assignment is which parts of speech

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Grammar: Main Parts of Speech

Definitions and examples.

The name of something, like a person, animal, place, thing, or concept. Nouns are typically used as subjects, objects, objects of prepositions, and modifiers of other nouns.

• I = subject
• the dissertation = object
• in Chapter 4 = object of a preposition
• research = modifier

This expresses what the person, animal, place, thing, or concept does. In English, verbs follow the noun.

• It takes a good deal of dedication to complete a doctoral degree.
• She studied hard for the test.
• Writing a dissertation is difficult. (The "be" verb is also sometimes referred to as a copula or a linking verb. It links the subject, in this case "writing a dissertation," to the complement or the predicate of the sentence, in this case, "hard.")

This describes a noun or pronoun. Adjectives typically come before a noun or after a stative verb, like the verb "to be."

• Diligent describes the student and appears before the noun student .
• Difficult is placed after the to be verb and describes what it is like to balance time.

Remember that adjectives in English have no plural form. The same form of the adjective is used for both singular and plural nouns.

• A different idea
• Some different ideas
• INCORRECT: some differents ideas

This gives more information about the verb and about how the action was done. Adverbs tells how, where, when, why, etc. Depending on the context, the adverb can come before or after the verb or at the beginning or end of a sentence.

• Enthusiastically describes how he completed the course and answers the how question.
• Recently modifies the verb enroll and answers the when question.
• Then describes and modifies the entire sentence. See this link on transitions for more examples of conjunctive adverbs (adverbs that join one idea to another to improve the cohesion of the writing).

This word substitutes for a noun or a noun phrase (e.g. it, she, he, they, that, those,…).

• they = applicants
• He = Smith; that = ideas; those = those ideas

This word makes the reference of the noun more specific (e.g. his, her, my, their, the, a, an, this, these, … ).

• Jones published her book in 2015.
• The book was very popular.

Preposition

This comes before a noun or a noun phrase and links it to other parts of the sentence. These are usually single words (e.g., on, at, by ,… ) but can be up to four words (e.g., as far as, in addition to, as a result of, …).

• I chose to interview teachers in the district closest to me.
• The recorder was placed next to the interviewee.
• I stopped the recording in the middle of the interview due to a low battery.

Conjunction

A word that joins two clauses. These can be coordinating (an easy way to remember this is memorizing FANBOYS = for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) or subordinating (e.g., because, although, when, …).

• The results were not significant, so the alternative hypothesis was accepted.
• Although the results seem promising, more research must be conducted in this area.

Auxiliary Verbs

Helping verbs. They are used to build up complete verbs.

• Primary auxiliary verbs (be, have, do) show the progressive, passive, perfect, and negative verb tenses .
• Modal auxiliary verbs (can, could, may, might, must, shall, should, will, would) show a variety of meanings. They represent ability, permission, necessity, and degree of certainty. These are always followed by the simple form of the verb.
• Semimodal auxiliary verbs (e.g., be going to, ought to, have to, had better, used to, be able to,…). These are always followed by the simple form of the verb.
• primary: have investigated = present perfect tense; has not been determined = passive, perfect, negative form
• The modal could shows ability, and the verb conduct stays in its simple form; the modal may shows degree of certainty, and the verb lead stays in its simple form.
• These semimodals are followed by the simple form of the verb.

Common Endings

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs often have unique word endings, called suffixes . Looking at the suffix can help to distinguish the word from other parts of speech and help identify the function of the word in the sentence. It is important to use the correct word form in written sentences so that readers can clearly follow the intended meaning.

Here are some common endings for the basic parts of speech. If ever in doubt, consult the dictionary for the correct word form.

Common Noun Endings

Common verb endings, common adjective endings, common adverb endings, placement and position of adjectives and adverbs, order of adjectives.

If more than one adjective is used in a sentence, they tend to occur in a certain order. In English, two or three adjectives modifying a noun tend to be the limit. However, when writing in APA, not many adjectives should be used (since APA is objective, scientific writing). If adjectives are used, the framework below can be used as guidance in adjective placement.

• Determiner (e.g., this, that, these, those, my, mine, your, yours, him, his, hers they, their, some, our, several,…) or article (a, an, the)
• Opinion, quality, or observation adjective (e.g., lovely, useful, cute, difficult, comfortable)
• Physical description
• (a) size (big, little, tall, short)
• (b) shape (circular,  irregular, triangular)
• (c) age (old, new, young, adolescent)
• (d) color (red, green, yellow)
• Origin (e.g., English, Mexican, Japanese)
• Material (e.g., cotton, metal, plastic)
• Qualifier (noun used as an adjective to modify the noun that follows; i.e., campus activities, rocking chair, business suit)
• Head noun that the adjectives are describing (e.g., activities, chair, suit)

For example:

• This (1) lovely (2) new (3) wooden (4) Italian (5) rocking (6) chair (7) is in my office.
• Your (1) beautiful (2) green (3) French (4) silk (5) business (6) suit (7) has a hole in it.

Commas With Multiple Adjectives

A comma is used between two adjectives only if the adjectives belong to the same category (for example, if there are two adjectives describing color or two adjectives describing material). To test this, ask these two questions:

• Does the sentence make sense if the adjectives are written in reverse order?
• Does the sentence make sense if the word “and” is written between them?

If the answer is yes to the above questions, the adjectives are separated with a comma. Also keep in mind a comma is never used before the noun that it modifies.

• This useful big round old green English leather rocking chair is comfortable . (Note that there are no commas here because there is only one adjective from each category.)
• A lovely large yellow, red, and green oil painting was hung on the wall. (Note the commas between yellow, red, and green since these are all in the same category of color.)

Position of Adverbs

Adverbs can appear in different positions in a sentence.

• At the beginning of a sentence: Generally , teachers work more than 40 hours a week.
• After the subject, before the verb: Teachers generally work more than 40 hours a week.
• At the end of a sentence: Teachers work more than 40 hours a week, generally .
• However, an adverb is not placed between a verb and a direct object. INCORRECT: Teachers work generally more than 40 hours a week.

