Parts of Speech

Words—the building blocks of sentences—can be divided into eight parts of speech. Parts of speech are classifications of words according to their meaning and use in a sentence.

This lesson explains the eight parts of speech: nouns, prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns, adjectives, interjections, verbs, adverbs.

*Nouns

A noun is a word that is used to name something: a person, a place, an object, or an idea.

Exercise one

Underline the three nouns in each sentence. Some are singular, and some are plural.

1. Two bats swooped over the heads of the frightened children .

2. The artist has purple paint on her sleeve .

3. The lost dog has fleas and a broken leg .

4. Tiffany does her homework in green ink .

5. Some farmers plant seeds by moonlight .

* Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that stands for a noun. Pronouns eliminate the need for constant repetition. Look at the following sentences:

The phone rang, and Malik answered the phone.

Lisa met Lisa’s friends in the music store at the mall. Lisa meets Lisa’s friends there every Saturday.

The waiter rushed over to the new customers. The new customers asked the waiter for menus and coffee.

Now look at how much clearer and smoother these sentences sound with pronouns.

- The phone rang, and Malik answered it. (The pronoun it is used to replace the word phone .)

-Lisa met her friends in the music store at the mall. She meets them there every Saturday.

(The pronoun her is used to replace the word Lisa’s . The pronoun she replaces Lisa . The pronoun them replaces the words Lisa’s friends .)

The waiter rushed over to the new customers. They asked him for menus and coffee.

(The pronoun they is used to replace the words the new customers . The pronoun him replaces the words the waiter .)

Exercise 2 – Use the Appropriate Pronoun

1. Shyam is my brother. ___ study in the same class
2. Between Ritu and me, __ am the younger one.
3. Do you see this book with my name on it? It is ___.
4. Miss Gwen is our new class teacher. ___ is very sweet.
5. While cutting vegetables, Mitu cut ___.
6. The jury got divided among ___.
7. I’m coming too. Please wait for __.
8. Nobody but ___ was present.
9. ___ book is better than the other.
10. Is the mug ___? It was on your table.

Adverb

An adverb is a word that describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. Many adverbs end in the letters - ly .

Exercise 3 – Identify the Adverb

Go through the given sentences and identify the adverb.

1. We have seen this before.
2. The postman comes to her daily.
3. The man repeated the same thing thrice.
4. Your friend called again.
5. Please walk forward.
6. The horse ran away.
7. My brother writes clearly.
8. The army fought bravely.
9. The mangoes are almost ripe.
10. Are you keeping well?

Interjections

An interjection is a word that can stand independently and is used to express emotion. Examples are oh, wow, ouch, and oops . These words are usually not found in formal writing.

“ Hey! ” yelled Maggie. “That’s my bike.”

Oh, we’re late for class.

Adjectives

An adjective is a word that describes a noun (the name of a person, place, or thing).

Exercise 4 – Underline the Preposition

Identify the prepositions in the following passage.

Goldilocks used to live with her parents in a cabin near the forest. One day, she decided to go for a walk. She strolled down the lane that led to the forest and came across a cottage. Feeling intrigued, she decided to check whose house it was. She knocked on the door, but no one answered. Then she decided to go in and check. Once she came into the cottage, she saw three soup bowls kept on the table. Feeling hungry, she drank the soup out of the smallest bowl. She saw a flight of stairs that led to a room above. She decided to go and see the rooms. On reaching the rooms, she saw there were three beds. Feeling sleepy with all the walking and hot soup, she decided to take a nap and slept on the smallest bed. When she woke up, she saw three bears standing in front of her, and the smallest bear among them crying loudly. Terrified, she started screaming and ran past the bear family to reach her home.

Exercise 5 – Identify the Part of Speech Go through the following sentences and identify the part of speech of the underlined words.

1. Namitha is not coming today.
2. My mom will be leaving to Bangalore tomorrow.
3. The teacher asked the students to stand.
4. He is my brother.
5. There is a cat under the table.
6. The clothes did not dry as it was raining all night.
7. Sheena and her sister dance well.
8. I am wearing a green dress for the party.
9. Oh! That is really sad.
10. She is coming with me.

Insert a word in the blank, and indicate its part of speech
Exercise 3 - Grammar Practice Worksheets
1. The ____________ was so heavy that school ____________ cancelled.
2. ____________ bag on the table is ____________ .
3. Jenny is the ____________ girl in the ____________ class.
4. Oscar tried to ____________ to the teacher, ____________ she had to leave right away for another class.
5. I can’t believe you had ____________ slices of pie. ____________ must be full now.
6. ____________ it was raining, we didn’t go ____________ the park.
7. You have a ____________ mouth. You really can’t keep a ____________ .
8. John is rich ____________ cheap, ____________ no one invites him to dinner.
9. Henrietta ____________ drinks coffee, but ____________ often drinks tea.
10. ____________ Maria was six years old, she ____________ ride a bicycle.