The parts of speech in English are categories that describe the role a word plays in a sentence. The traditional and most widely accepted classification includes eight parts of speech:
- Nouns : Words that name a person, place, thing, or concept (e.g., dog, city, happiness).
- Pronouns : Words that replace nouns (e.g., he, she, it).
- Verbs : Words that express actions or states of being (e.g., run, is).
- Adjectives : Words that describe or modify nouns or pronouns (e.g., red, big).
- Adverbs : Words that modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs, often indicating manner, place, time, or degree (e.g., quickly, very).
- Prepositions : Words that show relationships between nouns (or pronouns) and other words in a sentence (e.g., in, on, at).
- Conjunctions : Words that join words, phrases, or clauses (e.g., and, but, because).
- Interjections : Words or short phrases that express emotion or exclamation (e.g., oh!, wow!)
Some modern grammars also recognize additional categories such as determiners and articles, and some consider nine parts of speech by including determiners separately. However, the core eight remain the fundamental parts of speech taught and used in English grammar
. Many words can function as different parts of speech depending on context. For example, "work" can be a noun ("My work is easy") or a verb ("I work in London"), and "well" can be an adverb, adjective, or interjection