More Detailed Rules for the Position of Adverbs

• Adverbs that modify the whole sentence can move to different positions, such as certainly, recently, fortunately, actually, and obviously.
• Recently , I started a new job.
• I recently started a new job.
• I started a new job recently .
• Many adverbs of frequency modify the entire sentence and not just the verb, such as frequently, usually, always, sometimes, often , and seldom . These adverbs appear in the middle of the sentence, after the subject.
• INCORRECT: Frequently she gets time to herself.
• INCORRECT: She gets time to herself frequently .
• She has frequently exercised during her lunch hour. (The adverb appears after the first auxiliary verb.)
• She is frequently hanging out with old friends. (The adverb appears after the to be verb.)
• Adverbial phrases work best at the end of a sentence.
• He greeted us in a very friendly way .
• I collected data for 2 months .

Main Parts of Speech Video Playlist

Note that these videos were created while APA 6 was the style guide edition in use. There may be some examples of writing that have not been updated to APA 7 guidelines.

• Mastering the Mechanics: Nouns (video transcript)
• Mastering the Mechanics: Introduction to Verbs (video transcript)
• Mastering the Mechanics: Articles (video transcript)
• Mastering the Mechanics: Introduction to Pronouns (video transcript)
• Mastering the Mechanics: Modifiers (video transcript)

Writing Tools: Dictionary and Thesaurus Refresher Video

Note that this video was created while APA 6 was the style guide edition in use. There may be some examples of writing that have not been updated to APA 7 guidelines.

• Writing Tools: Dictionary and Thesaurus Refresher (video transcript)

Related Resources

Knowledge Check: Main Parts of Speech

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Parts of Speech: The Ultimate Guide for Students and Teachers

This article is part of the ultimate guide to language for teachers and students. Click the buttons below to view these.

What are Parts of Speech ?

Just as a skilled bricklayer must get to grips with the trowel, brick hammer, tape measure, and spirit level, the student-writer must develop a thorough understanding of the tools of their trade too.

In English, words can be categorized according to their common syntactic function in a sentence, i.e. the job they perform.

We call these different categories Parts of Speech . Understanding the various parts of speech and how they work has several compelling benefits for our students.

Without first acquiring a firm grasp of the various parts of speech, students will struggle to fully comprehend how language works. This is essential not only for the development of their reading comprehension but their writing skills too.

Parts of speech are the core building blocks of grammar . To understand how a language works at a sentence and a whole-text level, we must first master parts of speech.

In English, we can identify eight of these individual parts of speech, and these will provide the focus for our Complete Guide to Parts of Speech .

THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH (Click to jump to each section)

A complete unit on teaching figurative language.

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Often the first word a child speaks will be a noun, for example, Mum , Dad , cow , dog , etc.

Nouns are naming words, and, as most school kids can recite, they are the names of people, places, and things . But, what isn’t as widely understood by many of our students is that nouns can be further classified into more specific categories. 

These categories are:

Common Nouns

Proper nouns, concrete nouns, abstract nouns, collective nouns, countable nouns, uncountable nouns.

All nouns can be classified as either common or proper .

Common nouns are the general names of people, places, and things. They are groups or classes on their own, rather than specific types of people, places, or things such as we find in proper nouns.

Common nouns can be further classified as abstract or concrete – more on this shortly!

Some examples of common nouns include:

People: teacher, author, engineer, artist, singer.

Places: country, city, town, house, garden.

Things: language, trophy, magazine, movie, book.

Proper nouns are the specific names for people, places, and things. Unlike common nouns, which are always lowercase, proper nouns are capitalized. This makes them easy to identify in a text.

Where possible, using proper nouns in place of common nouns helps bring precision to a student’s writing.

Some examples of proper nouns include:

People: Mrs Casey, J.K. Rowling, Nikola Tesla, Pablo Picasso, Billie Eilish.

Places: Australia, San Francisco, Llandovery, The White House, Gardens of Versailles.

Things: Bulgarian, The World Cup, Rolling Stone, The Lion King, The Hunger Games.

Nouns Teaching Activity: Common vs Proper Nouns

• Provide students with books suitable for their current reading level.
• Instruct students to go through a page or two and identify all the nouns.
• Ask students to sort these nouns into two lists according to whether they are common nouns or proper nouns.

As mentioned, all common and proper nouns can be further classified as either concrete or abstract .

A concrete noun is any noun that can be experienced through one of the five senses. In other words, if you can see, smell, hear, taste, or touch it, then it’s a concrete noun.

Some examples of concrete nouns include:

Abstract nouns refer to those things that can’t be experienced or identified through the five senses.

They are not physical things we can perceive but intangible concepts and ideas, qualities and states.

Some examples of abstract nouns include:

Nouns Teaching Activity: Concrete Vs. Abstract Nouns

• Provide students with a book suitable for their current reading level.
• Instruct students to go through a page or two and identify all the nouns (the lists from Practice Activity #1 may be suitable).
• This time, ask students to sort these nouns into two lists according to whether they are concrete or abstract nouns.

A collective noun is the name of a group of people or things. That is, a collective noun always refers to more than one of something.

Some examples of collective nouns include:

People: a board of directors, a team of football players, a cast of actors, a band of musicians, a class of students.

Places: a range of mountains, a suite of rooms, a union of states, a chain of islands.

Things: a bale of hay, a constellation of stars, a bag of sweets, a school of fish, a flock of seagulls.

Countable nouns are nouns that refer to things that can be counted. They come in two flavors: singular and plural .

In their singular form, countable nouns are often preceded by the article, e.g. a , an , or the .

In their plural form, countable nouns are often preceded by a number. They can also be used in conjunction with quantifiers such as a few and many .

Some examples of countable nouns include:

COUNTABLE NOUNS EXAMPLES

Also known as mass nouns, uncountable nouns are, as their name suggests, impossible to count. Abstract ideas such as bravery and compassion are uncountable, as are things like liquid and bread .

These types of nouns are always treated in the singular and usually do not have a plural form. 

They can stand alone or be used in conjunction with words and phrases such as any , some , a little , a lot of , and much .

Some examples of uncountable nouns include:

UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS EXAMPLES

Nouns teaching activity: how many can you list .

