What part of speech is that? Our free Parts of Speech Checker finds and identifies parts of a sentence in a flash.
INK Parts of Speech Checker tool can help identify the various word classes in your writing.
Main Takeaways:
Every individual word in the English language belongs to cate gories called parts of speech or word classes. These include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjection.
Meanwhile, some sources named only the first eight word classes, leaving interjections in a separate category.
Knowing how to identify the different parts of speech in a document or writing won't make you a grammar expert. It won't even make you a better writer. However, you'll gain a basic understanding of the sentence structure in the English language, and that's the first step.
In this post, we'll explore the nine parts of speech, including examples. You'll also find out how to identify these word classes in a sentence.
Parts of speech refer to any one of the nine main categories that words in English are classified based on their function in a sentence. These are the building blocks of grammar.
Parts of Speech are further divided into two basic categories. These are:
The reasoning is that the words in the open class can increase as language develops. Meanwhile, new words are rarely added to the closed class. For example, we get new nouns every day, but pronouns have remained the same.
The parts of speech are the building blocks of grammar, making them essential for writing good sentences. So, you can't write a grammatically correct sentence in English without knowing at least one word class.
Here are some other ways that knowing the parts of speech can help:
Finally, knowing the difference between a preposition and a pronoun can help you become confident about using the English language.
Nouns refer to words that identify a person, place, thing, or idea. These words can assume various roles in a sentence, from the subject that's performing an action to the object, the recipient of the action.
Example:
The nouns in the example above are Brutus and dog. Note that we capitalize the first letter of a noun when it's the official name of something or someone. This form of a noun is called a proper noun.
Pronouns are words that replace a noun that was previously mentioned in a sentence. We use pronouns primarily to avoid repeating the noun.
Example:
In this example, the pronoun "he" makes it unnecessary to repeat the noun "Peter." Other examples of pronouns include I, she, them, ours, it, them, who, which, anybody, and ourselves, to name a few.
We use verbs in English to express an action or a state of being, need, sense, or preference. Verbs can change form based on the tense (present or past) or based on count distinction (singular or plural).
Example:
In the example, the verb "sang" describes the action that Jane performed. Other examples of verbs include dance, be, believe, eat, drink, and became, among others.
Adjectives describe or modify nouns and pronouns. These words give more information or ascribe attributes to the noun being modified. That way, readers and listeners can use their senses to imagine it.
Example:
In this example, the adjective "beautiful" tells us a little about the song that Jane sang. Other examples of adjectives are funny, happy, lazy, hot, bright, dull, mediocre, and unique, to name a few.
Adverbs describe a verb, an adjective, or another adverb. It provides additional information relating to time, place, degree, manner, cause, and circumstance.
Example:
In the example, the adverb "nearly" provides tells us the extent of Cece's loss. Other examples of adverbs are softly, sometimes, happily, hopefully, often, only, among others. Note that adverbs usually appear between the subject and its verb.
We use prepositions to show the relationship between a noun or pronoun and other words in a sentence. As such, a preposition is always followed by a noun in a sentence, and never a verb.
Example:
In the example, the simple preposition "on" describes a location. Other examples of prepositions include over, by, up, against, close to, into, apart from, by, among others.
Conjunctions are joining words. We use them to connect phrases, clauses, and sentences. The types of conjunctions are coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions.
Example:
In this example, the conjunction "but" brings the two sentences together. Other words that belong in this word-class are but, so, or, yet, with, and, to name a few.
Like adjectives, we use articles and determiners to modify nouns. But unlike adjectives, articles and determiners are necessary for a sentence to have proper syntax.
Example:
In the first sentence, the article "a" identifies the noun boy. Meanwhile, the determiner, "some" in the second sentence, identifies the noun " rabbits."
Three articles in the English language are a, an, and the. Other determiners include these, those, enough, much, what, and which, to name a few.
We use interjections in English to express strong feelings or sudden emotions such as surpri se, joy, disgust, excitement, or enthusiasm. Note that interjections can either exist on their own or be part of the sentence.
Example:
In the sentence, the interjection "Ouch!" conveys a sudden feeling of pain. Note that the interjection is not grammatically related to other parts of the sentence.
Other examples of interjection include a_h!, Oh!,_ and hi! to name a few.
Sentences in English have a similar structure. They usually begin with a subject, then the verb follows. In some cases, the sentence can end with an object.
Both the subject and the objects of a sentence are often nouns or pronouns. However, the subject and object can also contain modifiers such as adjectives.
You can identify adverbs and adjectives based on their placement in a sentence, although there are exceptions.
You'll almost certainly find adjectives before nouns and pronouns in a sentence. Adverbs, on the other hand, usually come right before the adjectives they're modifying.
However, the placement can vary when an adverb is modifying a verb. They can appear before the subject, before the verb, or after the verb.
We use conjunctions to join clauses and phrases in a sentence. In other words, any word that seems to join two or more separate clauses or phrases in a sentence is conjunction.
With that said, conjunctions such as "and" and "but" can appear at the beginning of a sentence. In this case, you'll find the clause or phrase in the previous sentence.
Since interjections express emotion, they're usually followed by exclamation points. Also, interjections can exist on their own in a sentence.
So, if you see an individual word with an exclamation point, it's most likely an interjection.
As said earlier, prepositions express the relationship between the noun or pronoun and other parts of the sentences. As a result, prepositions usually appear before a noun or pronoun phrase.
Note that the noun or pronoun phrase can include other modifiers such as adjectives, adverbs, or an article.
Identifying parts of speech in a sentence can be tedious, especially for non-native English speakers. Luckily, you can automate the process using INK Parts of Speech Checker.
Paste your document into the text box, and click the Analyze icon to begin. The parts of the speech finder should provide the result within seconds.
We also make an optional WordPress Plugin to import INK files more easily. You can get it here.
