Parts of Speech - Examples with Explanations

sponsored links

Words are classified according to their parts of speech, i.e., the part they play in a sentence. The parts of speech are eight in number. They are 1. Noun, 2. Adjective, 3. Pronoun, 4. Verb, 5. Adverb, 6. Preposition, 7. Conjunction and 8. Interjection. But most of the modern grammarians added 'determiners' to the list of the parts of speech.

Nouns :

A noun is a word used to name a person, place or thing.

Example :

1. Ashoka was a great king.
2. Nagpur is a beautiful city.
3. Plants need water and sunlight for their growth.

* Ashoka and king are names of persons.

* Hyderabad and city are names of places.

* Plants, water and sunlight are the names of things.

The term 'thing' is very wide in meaning and include all nous which do not refer to persons or places. It would be apt to say that the term 'thing' includes everything except a person or place. It also includes things which have no shape or dimension and which we can not see or touch. See the following nouns which denote things.

Example : Book, water, blood, newspaper, house, happiness, beauty, wisdom, truth, poverty, science, art, economics, etc.,

Adjective :

An adjective is a word which goes with or modifies or qualifies a noun and sometimes a pronoun.

Example : 

1. Ashoka was a great king. (The adjective great describes the noun king).
2. She is beautiful (The adjective beautiful describes the pronoun she)
3. He is weak. (Here the adjective weak shows the quality of 'he'/ pronoun)

Pronoun :

A pronoun is a word used instead of a noun. 'Pronoun' means 'for a noun'.

Example : I told Ravi that the book which he gave me was interesting.

Here 'I' is used for the speaker, 'me' is also used for the speaker; 'which' is used for book and 'he' is used for Ravi. So I, which, he and me are pronouns.

Verb :

"Verb is the 'heart' of a sentence". It is a word used to describe an action, a state or an occurance.

Example :

1. Birds fly (action)
2. He is happy (state)
3. The meeting held on last week. (Occurance)

Adverb :

It is a word used to add something to the meaning of a verb or an adjective or another adverb.

Example : 

1. He runs fast. ('fast' describes the verb runs)
2. She is very beautiful. ('Very' describes the adjective beautiful).
3. Shatabdi express runs very fast. ('Very' describes the adverb 'fast').

Preposition :

It is a small word usually preceding a noun or pronoun to tell its relation to another word in the sentence.

Example :

1. She is in the library.
2. I am fond of music
3. The cat sat under the table.

* In sentence 1, the preposition 'in' shows the relation between the noun 'library' and the pronoun 'she'.

* In sentence 2, the preposition 'of' shows the relation between the nouns 'music' and the adjective 'fond'.

* In sentence 3, the preposition 'under' shows the relation between the noun 'table' and the verb 'sat'.

Conjunction :

It is a word which joins words, clauses or sentences.

Examples :

1. Yasin and Moin are brothers. (Here 'and' joins words Yasin and Moin).
2. She must weep or she will die (here or joins the two statements / clauses).

Interjection :

An interjection is a word which expresses some sudden remark of a feeling.

Examples :

1. Hurrah! we have won.
2. Alas! He is no more.

That's all for now friends. In our next post we shall discuss about the words which are used as different parts of speech. Happy Reading :) 

sponsored links