• Organize students into small groups to work collaboratively.
• Challenge students to list as many countable and uncountable nouns as they can in ten minutes.
• To make things more challenging, stipulate that there must be an uncountable noun and a countable noun to gain a point.
• The winning group is the one that scores the most points.

Without a verb, there is no sentence! Verbs are the words we use to represent both internal and external actions or states of being. Without a verb, nothing happens.

There are many different types of verbs. Here, we will look at five important verb forms organised according to the jobs they perform:

Dynamic Verbs

Stative verbs, transitive verbs, intransitive verbs, auxiliary verbs.

Each verb can be classified as being either an action or a stative verb.

Dynamic or action verbs describe the physical activity performed by the subject of a sentence. This type of verb is usually the first we learn as children. 

For example, run , hit , throw , hide , eat , sleep , watch , write , etc. are all dynamic verbs, as is any action performed by the body.

Let’s see a few examples in sentences:

• I jogged around the track three times.
• She will dance as if her life depends on it.
• She took a candy from the bag, unwrapped it, and popped it into her mouth.

If a verb doesn’t describe a physical activity, then it is a stative verb.

Stative verbs refer to states of being, conditions, or mental processes. Generally, we can classify stative verbs into four types:

• Emotions/Thoughts

Some examples of stative verbs include: 

Senses: hurt, see, smell, taste, hear, etc.

Emotions: love, doubt, desire, remember, believe, etc.

Being: be, have, require, involve, contain, etc.

Possession: want, include, own, have, belong, etc.

Here are some stative verbs at work in sentences:

• That is one thing we can agree on.
• I remember my first day at school like it was yesterday.
• The university requires students to score at least 80%.
• She has only three remaining.

Sometimes verbs can fit into more than one category, e.g., be , have , look , see , e.g.,

• She looks beautiful. (Stative)
• I look through the telescope. (Dynamic)

Each action or stative verb can also be further classified as transitive or intransitive .

A transitive verb takes a direct object after it. The object is the noun, noun phrase, or pronoun that has something done to it by the subject of the sentence.

We see this in the most straightforward English sentences, i.e., the Subject-Verb-Object or SVO sentence. 

Here are two examples to illustrate. Note: the subject of each sentence is underlined, and the transitive verbs are in bold.

• The teacher answered the student’s questions.
• She studies languages at university.
• My friend loves cabbage.

Most sentences in English employ transitive verbs.

An intransitive verb does not take a direct object after it. It is important to note that only nouns, noun phrases, and pronouns can be classed as direct objects. 

Here are some examples of intransitive verbs – notice how none of these sentences has direct objects after their verbs.

• Jane’s health improved .
• The car ran smoothly.
• The school opens at 9 o’clock.

Auxiliary verbs, also known as ‘helping’ verbs, work with other verbs to affect the meaning of a sentence. They do this by combining with a main verb to alter the sentence’s tense, mood, or voice.

Auxiliary verbs will frequently use not in the negative.

There are relatively few auxiliary verbs in English. Here is a list of the main ones:

• be (am, are, is, was, were, being)
• do (did, does, doing)
• have (had, has, having)

Here are some examples of auxiliary verbs (in bold) in action alongside a main verb (underlined).

She is working as hard as she can.

• You must not eat dinner until after five o’clock.
• The parents may come to the graduation ceremony.

The Subject-Auxiliary Inversion Test

To test whether or not a verb is an auxiliary verb, you can use the Subject-Auxiliary Inversion Test .

• Take the sentence, e.g:
• Now, invert the subject and the suspected auxiliary verb to see if it creates a question.

Is she working as hard as she can?

• Can it take ‘not’ in the negative form?

She is not working as hard as she can.

• If the answer to both of these questions is yes, you have an auxiliary verb. If not, you have a full verb.

Verbs Teaching Activity: Identify the Verbs

• Instruct students to go through an appropriate text length (e.g., paragraph, page, etc.) and compile a list of verbs.
• In groups, students should then discuss and categorize each verb according to whether they think they are dynamic or stative, transitive or intransitive, and/or auxiliary verbs.

The job of an adjective is to modify a noun or a pronoun. It does this by describing, quantifying, or identifying the noun or pronoun. Adjectives help to make writing more interesting and specific. Usually, the adjective is placed before the word it modifies.

As with other parts of speech, not all adjectives are the same. There are many different types of adjectives and, in this article, we will look at:

Descriptive Adjectives

• Degrees of Adjectives

Quantitative Adjectives

Demonstrative adjectives, possessive adjectives, interrogative adjectives, proper adjectives.

Descriptive adjectives are what most students think of first when asked what an adjective is. Descriptive adjectives tell us something about the quality of the noun or pronoun in question. For this reason, they are sometimes referred to as qualitative adjectives .

Some examples of this type of adjective include:

• hard-working

In sentences, they look like this:

• The pumpkin was enormous .
• It was an impressive feat of athleticism I ever saw.
• Undoubtedly, this was an exquisite vase.
• She faced some tough competition.

Degrees of Adjectives 

Descriptive adjectives have three degrees to express varying degrees of intensity and to compare one thing to another. These degrees are referred to as positive , comparative , and superlative .

The positive degree is the regular form of the descriptive adjective when no comparison is being made, e.g., strong .

The comparative degree is used to compare two people, places, or things, e.g., stronger .

There are several ways to form the comparative, methods include:

• Adding more or less before the adjective
• Adding -er to the end of one syllable adjectives
• For two-syllable adjectives ending in y , change the y to an i and add -er to the end.

The superlative degree is typically used when comparing three or more things to denote the upper or lowermost limit of a quality, e.g., strongest .

There are several ways to form the superlative, including:

• Adding most or least before the adjective
• Adding -est to the end of one syllable adjectives
• For two-syllable adjectives ending in y , change the y to an i and add -est to the end.

There are also some irregular adjectives of degree that follow no discernible pattern that must be learned off by students, e.g., good – better – best .

Let’s take a look at these degrees of adjectives in their different forms.

Let’s take a quick look at some sample sentences:

• It was a beautiful example of kindness. 

Comparative

• The red is nice, but the green is prettier .

Superlative

• This mango is the most delicious fruit I have ever tastiest. 

Quantitive adjectives provide information about how many or how much of the noun or pronoun.

