are regarded as a separate class), adjectives, adverbs and interjections. Ideophones are often an open class, though less familiar to English speakers,^[21][22][b] and are often open to nonce words. Typical closed classes are prepositions (or postpositions), determiners, conjunctions, and pronouns.^[24]

The open–closed distinction is related to the distinction between lexical and functional categories, and to that between content words and function words, and some authors consider these identical, but the connection is not strict. Open classes are generally lexical categories in the stricter sense, containing words with greater semantic content,^[25] while closed classes are normally functional categories, consisting of words that perform essentially grammatical functions. This is not universal: in many languages verbs and adjectives^[26][27][28] are closed classes, usually consisting of few members, and in Japanese the formation of new pronouns from existing nouns is relatively common, though to what extent these form a distinct word class is debated.

Words are added to open classes through such processes as compounding, derivation, coining, and borrowing. When a new word is added through some such process, it can subsequently be used grammatically in sentences in the same ways as other words in its class.^[29] A closed class may obtain new items through these same processes, but such changes are much rarer and take much more time. A closed class is normally seen as part of the core language and is not expected to change. In English, for example, new nouns, verbs, etc. are being added to the language constantly (including by the common process of verbing and other types of conversion, where an existing word comes to be used in a different part of speech). However, it is very unusual for a new pronoun, for example, to become accepted in the language, even in cases where there may be felt to be a need for one, as in the case of gender-neutral pronouns.

The open or closed status of word classes varies between languages, even assuming that corresponding word classes exist. Most conspicuously, in many languages verbs and adjectives form closed classes of content words. An extreme example is found in Jingulu, which has only three verbs, while even the modern Indo-European Persian has no more than a few hundred simple verbs, a great deal of which are archaic. (Some twenty Persian verbs are used as light verbs to form compounds; this lack of lexical verbs is shared with other Iranian languages.) Japanese is similar, having few lexical verbs.^[30] Basque verbs are also a closed class, with the vast majority of verbal senses instead expressed periphrastically.

In Japanese, verbs and adjectives are closed classes,^[31] though these are quite large, with about 700 adjectives,^[32][33] and verbs have opened slightly in recent years. Japanese adjectives are closely related to verbs (they can predicate a sentence, for instance). New verbal meanings are nearly always expressed periphrastically by appending suru (する, to do) to a noun, as in undō suru (運動する, to (do) exercise), and new adjectival meanings are nearly always expressed by adjectival nouns, using the suffix -na (〜な) when an adjectival noun modifies a noun phrase, as in hen-na ojisan (変なおじさん, strange man). The closedness of verbs has weakened in recent years, and in a few cases new verbs are created by appending -ru (〜る) to a noun or using it to replace the end of a word. This is mostly in casual speech for borrowed words, with the most well-established example being sabo-ru (サボる, cut class; play hooky), from sabotāju (サボタージュ, sabotage).^[34] This recent innovation aside, the huge contribution of Sino-Japanese vocabulary was almost entirely borrowed as nouns (often verbal nouns or adjectival nouns). Other languages where adjectives are closed class include Swahili,^[28] Bemba, and Luganda.

By contrast, Japanese pronouns are an open class and nouns become used as pronouns with some frequency; a recent example is jibun (自分, self), now used by some young men as a first-person pronoun. The status of Japanese pronouns as a distinct class is disputed,^{[by whom?]} however, with some considering it only a use of nouns, not a distinct class. The case is similar in languages of Southeast Asia, including Thai and Lao, in which, like Japanese, pronouns and terms of address vary significantly based on relative social standing and respect.^[35]

Some word classes are universally closed, however, including demonstratives and interrogative words.^[35]

See also[edit]

• Part-of-speech tagging
• Sliding window based part-of-speech tagging

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]

• Media related to Parts of speech at Wikimedia Commons
• The parts of speech
• Guide to Grammar and Writing
• Martin Haspelmath. 2001. «Word Classes and Parts of Speech.» In: Baltes, Paul B. & Smelser, Neil J. (eds.) International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences. Amsterdam: Pergamon, 16538–16545. (PDF)