Parts of Speech: Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, and Adverbs

There are several different parts of speech, which are categories of types of words. We are going to talk about four of the main eight parts of speech, which are nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Understanding the parts of speech will teach you to use words properly in a sentence and become a better writer.

Nouns

A noun is a person, place, or thing
Some examples of a person are: sister, friend, Alex, Stephanie, you, me, dog
Examples of places are: house, beach, New York, playground, the store
Things (can be physical things or ideas): chair, pencil, thoughts, memories, and knowledge.

Verbs

Verbs are action words! They are used to describe things that nouns do!
An example of a verb would be “run”. Run is a word to describe someone or something who is moving faster than a walking speed.
Other examples of verbs include: sing, watch, play, sleep, study, walk, and think.

Adjectives

Adjectives are describing words. They are used to describe nouns.
An example of an adjective would be “beautiful”. Beautiful is a word to describe someone or something. For example, the sky is beautiful. Since the sky is a noun, and beautiful is used to describe it, that makes beautiful an adjective.
Other examples of adjectives are: blue, dark, warm, happy, good, and fast.

Adverbs

Adverbs are words that describe verbs.
For example, quickly is an adverb because if you say you walk quickly, walk is the verb, and quickly is describing how you walk. Therefore, quickly is an adverb. An easy way to spot an adverb is by their ending, since they often end in the letters ly, like quickly.
Other examples of adverbs include: nicely, proudly, slowly, and firmly.

Some words can be used as either a noun, verb, adjective, or an adverb. Usually though, you’ll have to change the endings of the words depending on how you want to use them. The following chart has some examples of words that you can change to be different parts of speech.

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