Some quantitive adjectives include:

• She only ate half of her sandwich.
• This is my first time here.
• I would like three slices, please.
• There isn’t a single good reason to go.
• There aren’t many places like it.
• It’s too much of a good thing.
• I gave her a whole box of them.

A demonstrative adjective identifies or emphasizes a noun’s place in time or space. The most common demonstrative adjectives are this , that , these , and those .

Here are some examples of demonstrative adjectives in use:

• This boat is mine.
• That car belongs to her.
• These shoes clash with my dress.
• Those people are from Canada.

Possessive adjectives show ownership, and they are sometimes confused with possessive pronouns.

The most common possessive adjectives are my , your , his , her , our , and their .

Students need to be careful not to confuse these with possessive pronouns such as mine , yours , his (same in both contexts), hers , ours , and theirs .

Here are some examples of possessive adjectives in sentences:

• My favorite food is sushi.
• I would like to read your book when you have finished it.
• I believe her car is the red one.
• This is their way of doing things.
• Our work here is done.

Interrogative adjectives ask questions, and, in common with many types of adjectives, they are always followed by a noun. Basically, these are the question words we use to start questions. Be careful however, interrogative adjectives modify nouns. If the word after the question word is a verb, then you have an interrogative adverb on hand.

Some examples of interrogative adjectives include what , which , and whose .

Let’s take a look at these in action:

• What drink would you like?
• Which car should we take?
• Whose shoes are these?

Please note: Whose can also fit into the possessive adjective category too.

We can think of proper adjectives as the adjective form of proper nouns – remember those? They were the specific names of people, places, and things and need to be capitalized.

Let’s take the proper noun for the place America . If we wanted to make an adjective out of this proper noun to describe something, say, a car we would get ‘ American car’.

Let’s take a look at another few examples:

• Joe enjoyed his cup of Ethiopian coffee.
• My favorite plays are Shakespearean tragedies.
• No doubt about it, Fender guitars are some of the best in the world.
• The Mona Lisa is a fine example of Renaissance art.

Though it may come as a surprise to some, articles are also adjectives as, like all adjectives, they modify nouns. Articles help us determine a noun’s specification. 

For example, ‘a’ and ‘an’ are used in front of an unspecific noun, while ‘the’ is used when referring to a specific noun.

Let’s see some articles as adjectives in action!

• You will find an apple inside the cupboard.
• This is a car.
• The recipe is a family secret.

Adjectives Teaching Activity: Types of Adjective Tally

• Choose a suitable book and assign an appropriate number of pages or length of a chapter for students to work with.
• Students work their way through each page, tallying up the number of each type of adjective they can identify using a table like the one below:
• Note how degrees of adjective has been split into comparative and superlative. The positive forms will take care of in the descriptive category.
• You may wish to adapt this table to exclude the easier categories to identify, such as articles and demonstrative, for example.

Traditionally, adverbs are defined as those words that modify verbs, but they do so much more than that. They can be used not only to describe how verbs are performed but also to modify adjectives, other adverbs, clauses, prepositions, or entire sentences.

With such a broad range of tasks at the feet of the humble adverb, it would be impossible to cover every possibility in this article alone. However, there are five main types of adverbs our students should familiarize themselves with. These are:

Adverbs of Manner

Adverbs of time, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of place, adverbs of degree.

Adverbs of manner describe how or the way in which something happens or is done. This type of adverb is often the first type taught to students. Many of these end with -ly . Some common examples include happily , quickly , sadly , slowly , and fast .

Here are a few taster sentences employing adverbs of manner:

• She cooks Chinese food well .
• The children played happily together.
• The students worked diligently on their projects.
• Her mother taught her to cross the road carefully .
• The date went badly .

Adverbs of time indicate when something happens. Common adverbs of time include before , now , then , after , already , immediately , and soon .

Here are some sentences employing adverbs of time:

• I go to school early on Wednesdays.
• She would like to finish her studies eventually .
• Recently , Sarah moved to Bulgaria.
• I have already finished my homework.
• They have been missing training lately .

While adverbs of time deal with when something happens, adverbs of frequency are concerned with how often something happens. Common adverbs of frequency include always , frequently , sometimes , seldom , and never .

Here’s what they look like in sentences:

• Harry usually goes to bed around ten.
• Rachel rarely eats breakfast in the morning.
• Often , I’ll go home straight after school.
• I occasionally have ketchup on my pizza.
• She seldom goes out with her friends.

Adverbs of place, as the name suggests, describe where something happens or where it is. They can refer to position, distance, or direction. Some common adverbs of place include above , below , beside , inside , and anywhere .

Check out some examples in the sentences below:

• Underneath the bridge, there lived a troll.
• There were pizzerias everywhere in the city.
• We walked around the park in the pouring rain.
• If the door is open, then go inside .
• When I am older, I would like to live nearby .

Adverbs of degree express the degree to which or how much of something is done. They can also be used to describe levels of intensity. Some common adverbs of degree include barely , little , lots , completely , and entirely .

Here are some adverbs of degree at work in sentences:

• I hardly noticed her when she walked into the room.
• The little girl had almost finished her homework.
• The job was completely finished.
• I was so delighted to hear the good news.
• Jack was totally delighted to see Diane after all these years.

Adverb Teaching Activity: The Adverb Generator

• Give students a worksheet containing a table divided into five columns. Each column bears a heading of one of the different types of adverbs ( manner , time , frequency , place , degree ).
• Challenge each group to generate as many different examples of each adverb type and record these in the table.
• The winning group is the one with the most adverbs. As a bonus, or tiebreaker, task the students to make sentences with some of the adverbs.

Pronouns are used in place of a specific noun used earlier in a sentence. They are helpful when the writer wants to avoid repetitive use of a particular noun such as a name. For example, in the following sentences, the pronoun she is used to stand for the girl’s name Mary after it is used in the first sentence. 

Mary loved traveling. She had been to France, Thailand, and Taiwan already, but her favorite place in the world was Australia. She had never seen an animal quite as curious-looking as the duck-billed platypus.

We also see her used in place of Mary’s in the above passage. There are many different pronouns and, in this article, we’ll take a look at:

Subject Pronouns

Object pronouns, possessive pronouns, reflexive pronouns, intensive pronouns, demonstrative pronouns, interrogative pronouns.

