In this section of our ParaPro Study Guide, we will examine a critical concept in grammar: parts of speech. Knowing the parts of speech will ensure that you are obeying the rules and requirements of every word and sentence you write.
Parts of Speech
Parts of speech refers to the roles of the words that make up our sentences. There are eight parts of speech:
- Nouns are people, places, or things. The thing you are talking about in a sentence, whether it is a pheasant or a concept in physics, is a noun. Nouns that need to be capitalized – such as people, holidays, and titles – are proper nouns.
- Pronouns are substitutes for nouns. They are used when we don’t need to keep using the noun over and over to communicate meaning. Instead of “Rusty buried Rusty’s bone,” we can use the pronoun “his” and say “Rusty buried his bone.”
- Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. If you are referring to the noun “bear,” you could use a variety of adjectives to describe how the bear looks, acts, or moves. The bear could be small, brown, black, angry, cuddly, friendly, fuzzy, loud, scary, etc.
- Verbs are action words. If it’s something you can do – run, drive, calculate, hate, be, smell – it’s a verb.
- Adverbs describe a verb. How was an action completed? Did you walk slowly? Did you laugh maniacally? These are adverbs. Many adverbs can be easily identified because they end in “-ly,” but not all of them do. In “She ran fast,” “fast” is an adverb despite not ending in “-ly.” In “The bear was friendly,” “friendly” is an adjective despite ending in “-ly,” since it describes the noun “bear” rather than an action.
- Prepositions express relationships between words. Many can be thought of as “location” words: with, over, under, behind, on, near, in, etc. In the sentence, “That lesson was beyond me,” “beyond” is the preposition, as it conveys your relationship to the lesson.
- Conjunctions join ideas in a sentence. Take the following sentence: “I’ll do the dishes and take out the trash, but I will not clean the bathrooms.” “and” and “but” are conjunctions, linking similar and opposing statements together, respectively.
- Articles are the words “a,” “an,” and “the.” These words precede nouns and can change the meaning of a sentence, depending on what article is used. “The painting” uses the definite article “the” and conveys something different than the indefinite article “a” in “a painting.”
Let’s look at a sentence and identify the part of speech of each word.
A nervous Jackson called up Jennifer and asked her reluctantly if she wanted to get dinner.
“A” is an article.
“Nervous” is an adjective. It describes the proper noun (and subject) “Jackson.”
“Called” is a verb. It’s the action that Jackson is doing. “Up” is a preposition. Here, it does not refer to a direction, but is rather used in the figure of speech “called up.”
“Jennifer” is another proper noun.
“And” is a conjunction that joins the two clauses.
“Asked” is also a verb. It’s another thing that Jackson is doing.
“Her” is a pronoun. It refers to Jennifer, as does “She” later in the sentence.
“Reluctantly” is an adverb. It describes how Jackson asked his question.
“If” is another conjunction, introducing a conditional statement.
“Wanted to get” is a verb phrase composed of the past tense verb “wanted” and the infinitive “to get.”
“Dinner” is a noun.
Let’s try some examples.
Example 1
Examine the following sentence and identify the part of speech of the bolded word.
My teacher boldly predicted that it would rain today after the weatherman said it wouldn’t.
- noun
- verb
- adjective
- adverb
The correct answer is (D). Boldly is an adverb that describes the verb predicted.
Example 1
The weather is so cold that my fingers went numb the minute I stepped outside.
In the sentence above, the underlined word is being used as a
- noun
- pronoun
- adjective
- article
The correct answer is (C). Cold is an adjective that describes the noun weather.
Example 2
The science fair is always one of my favorite events of the year. Last year, my cousin David won first prize. He won by making a rocket ship. This year, I am hoping to win with a special 3D map of all the planets.
Which of the following words from the passage is a pronoun?
- fair
- David
- he
- planets
The correct answer is (C). Pronouns are words used in place of a noun, and “he” in this instance is used in place of “David,” which is a name and therefore a proper noun.
Now that you know how to categorize words as parts of speech and break down a sentence word by word, you can test your knowledge with our brief review test below.