Parts of Speech

Parts of Speech
In grammar, a part of speech (also called lexical categories, grammatical categories or word classes) is a linguistic category
of words. In English there are eight parts of speech.
A list of parts of speech
A list of parts of speech in English grammar include the following:
1. Verb
A verb is used to show an action or a state of being
go, write, exist, be
2. Noun
A noun is a word used to refer to people, animals, objects, substances, states, events, ideas and feelings. A noun functions as a
subject or object of a verb and can be modified by an adjective.
John, lion, table, freedom, love ...
3. Adjective
Adjectives are used to describe or specify a noun or pronoun
good, beautiful, nice, my ...
4. Adverb
An adverb is used to modify a verb, adjective and other adverbs.
completely, never, there ...
5. Pronoun
A pronoun is used in the place of a noun or phrase.
I, you, he, she, it ...
6. Preposition
Prepositions are used before nouns to form a phrase that shows where, when, how and why
in, above, to, for, at ...
7. Conjunction
Conjunctions join clauses or sentences or words
and, but, when ...
8. Interjection
Interjections are used to show surprise or emotion.
oh!, Good Lord
Examples of parts of speech
Here are some examples of parts of speech:
 My (adjective) friend (noun) speaks (verb) English (noun) fluently (adverb).
 Oh! (interjection) I ( pronoun) went (verb) to (preposition) school (noun) and (conjunction) I ( pronoun) met (verb) Fred
(noun).
Subject
What is a subject?
The subject is one of the main two parts of a sentence. According to traditional grammar, a sentence consists of two parts:
 a subject,
 a predicate which modifies the subject.
consider the following sentence:
 Leila loves painting.
Leila is the subject and likes soccer acts as the predicate
The subject relates its constituent (a noun phrase) by means of the verb to any other elements present in the sentence (objects,
complements and adverbials.)
Examples of subjects
 Nurses are on strike. (subject with no determiners)
 The big man hurt him. (a noun phrase introduced by a determiner)
 Driving is what I like most. (Gerund)
 To write poems is difficult. (Infinitive)
 That he worked hard is a fact. (a clause)
 I/you...like soccer. (subject pronouns)
 It rains often here. (dummy subject)
The English Verb
Verbs in English
A verb in syntax is a part of speech which conveys
1. action (bring, read, walk, run, learn)
2. or state of being (exist, stand)
Sentences in English have a main verb which is stated in a tense (simple present, simple past, simple future...)
Inflections
Verbs are inflected, modified in form, when conjugated. For example, verbs take s, ed or ing in some of its forms depending on
the tense and the subject-verb agreement.
Agreement
In English a verb may agree with the person and number of its subject. For example, verbs take s in the third person singular
of the simple present:
Bare Infinitive Third Person Singular
play he she it plays
work he, she, it works
When the verb to have conjugates in the third person singular of the simple present, the right inflection is has NOT haves
The verb to be has different inflections:
to be
I am
he, she, it is
we, you, they are
Transitive or intransitive verbs
Verbs can be classified according to whether they are transitive or intransitive verbs:
 Intransitive: the verb only has a subject.
For example:
he runs - it falls.
 Transitive: the verb has a subject and a direct object.
For example:
she speaks English - we visit him.

Direct and Indirect Object

What is an object?
An object in grammar is a part of a sentence, and often part of the predicate. It refers to someone or something involved in the
subject's "performance" of the verb. It is what the verb is being done to. As an example, the following sentence is given:
 Leila wrote the poem - the "poem" is the object.
"Leila" is the subject, the doer or performer, while "wrote" is the action, and "poem" is the object involved in the action.
Types of object
There are two types of object: direct and indirect objects
Direct object
A direct object answers the question "What?"
Examples:
 David repaired his car - his car is the direct object of the verb ate ( What did David repair?)
 The man visited the museum - the museum is the direct object of the verb arrested (what did the man visit?)
Indirect Object
An indirect object answers the question "To whom?" or "For whom?". An indirect object is the recipient of the direct object, or
an otherwise affected participant in the event. There must be a direct object for an indirect object to be placed in a sentence. In
other words an indirect object cannot exist without a direct object.
Examples:
 They sent him a postcard - him is the indirect object of the verb sent.(To whom did they send a postcard?)
 He bought his son a bike - a bike is the indirect object of the verb bought. (For whom he bought a bike?)