Subject pronouns are the type of pronoun most of us think of when we hear the term pronoun . They operate as the subject of a verb in a sentence. They are also known as personal pronouns.

The subject pronouns are:

Here are a few examples of subject pronouns doing what they do best:

• Sarah and I went to the movies last Thursday night.
• That is my pet dog. It is an Irish Wolfhound.
• My friends are coming over tonight, they will be here at seven.
• We won’t all fit into the same car.
• You have done a fantastic job with your grammar homework!

Object pronouns operate as the object of a verb, or a preposition, in a sentence. They act in the same way as object nouns but are used when it is clear what the object is.

The object pronouns are:

Here are a few examples of object pronouns in sentences:

• I told you , this is a great opportunity for you .
• Give her some more time, please.
• I told her I did not want to do it .
• That is for us .
• Catherine is the girl whom I mentioned in my letter.

Possessive pronouns indicate ownership of a noun. For example, in the sentence:

These books are mine .

The word mine stands for my books . It’s important to note that while possessive pronouns look similar to possessive adjectives, their function in a sentence is different.

The possessive pronouns are:

Let’s take a look at how these are used in sentences:

• Yours is the yellow jacket.
• I hope this ticket is mine .
• The train that leaves at midnight is theirs .
• Ours is the first house on the right.
• She is the person whose opinion I value most.
• I believe that is his .

Reflexive pronouns are used in instances where the object and the subject are the same. For example, in the sentence, she did it herself , the words she and herself refer to the same person.

The reflexive pronoun forms are:

Here are a few more examples of reflexive pronouns at work:

• I told myself that numerous times.
• He got himself a new computer with his wages.
• We will go there ourselves .
• You must do it yourself .
• The only thing to fear is fear itself .

This type of pronoun can be used to indicate emphasis. For example, when we write, I spoke to the manager herself , the point is made that we talked to the person in charge and not someone lower down the hierarchy. 

Similar to the reflexive pronouns above, we can easily differentiate between reflexive and intensive pronouns by asking if the pronoun is essential to the sentence’s meaning. If it isn’t, then it is used solely for emphasis, and therefore, it’s an intensive rather than a reflexive pronoun.

Often confused with demonstrative adjectives, demonstrative pronouns can stand alone in a sentence.

When this , that , these , and those are used as demonstrative adjectives they come before the noun they modify. When these same words are used as demonstrative pronouns, they replace a noun rather than modify it.

Here are some examples of demonstrative pronouns in sentences:

• This is delicious.
• That is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.
• These are not mine.
• Those belong to the driver.

Interrogative pronouns are used to form questions. They are the typical question words that come at the start of questions, with a question mark coming at the end. The interrogative pronouns are:

Putting them into sentences looks like this:

• What is the name of your best friend?
• Which of these is your favourite?
• Who goes to the market with you?
• Whom do you think will win?
• Whose is that?

Pronoun Teaching Activity: Pronoun Review Table

• Provide students with a review table like the one below to revise the various pronoun forms.
• They can use this table to help them produce independent sentences.
• Once students have had a chance to familiarize themselves thoroughly with each of the different types of pronouns, provide the students with the headings and ask them to complete a table from memory.  

Prepositions

Prepositions provide extra information showing the relationship between a noun or pronoun and another part of a sentence. These are usually short words that come directly before nouns or pronouns, e.g., in , at , on , etc.

There are, of course, many different types of prepositions, each relating to particular types of information. In this article, we will look at:

Prepositions of Time

Prepositions of place, prepositions of movement, prepositions of manner, prepositions of measure.

• Preposition of Agency
• Preposition of Possession
• Preposition of Source

Phrasal Prepositions

It’s worth noting that several prepositional words make an appearance in several different categories of prepositions.

Prepositions of time indicate when something happens. Common prepositions of time include after , at , before , during , in , on .

Let’s see some of these at work:

• I have been here since Thursday.
• My daughter was born on the first of September.
• He went overseas during the war.
• Before you go, can you pay the bill, please?
• We will go out after work.

Sometimes students have difficulty knowing when to use in , on , or at . These little words are often confused. The table below provides helpful guidance to help students use the right preposition in the right context.

The prepositions of place, in , at , on , will be instantly recognisable as they also double as prepositions of time. Again, students can sometimes struggle a little to select the correct one for the situation they are describing. Some guidelines can be helpful.

• If something is contained or confined inside, we use in .
• If something is placed upon a surface, we use on .
• If something is located at a specific point, we use at .

A few example sentences will assist in illustrating these:

• He is in the house.
• I saw it in a magazine.
• In France, we saw many great works of art.
• Put it on the table.
• We sailed on the river.
• Hang that picture on the wall, please.
• We arrived at the airport just after 1 pm.
• I saw her at university.
• The boy stood at the window.

Usually used with verbs of motion, prepositions of movement indicate movement from one place to another. The most commonly used preposition of movement is to .

Some other prepositions of movement include:

Here’s how they look in some sample sentences:

• The ball rolled across the table towards me.
• We looked up into the sky.
• The children ran past the shop on their way home.
• Jackie ran down the road to greet her friend.
• She walked confidently through the curtains and out onto the stage.

Preposition of manner shows us how something is done or how it happens. The most common of these are by , in , like , on , with .

Let’s take a look at how they work in sentences:

• We went to school by bus.
• During the holidays, they traveled across the Rockies on foot.
• Janet went to the airport in a taxi.
• She played soccer like a professional.
• I greeted her with a smile.

Prepositions of measure are used to indicate quantities and specific units of measurement. The two most common of these are by and of .

Check out these sample sentences:

• I’m afraid we only sell that fabric by the meter.
• I will pay you by the hour.
• She only ate half of the ice cream. I ate the other half.
• A kilogram of apples is the same weight as a kilogram of feathers.

Prepositions of Agency

These prepositions indicate the causal relationship between a noun or pronoun and an action. They show the cause of something happening. The most commonly used prepositions of agency are by and with .

Here are some examples of their use in sentences:

• The Harry Potter series was written by J.K. Rowling.
• This bowl was made by a skilled craftsman.
• His heart was filled with love.
• The glass was filled with water.

