SPC-ELL: Identifying Parts of Speech
Self-Paced Collection of English Language Lessons

Introduction Video

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The 8 parts of speech in English

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In the video, you heard these words as examples of the different parts of speech.

1. Verbs - have, help, do, run, walk, play, singparts of speech map.jpg

2. Noun - girl, man, table, car

3. Adjectives - good, bad, red, blue, exciting

4. Adverbs - fast, quickly, very, beautifully

5. Pronouns - I, he, him, her, we

6. Prepositions - after, on, at, to

7. Conjunctions - and, but, when

8. Interjections - ouch, hi, well

Check your understanding: Try the Drag N Drop Activity to practice identifying the different parts of speech. (Interjections are not included in this activity.)

  

A little more about VERBS...

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Verbs are words that show action, condition, or state. Every sentence must have a verb.

Types of Verbs:

Action Verbs

Linking Verbs

Auxiliary Verbs

Examples:

work, study, eat, copy, read, play, drive, evaluate, examine, determine, analyze

appear, become, feel, get, look, seem, smell, stay, taste, be

be, do, have, can, could, should, must, may, would, will, etc. (all modals)

Example sentences:

  1. The students work hard every day.
  2. My baby appears sick today.
  3. Rich people can buy anything they want.

Check your understanding: Try this "Quiz" Activity to practice identifying verbs in sentences. Remember, some verbs consist of more than one word.

 

A little more about NOUNS...

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Nouns are words for people, places, things, or ideas.

Singular

Plural

Non-Count

boy, dog, man, school, neighborhood, mouse, box, baby, tooth

boys, dogs, men, schools, neighborhoods, mice, boxes, babies, teeth

water, class, audience, team, coffee, sugar, furniture, jewelry, junk, news, tennis, rice, hair, homework, collection

Nouns are often the subject of a sentence; however, they can also function as a direct or indirect object.

Example sentences:

  1. John walks to work everyday.
  2. Michael saw John walking to work one day.
  3. Michael gave a ride to John.

Check your understanding: Try this "Quiz" Activity to practice identifying subjects and objects in a sentence.

 

A little more about ADJECTIVES...

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Adjectives are words that describe a noun or a pronoun.

Example Sentences:

  1. I ate the yellow banana.
  2. My baby has a lot of plastic toys.
  3. The birthday cake has sixteen candles.
  4. I'd like some ice cream with that birthday cake, please.
  5. That beautiful new car is hers.

Check your understanding: Practice identifying adjectives. There are 8 adjectives in the following short paragraph. Can you find them? After you read the paragraph, click on the "Sorting Activity."

Behind my childhood home, there is a large piece of land that is surrounded by banana trees. Their green leaves are so thick that sunlight cannot pass through. During the rainy season, the garden produces a very strange melody when the raindrops fall on the leaves. Now, whenever I hear raindrops on the roof of my apartment in the city, I remember the beautiful garden of my childhood.

 

(Adapted from Introduction to Academic Writing, Third Edition. Oshima & Hogue, 2007)

  

Adjectives have two possible locations in an English sentence:

  1. Before a noun
  2. After the verb "be" (or another linking verb)

Check your understanding: Try this "Quiz" Activity to practice putting adjectives in the correct place in a sentence.

 

 A little more about ADVERBS...

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Adverbs are words that describe verbs, adjectives, or another adverb.

Example Sentences:

  1. My English is slowly improving.
  2. Tomorrow our guests are arriving!
  3. They'll be sleeping in the bedroom upstairs.
  4. It's going to be very cold next week.
  5. I usually enjoy the cold weather in December.

Notice that adverbs can be located in different places in English sentences:

  1. after a verb
  2. at the beginning of a sentence
  3. at the end of a sentence
  4. before an adjective
  5. before a verb (adverbs of frequency)

Check your understanding: Try this "Quiz" Activity to practice identifying adverbs in sentences.

 

A little more about PRONOUNS...

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Pronouns are words that replace nouns.

Type of Pronoun:

Subject Pronoun

Object Pronoun

Possessive Pronoun

Singular

I

You

He, she it

Me

You

Him, her, it

Mine

Yours

His, hers, its

Plural

We

You

They

Us

You

Them

Ours

Yours

Theirs

Example sentences:

  1. Most children love the beach. They like to swim and build sand castles.
  2. My family and I are moving to a new house. We are very excited about it.
  3. When I was a child, my mother used to read bedtime stories to my sister and me. She loved us very much.
  4. I found these car keys on the floor. Are they yours?

Check your understanding: Try this "Labeling" Activity to practice with prounouns.

  

A little more about PREPOSITIONS...

Prepositions are words that show relationships between nouns and the rest of the sentence. They give us information about time, location, or direction.

Watch the video to learn about prepositions.

Click play and read along.

My job is very stressful and difficult. I need a vacation! I want to go on a long vacation next month, but I can only take four days off. I'm thinking about going to New York or Miami. If I go to New York, I would need an expensive plane ticket, so I think I'll go to Miami instead. I can drive there, so it would be cheaper. I'll just take I-4 across Florida, and then drive down the east coast toward Miami. I won't even bring my cell phone or computer on my vacation. I'm very excited!

A little more about CONJUNCTIONS...

Conjunctions connect words, phrases, or clauses. There are three types of conjunctions in English: coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions. Watch this video to learn more.

Click play and read along. Notice how conjunctions are used in this paragraph to join words, phrases, and clauses.

My job is very stressful and difficult. I need a vacation! I want to go on a long vacation next month, but I can only take four days off. I'm thinking about going to New York or Miami. If I go to New York, I would need an expensive plane ticket, so I think I'll go to Miami instead. I can drive there, so it would be cheaper. I'll just take I-4 across Florida, and then drive down the east coast toward Miami. I won't even bring my cell phone or computer on my vacation. I'm very excited!

Final Practice

Check your understanding. Try this "Sorting" Activity to see how many parts of speech you can correctly identify.

  

  

Congratulations! You are now an expert on the 8 parts of speech in English!