Parts of Speech

By Piret Lehiste

Parts of Speech

Morphology is a field of linguistics focused on the study of the forms and formation of words in a language.

In Greek: ‘morph’ (shape, form) + ‘logos’ (study)Morphology deals with the internal structure of words.

A part of speech is a linguistic category of words sharing syntactic or morphological behaviour and semantic properties (such as a noun or a verb).

Parts of speech describe the job a word does in a sentence.

NounsA noun is a word that names a person, place, a thing, or an idea.

Examples:Person: uncle, baby, JohnThing: car, door, bookIdea: truth, beauty

VerbsA verb is a word that expresses action or a state of being. 

Examples:The students did their homework.            Studying grammar rocks :)I live in Tallinn.                                 

Adjectives

An adjective is a word that modifies a noun by limiting its meaning. 

Examples: romantic story           many ideas   Scottish wool 

Adverbs

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb by making its meaning more specific. Adverbs modify by answering the questions “when”, “where”, “how”.

Examples:She often drinks tea with milk.                           Jack carefully polished his car.           

Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that can take the place of a noun.

Examples:I, me, their, myself, these, each other

Prepositions

A preposition is a word that shows the relationship of a noun or pronoun to some other word in a sentence.

Examples:above, behind, during, from, since, through, without

Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that joins single words or groups of words. 

Examples:or, but, because, while, although

InterjectionsAn interjection is a word or phrase that expresses

emotion or exclamation. 

Examples:wow, ouch, hey, hello, oops

ArticlesArticles are used to indicate nouns and to specify

their application.

Examples:a / an – indefinite articlethe – definite article

I bought myself a guitar.He can play the guitar very well.

Numerals

A numeral is a word that represents a number or shows the order of objects through counting.

Examples: three, one hundred, fifth

A POEM

Every name is called a noun, As field and fountain, street and town;In place of noun the pronoun standsAs he and she can clap their hands;

The adjective describes a thing,As magic wand and bridal ring;

The verb means action, something done -To read, to write, to jump, to run;

How things are done, the adverbs tell,As quickly, slowly, badly, well;

The preposition shows relation,As in the street, or at the station;Conjunctions join, in many ways,

Sentences, words, or phrase and phrase;The interjection cries out, ‘Hark!

I need an exclamation mark!‘Through poetry, we learn how each

Of these make up the parts of speech

Parts of Speech

Identify all the parts of speech in the following sentence:

Yesterday we went to the cinema because John had luckily received two free tickets.

Match the parts of speech with their examples in the word cloud.

Key 1yesterday - adverbwe - pronounwent - verbto - prepositionthe - articlecinema - nounbecause - conjunctionJohn - nounhad - verbluckily - adverbreceived - verbtwo - numeralfree - adjectivetickets - noun

Key 2

Noun: cloud, interestVerb: irritate, organiseAdjective: strong, funnyAdverb: seriously, angrilyPreposition: under, duringConjunction: although, ifInterjection: wow, helloNumeral: thirty, fourthPronoun: herselfArticle: the