ESL students learning English as a second language will find this blog post helpful. It defines and explains the nine parts of speech in English. The parts of speech are important to learn so that you can understand and use proper grammar when speaking or writing English. Enjoy!
Parts of Speech is very important to study, For students learning a foreign language (ESL students), knowledge of the parts of speech is important for two reasons:
1) It helps them to understand how the new language works. By understanding the role that each part of speech plays in a sentence, they can begin to build their own sentences and understand those that are written or spoken to them.
2) It helps them to learn how to use the new language correctly. By understanding what each part of speech does, they can better understand which words go together and how to form correct sentences.
Definition of Parts of Speech:
A part of speech is a word that has a particular syntactical function in a sentence. Parts of speech is a term that may be applied to any of the eight main categories of words and their inflections (suffixes indicating grammatical information, such as case, gender, number or tense).
For example:
- My aunt likes to bake cookies every weekend. [noun]
- The cows are grazing in the meadow. [verb]
- She is a very beautiful girl. [adjective]
- I will eat the peach. [article]
- Oh no! I left my purse on the bus! [interjection]
- Cat was on the table. [preposition]
- He ran very fast. [adverb]
- First, I will go to bazar and later you can talk to me. [conjunction]
The definition of parts of speech is simply a word that has a particular syntactical function in a sentence, either as a noun, verb, adjective, or article for example.
9 Parts of Speech in English
So let us discuss parts of speech in detail:
Here are 9 Parts of the speech:
- Noun
- Pronoun
- Adjectives
- Adverb
- Prepositions
- Conjunction
- Interjection
- Verb
- Article
Noun
Nouns are a part of speech that denotes people, places, things, or ideas. Nouns can be singular or plural. Below are some examples:
Singular: cat, book, country
Plural: cats, books, countries
Nouns can also be concrete or abstract. Concrete nouns are those that can be seen or touched (e.g. cat, book), while abstract nouns are those that cannot be seen or touched (e.g. love, happiness).
ESL students often have difficulty with abstract nouns because they cannot see or touch them. It is important for ESL students to understand the different types of nouns in English in order to improve their English.
Pronoun
Pronouns are words that take the place of nouns. They include I, you, he, she, it, we, and they. Pronouns can be used in a number of ways.
For example:
-Subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it) are used as the subject of a sentence. Example: I am here.
-Object pronouns (me, you, him, her, it) are used as the object of a verb or preposition. Example: Give me your book.
-Reflexive pronouns (myself, yourself, himself/herself/itself) are used when the subject and object are the same person or thing.
Adjectives
There are eight parts of speech in English: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.
An adjective is a word that modifies a noun or a pronoun. It tells us more about the thing that is being described. Adjectives often come after the word they describe, but they can also come before the word they describe.
Here are some examples of adjectives: big, small, blue, green. happy, sad, tired, etc.
Adverb
Adverbs are words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. They typically answer the questions how, when, where, and to what extent. Adverbs can be single words like “quickly” or “completely,” or they can be formed from two or more words like “almost never” or “very often.” Here are some examples:
- She sings beautifully. (modifies the verb sings)
- I work here almost never. (modifies the adverb almost)
- He swam very quickly across the pool. (modifies the adverb quickly)
Prepositions
Prepositions are words that show relationships between objects. They are placed before a noun to indicate direction, location, or time.
Examples:
- I am going to the store. (location)
- He is skating on the ice. (direction)
- We went home after school. (time)
ESL students often have difficulty with prepositions because English has more prepositions than many other languages. In addition, the use of prepositions can be idiomatic – that is, their usage can be idiomatic to English and not follow any logical rule. For this reason, it is important for ESL students to practice using prepositions in English sentences as much as possible in order to develop a better understanding of
Conjunction
A conjunction (in English) is a word that joins together two or more words, phrases, or clauses. In grammar, a conjunction is also called a connector.
There are three main types of conjunctions in English: coordinating conjunctions, subordinating conjunctions, and correlative conjunctions.
1) Coordinating conjunctions (FANBOYS): for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
2) Subordinating conjunctions: after, as, because, before. if,, since,, when,, where
3) Correlative conjuctions: both … and; either … or; not only … but also; whether … or
Interjection
Interjections are words that express sudden or strong feelings. They are usually used to show emotion in a sentence, such as happiness, surprise, anger, or sadness.
Some interjections are expressions of agreement or pleasure like “yum” or “ah”, while others can be used to show disagreement or displeasure like “ugh” or “what the heck?”
Here are some more examples:
- Oh! I can’t believe it.
- Wow! That’s so great!
- Ouch! That hurts!
- Damn! I forgot my phone.
- Good grief! It’s already 8pm.
Verb
ESL students can learn about verb tense by looking at examples of verbs in action. The following table provides some common examples of verbs in the present, past, and future tense.
- Present Tense: He walks to work every day.
- Past Tense: He walked to work every day.
- Future Tense: He will walk to work tomorrow.
Article
An article is a type of noun. Articles include a, and an (used before singular nouns) and the (used before plural nouns). Articles indicate whether a particular noun is definite or indefinite. That is, they tell us whether we are talking about a specific thing or not. In terms of usage, articles are usually used to introduce new information or to limit the scope of information already given.
For example:
I went for a walk in the park. (The article “the” indicates that there is only one park.) There was a duck swimming in
English grammar can be tricky, but with a little practice and some of the tips we’ve shared in this blog post, you should be on your way to mastering the parts of speech. We hope you found this information helpful! If you have any questions about specific parts of speech or want more practice exercises, please leave us a comment below. And don’t forget to check out our other blog posts for more helpful language learning tips.
Parts of Speech (Infographics)
