Traditionally, there are 8 parts of speech. These parts have duties into sentences and each of them are the elements of Grammar.
This is the summary of 8 parts of speech and with some samples.
Function or "Job": action or state
Example Words: (to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, must
Example Sentences : English is a language. I like English very much.
Function or "Job": thing or person
Example Words: pen, dog, work, music, town, London, teacher, John
Example Sentences : This is my dog. He lives in my house. We live in London.
Function or "Job": describes a noun
Example Words: a/an, the, 2, some, good, big, red, well, interesting
Example Sentences : I have two dogs. My dogs are big. I like big dogs.
Function or "Job": describes a verb, adjective or adverb
Example Words: quickly, silently, well, badly, very, really
Example Sentences : My dog eats quickly. When he is very hungry, he eats really quickly.
Function or "Job": replaces a noun
Example Words: I, you, he, she, some
Example Sentences : Tara is Indian. She is beautiful.
Function or "Job": links a noun to another word
Example Words: to, at, after, on, but
Example Sentences : We went to school on Monday.
Function or "Job": joins clauses or sentences or words
Example Words: and, but, when
Example Sentences : I like dogs and I like cats. I like cats and dogs. I like dogs but I don't like cats.
Function or "Job": short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence
Example Words: oh!, ouch!, hi!, well
Example Sentences : Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know.
Some grammar sources categorize English into 9 or 10 parts of speech. Examples of other categorizations are :
- Verbs may be treated as two different parts of speech:
Lexical Verbs: (Work,like,run)
Auxiliary Verbs : (Be,have,must)
- Determiners: May be treated as a seperate part of speech, instead of being categorized under Adjectives.
If you are interested in more details, please check out my lesson --> http://cafetalk.com/lessons/detail/?id=19679