Prepositions of Possession

Prepositions of possessions indicate who or what something belongs to. The most common of these are of , to , and with .

Let’s take a look:

• He is the husband of my cousin.
• He is a friend of the mayor.
• This once belonged to my grandmother.
• All these lands belong to the Ministry.
• The man with the hat is waiting outside.
• The boy with the big feet tripped and fell.

Prepositions of Source

Prepositions of source indicate where something comes from or its origins. The two most common prepositions of source are from and by . There is some crossover here with prepositions of agency.

Here are some examples:

• He comes from New Zealand.
• These oranges are from our own orchard.
• I was warmed by the heat of the fire.
• She was hugged by her husband.
• The yoghurt is of Bulgarian origin.

Phrasal prepositions are also known as compound prepositions. These are phrases of two or more words that function in the same way as prepositions. That is, they join nouns or pronouns to the rest of the sentence.

Some common phrasal prepositions are:

• According to
• For a change
• In addition to
• In spite of
• Rather than
• With the exception of

Students should be careful of overusing phrasal prepositions as some of them can seem clichéd. Frequently, it’s best to say things in as few words as is necessary.

Preposition Teaching Activity: Pr eposition Sort

• Print out a selection of the different types of prepositions on pieces of paper.
• Organize students into smaller working groups and provide each group with a set of prepositions.
• Using the headings above as categories, challenge students to sort the prepositions into the correct groups. Note that some prepositions will comfortably fit into more than one group.
• The winning group is the one to sort all prepositions correctly first.
• As an extension exercise, students can select a preposition from each category and write a sample sentence for it.

ConjunctionS

Conjunctions are used to connect words, phrases, and clauses. There are three main types of conjunction that are used to join different parts of sentences. These are:

• Coordinating
• Subordinating
• Correlative

Coordinating Conjunctions

These conjunctions are used to join sentence components that are equal such as two words, two phrases, or two clauses. In English, there are seven of these that can be memorized using the mnemonic FANBOYS:

Here are a few example sentences employing coordinating conjunctions:

• As a writer, he needed only a pen and paper.
• I would describe him as strong but lazy.
• Either we go now or not at all.

Subordinating Conjunctions

Subordinating conjunctions are used to introduce dependent clauses in sentences. Basically, dependent clauses are parts of sentences that cannot stand as complete sentences on their own. 

Some of the most common subordinate conjunctions are: 

Let’s take a look at some example sentences:

• I will complete it by Tuesday if I have time.
• Although she likes it, she won’t buy it.
• Jack will give it to you after he finds it.

Correlative Conjunctions

Correlative conjunctions are like shoes; they come in pairs. They work together to make sentences work. Some come correlative conjunctions are:

• either / or
• neither / nor
• Not only / but also

Let’s see how some of these work together:

• If I were you, I would get either the green one or the yellow one.
• John wants neither pity nor help.
• I don’t know whether you prefer horror or romantic movies.

Conjunction Teaching Activity: Conjunction Challenge

• Organize students into Talking Pairs .
• Partner A gives Partner B an example of a conjunction.
• Partner B must state which type of conjunction it is, e.g. coordinating, subordinating, or correlative.
• Partner B must then compose a sentence that uses the conjunction correctly and tell it to Partner A.
• Partners then swap roles.

InterjectionS

Interjections focus on feelings and are generally grammatically unrelated to the rest of the sentence or sentences around them. They convey thoughts and feelings and are common in our speech. They are often followed by exclamation marks in writing. Interjections include expressions such as:

• Eww! That is so gross!
• Oh , I don’t know. I’ve never used one before.
• That’s very… err …generous of you, I suppose.
• Wow! That is fantastic news!
• Uh-Oh! I don’t have any more left.

Interjection Teaching Activity: Create a scenario

• Once students clearly understand what interjections are, brainstorm as a class as many as possible.
• Write a master list of interjections on the whiteboard.
• Partner A suggests an interjection word or phrase to Partner B.
• Partner B must create a fictional scenario where this interjection would be used appropriately.

With a good grasp of the fundamentals of parts of speech, your students will now be equipped to do a deeper dive into the wild waters of English grammar. 

To learn more about the twists and turns of English grammar, check out our comprehensive article on English grammar here.

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The 9 Parts of Speech: Definitions and Examples

• Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia
• M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester
• B.A., English, State University of New York

A part of speech is a term used in traditional grammar for one of the nine main categories into which words are classified according to their functions in sentences , such as nouns or verbs. Also known as word classes , these are the building blocks of grammar.

Parts of Speech

• Word types can be divided into nine parts of speech:
• prepositions
• conjunctions
• articles/determiners
• interjections
• Some words can be considered more than one part of speech, depending on context and usage.
• Interjections can form complete sentences on their own.

Every sentence you write or speak in English includes words that fall into some of the nine parts of speech. These include nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections. (Some sources include only eight parts of speech and leave interjections in their own category.)

Learning the names of the parts of speech probably won't make you witty, healthy, wealthy, or wise. In fact, learning just the names of the parts of speech won't even make you a better writer. However, you will gain a basic understanding of sentence structure  and the  English language by familiarizing yourself with these labels.

Open and Closed Word Classes

The parts of speech are commonly divided into  open classes  (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) and  closed classes  (pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, articles/determiners, and interjections). The idea is that open classes can be altered and added to as language develops and closed classes are pretty much set in stone. For example, new nouns are created every day, but conjunctions never change.

In contemporary linguistics , the label  part of speech has generally been discarded in favor of the term word class or syntactic category . These terms make words easier to qualify objectively based on word construction rather than context. Within word classes, there is the lexical or open class and the function or closed class.

The 9 Parts of Speech

Read about each part of speech below and get started practicing identifying each.

Nouns are a person, place, thing, or idea. They can take on a myriad of roles in a sentence, from the subject of it all to the object of an action. They are capitalized when they're the official name of something or someone, called proper nouns in these cases. Examples: pirate, Caribbean, ship, freedom, Captain Jack Sparrow.

Pronouns stand in for nouns in a sentence. They are more generic versions of nouns that refer only to people. Examples:​  I, you, he, she, it, ours, them, who, which, anybody, ourselves.

Verbs are action words that tell what happens in a sentence. They can also show a sentence subject's state of being ( is , was ). Verbs change form based on tense (present, past) and count distinction (singular or plural). Examples:  sing, dance, believes, seemed, finish, eat, drink, be, became

Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. They specify which one, how much, what kind, and more. Adjectives allow readers and listeners to use their senses to imagine something more clearly. Examples:  hot, lazy, funny, unique, bright, beautiful, poor, smooth.

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and even other adverbs. They specify when, where, how, and why something happened and to what extent or how often. Examples:  softly, lazily, often, only, hopefully, softly, sometimes.

Preposition

Prepositions  show spacial, temporal, and role relations between a noun or pronoun and the other words in a sentence. They come at the start of a prepositional phrase , which contains a preposition and its object. Examples:  up, over, against, by, for, into, close to, out of, apart from.

Conjunction

Conjunctions join words, phrases, and clauses in a sentence. There are coordinating, subordinating, and correlative conjunctions. Examples:  and, but, or, so, yet, with.

Articles and Determiners

Articles and determiners function like adjectives by modifying nouns, but they are different than adjectives in that they are necessary for a sentence to have proper syntax. Articles and determiners specify and identify nouns, and there are indefinite and definite articles. Examples: articles:  a, an, the ; determiners:  these, that, those, enough, much, few, which, what.

Some traditional grammars have treated articles  as a distinct part of speech. Modern grammars, however, more often include articles in the category of determiners , which identify or quantify a noun. Even though they modify nouns like adjectives, articles are different in that they are essential to the proper syntax of a sentence, just as determiners are necessary to convey the meaning of a sentence, while adjectives are optional.

Interjection

Interjections are expressions that can stand on their own or be contained within sentences. These words and phrases often carry strong emotions and convey reactions. Examples:  ah, whoops, ouch, yabba dabba do!

How to Determine the Part of Speech

Only interjections ( Hooray! ) have a habit of standing alone; every other part of speech must be contained within a sentence and some are even required in sentences (nouns and verbs). Other parts of speech come in many varieties and may appear just about anywhere in a sentence.

To know for sure what part of speech a word falls into, look not only at the word itself but also at its meaning, position, and use in a sentence.

For example, in the first sentence below,  work  functions as a noun; in the second sentence, a verb; and in the third sentence, an adjective:

• The noun  work  is the thing Bosco shows up for.
• The verb  work  is the action he must perform.
• The  attributive noun  [or converted adjective]  work  modifies the noun  permit .

Learning the names and uses of the basic parts of speech is just one way to understand how sentences are constructed.

Dissecting Basic Sentences

To form a basic complete sentence, you only need two elements: a noun (or pronoun standing in for a noun) and a verb. The noun acts as a subject and the verb, by telling what action the subject is taking, acts as the predicate. 

In the short sentence above,  birds  is the noun and  fly  is the verb. The sentence makes sense and gets the point across.

You can have a sentence with just one word without breaking any sentence formation rules. The short sentence below is complete because it's a command to an understood "you".

Here, the pronoun, standing in for a noun, is implied and acts as the subject. The sentence is really saying, "(You) go!"

Constructing More Complex Sentences

Use more parts of speech to add additional information about what's happening in a sentence to make it more complex. Take the first sentence from above, for example, and incorporate more information about how and why birds fly.

• Birds fly when migrating before winter.

Birds and fly remain the noun and the verb, but now there is more description. 

When  is an adverb that modifies the verb fly.  The word before  is a little tricky because it can be either a conjunction, preposition, or adverb depending on the context. In this case, it's a preposition because it's followed by a noun. This preposition begins an adverbial phrase of time ( before winter ) that answers the question of when the birds migrate . Before is not a conjunction because it does not connect two clauses.

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• Foundations of Grammar in Italian
• The Top 25 Grammatical Terms
• Open Class Words in English Grammar
• Pronoun Definition and Examples
• What Is an Adverb in English Grammar?
• Telegraphic Speech
• What Are the Parts of a Prepositional Phrase?
• Parts of Speech Printable Worksheets
• Definition and Examples of Function Words in English
• Lesson Plan: Label Sentences with Parts of Speech
• Nominal: Definition and Examples in Grammar

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Parts of Speech Overview

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A noun is a word that denotes a person, place, or thing. In a sentence, nouns answer the questions who and what.

In the sentence above, there are two nouns, dog and ball . A noun may be concrete (something you can touch, see, etc.), like the nouns in the example above, or a noun may be abstract, as in the sentences below.

The abstract concepts of integrity and love in the sentences above are both nouns. Nouns may also be proper.

Chicago , Thanksgiving , and November are all proper nouns, and they should be capitalized. (For more information on proper nouns and when to capitalize words, see our handout on Capital Letters .)

You may also visit our handout on Count and Noncount Nouns .

Learn how to spot verbs that act as nouns. Visit our handout on Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives .

A pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun in a sentence.

In the sentence above, she is the pronoun. Like nouns, pronouns may be used either as subjects or as objects in a sentence.

In the example above, both she and him are pronouns; she is the subject of the sentence while him is the object. Every subject pronoun has a corresponding object form, as shown in the table below.

For more information on pronouns, go to our handout on Pronouns .

To find out what part of speech are that , which , and whom ? Visit our handout on Relative Pronouns .

Articles include a , an , and the . They precede a noun or a noun phrase in a sentence.

In example 1, the article a precedes the noun house , and a also precedes the noun phrase big porch , which consists of an adjective (big) and the noun it describes (porch). In example 2, the article the precedes the noun phrase blue sweater , in which sweater is the noun and blue, the adjective.

For more information, go to our handouts on Articles: A vs. An and How to Use Articles (a/an/the) .

An adjective is a word that modifies, or describes, a noun or pronoun. Adjectives may precede nouns, or they may appear after a form of the reflexive verb to be (am, are, is, was, etc.).

In example 1, two consecutive adjectives, red and brick , both describe the noun house. In example 2, the adjective tall appears after the reflexive verb is and describes the subject, she .

For more on adjectives, go to our handouts Adjective or Adverb and How to Use Adjectives and Adverbs .

A verb is a word that denotes action, or a state of being, in a sentence.

In example 1, rides is the verb; it describes what the subject, Beth, does. In example 2, was describes Paul’s state of being and is therefore the verb.

There may be multiple verbs in a sentence, or there may be a verb phrase consisting of a verb plus a helping verb.

In example 1, the subject she performs two actions in the sentence, turned and opened . In example 2, the verb phrase is was studying .

Some words in a sentence may look like verbs but act as something else, like a noun; these are called verbals. For more information on verbs that masquerade as other parts of speech, go to our handout on Verbals: Gerunds, Participles, and Infinitives .

To learn more about conjugating verbs, visit our handouts on Verb Tenses , Irregular Verbs , and Two-Part (Phrasal) Verbs (Idioms) .

Just as adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify, or further describe, verbs. Adverbs may also modify adjectives. (Many, though not all, adverbs end in - ly .)

In the first example, the adverb wildly modifies the verb waved . In the second example, the adverb extremely modifies the adjective bright , which describes the noun shirt . While nouns answer the questions who and what , adverbs answer the questions how , when , why , and where .

For a more detailed discussion of adverbs, visit our handout Adjective or Adverb and become an expert.

Conjunctions

A conjunction is a word that joins two independent clauses, or sentences, together.

In the examples above, both but and so are conjunctions. They join two complete sentences with the help of a comma. And, but, for, or, nor, so, and yet can all act as conjunctions.

Prepositions

Prepositions work in combination with a noun or pronoun to create phrases that modify verbs, nouns/pronouns, or adjectives. Prepositional phrases convey a spatial, temporal, or directional meaning.

There are two prepositional phrases in the example above: up the brick wall and of the house . The first prepositional phrase is an adverbial phrase, since it modifies the verb by describing where the ivy climbed. The second phrase further modifies the noun wall (the object of the first prepositional phrase) and describes which wall the ivy climbs.

For a more detailed discussion on this part of speech and its functions, click on Prepositions .

Below is a list of prepositions in the English language:

Aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, amid, among, around, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, by, down, during, except, for, from, in, into, like, near, of, off, on, onto, out, over, past, since, through, throughout, to, toward, under, underneath, until, unto, up, upon, with, within, without.

EnglishForEveryone.org

Parts of speech worksheets terms of use, prepositions worksheets, below you will find our full list of printable prepositions worksheets to be used by teachers at home or in school. just click on a link to open a printable pdf version of the desired worksheet. we hope you find them useful..

• Identifying Prepositions Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice identifying prepositions in sentences.

• Identifying Prepositions Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Identifying Prepositions worksheet.

• Prepositions of Time Worksheet

This worksheet includes a table outlining the various prepositions of time and their usages. Practice involves using prepositions of time to explain the schedules of color characters in the worksheet.

• Prepositions of Time Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Prepositions of Time Worksheet.

• Prepositions of Place Worksheet 1

The worksheet provides practice using images to explain the positions of people and objects in relation to one another.

• Prepositions of Place Worksheet Answers 1

Answers to the Prepositions of Place Worksheet 1

• Prepositions of Place Worksheet 2

The worksheet includes tables outlining the various prepositions of place (location). Practice involves using prepositions of place to explain the positions of color objects in relation to one another.

• Prepositions of Place Worksheet Answers 2

Answers to the Prepositions of Place Worksheet 2

Nouns worksheets.

• Identifying Nouns Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice identifying nouns in sentences.

• Identifying Nouns Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Nouns Worksheet.

• Identifying Nouns Worksheet - Common vs. Proper

Explanation, examples, and practice identifying common vs. proper nouns in sentences.

• Identifying Nouns Worksheet - Common vs. Proper Answers

Answers to the Identifying Nouns worksheet.

Adjectives worksheets, this section contains printable worksheets on adjectives..

• Identifying Adjectives Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice identifying adjectives in sentences.

• Identifying Adjectives Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Identifying Adjectives worksheet

• Order of Adjectives Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice putting adjectives in the correct order.

• Comparative Adjectives Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice using comparative adjectives in sentences.

• Comparative Adjectives Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Comparative Adjectives worksheet

• Superlative Adjectives Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice using superlative adjectives in sentences.

• Superlative Adjectives Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Superlative Adjectives Worksheet.

Verbs worksheets, this section contains printable worksheets on verbs..

• Identifying Verbs Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice identifying verbs in sentences.

• Identifying Verbs Worksheet Answers

Adverbs Worksheets

This section contains printable worksheets on adverbs..

• Identifying Adverbs Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice identifying adverbs in sentences.

Answers to the identifying adverbs worksheet..

• Frequency Adverbs Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice identifying and using frequency adverbs in sentences. Practice involves rewriting sentences according to percentages labeled on a frequency adverbs chart. This is an excellent worksheet!

• Frequency Adverbs Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Frequency Adverbs worksheet.

Conjunctions worksheets, this section contains printable worksheets on conjunctions..

• Introduction to Conjunctions Worksheet

A brief introduction to conjunctions.

• Introduction to Conjunctions Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Introduction to Conjunctions worksheet.

• Coordinating Conjunctions Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice using coordinating conjunctions.

• Subordinating Conjunctions Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice using subordinating conjunctions.

• Correlative Conjunctions Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice using correlative conjunctions.

Pronouns worksheets, this section contains printable worksheets on pronouns..

• Introduction to Pronouns Worksheet

A brief introduction to pronouns.

• Introduction to Pronouns Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Introduction to Pronouns worksheet.

• Demonstrative Pronouns Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice using demonstrative pronouns.

• Subjective Pronouns Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice using subjective pronouns in sentences.

Interjections worksheets, this section contains printable worksheets on interjections..

• Identifying Interjections Worksheet

Explanation, examples, and practice identifying interjections in sentences.

• Identifying Interjections Worksheet Answers

Answers to the Identifying Interjections worksheet.

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• All TIP Sheets

The Eight Parts of Speech

• Prepositions
• Conjunctions
• Interjections
• Basic Sentence Structure
• Sentence Fragments
• Run-on Sentences and Comma Splices
• Sentence Type and Purpose
• Independent and Dependent Clauses: Coordination and Subordination
• Subject Verb Agreement
• Consistent Verb Tense
• Other Phrases: Verbal, