Word Classes

By georgelthomas on 6 Jun 2018 • ( 17 )

In language, all words are grouped into different categories or ‘classes’, and they can be confusing, with each class of word serving a specific function.

Here are the main word classes we use in English:

Nouns – a noun is a type of word that is used to identify people, things, ideas, and states. For example:

People – ‘man’, ‘woman’, ‘girl’, ‘boy’
things – ‘toy’, ‘hill’, ‘tree’
Ideas – ‘love’, ‘beauty’, ‘tranquillity’
States – ‘life’, ‘death’

Proper Nouns – are words which are used for the names of a person, place or organisation.

Pronouns – are words which are used in place of a noun that has already been mentioned to avoid repetition, for example:

Bill was tired so ‘he’ went to bed
Sarah took the dog with ‘her’
Sam put ‘his’ hand in mine
‘That’ is a good idea

Adjectives – are words that describe nouns, giving more information about them. For example:

a ‘ripe’ pear
a ‘sour’ taste
a ‘sticky’ situation

Verbs – are words that used to describe an action, event, state or a change for example:

Action: ‘run’, ‘hit’, ‘travel’
Event: ‘snow’, ‘eat’, ‘explode’
State: ‘be’, ‘live’, ‘work’
Change: ‘become‘, ‘grow’, ‘develop’

Adverbs – are words that give information about verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. For example:

she smiled ‘sweetly
he’s ‘very’ handsome
they run ‘really’ fast

Prepositions – are usually used in front of nouns or pronouns and show the relationship between nouns, pronouns and other words in a sentence. For example:

Position of something:

his shoe was ‘under’ the table
the cat sat ‘between’ the chairs
the birds flew ‘over’ the house

The time when Something Happens

he came ‘on’ Saturday
the movie begins ‘at’ 8pm
shortly ‘after’ they married, they divorced

The way in which Something is Done

we travelled ‘by’ car
they sat together ‘without’ speaking
I like ice cream ‘with’ cherries

Sometimes prepositions can be made up of more than one word. For example:

they dislike England ‘because of’ the weather
the dog and the cat ‘next to’ each other
the castle was ‘on top’ of the hill

Conjunctions – are words that are used to connect clauses, sentences or to coordinate words in the same clause. There are two main kinds of conjunction:

Coordinating Conjunctions – which join terms which are of equal importance in a sentence:

you can have peas ‘or‘ beans
he plays football ‘and’ rugby
the weather was cold ‘but’ clear

Subordinating Conjunctions – which connect subordinate, or words of lesser rank to the main clause of a sentence:

I stayed up ‘until’ seven o’clock
I went to bed ‘because’ I was tired

You may well have been taught that beginning a sentence with a conjunction is bad English. However, it is not grammatically incorrect to do so. It is best not to overdo it though.

Determiners – are words that introduce nouns, such as ‘a/an’, ‘the’, ‘every’, ‘this’, ‘those’ and ‘many’. For example:

‘A’ dog
‘The’ dog
‘Every’ dog
‘This’ dog
‘Those’ dogs
‘Many’ dogs

Possessive determiners such as ‘my’, ‘our’, ‘your’, ‘his’, ‘her’, ‘its’ and ‘their’, come before nouns to show ownership of the noun in question. For example:

‘My’ leg is broken
Where did we leave ‘our’ car?
Bring ‘your’ dogs along
Dave has lost ‘his’ wallet
Jenny loves ‘her’ house
The milk is past ‘its’ expiration date
They love ‘their’ dog

Exclamations – are words or phrases that express strong emotion. They often stand on their own and are usually followed by an exclamation mark. For example: