On the eighth day of English
My true love gave to me
A lovely little table of the
Eight parts of spee-ee-ee-eech.
Here is a table of the eight parts of speech including what they are, what they do, and some examples.
| Part of Speech | Function or "Job" | Example Words | Example Sentences |
| verb | action or state | (to) be, have, do, run, lift, argue, see, speak, flee, fall, sleep | · Joanna is a fabulous cook.
· I like to sing in the shower while I scrub my feet. |
| noun | person, place, or thing | Common nouns: sheep, river, grass, pencil, hummingbird
Proper nouns: Billy, Colorado, Eiffel Tower |
· Those are my dogs.
· Sherry lives in a gigantic house outside of Dallas. · My cousin plays the piano. |
| adjective | describes a noun | Some, good, big, blue, fascinating, terrible, filthy | · He brought vanilla pudding to the festive gathering.
· I love big, furry, friendly dogs! |
| adverb | describes a verb, adjective, or adverb | quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really | · Mavis tip-toed silently through the woods. She was carefully tracking the elusive Bigfoot! |
| pronoun | replaces a noun | I, you, he, she, some | · Sir Dugan is a generous man. He gave each of his visitors a gold coin.
· She sells seashells by the seashore. |
| preposition | links a noun to another word | to, at, in, on, over, above, under | · Over the hills and through the woods, to Grandmother’s house we go. |
| conjunction | joins clauses or sentences or words | and, but, or, nor, yet | · John and Pedro are renting horses to ride up to the summit.
· Darla hates cabbage but she love lettuce. |
| interjection | short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence | Oh!, Ouch!, Hi! | · Hi! How are you?
· Wait! Don’t go in there because I haven’t wrapped your presents yet. · Ouch! Why did you put a tack on my chair? |
And articles, which we discussed on the Third Day of English, are considered by some to be the ninth part of speech. We’re going for the traditional eight here, however.
Kara Church
Technical Editor, Advisory
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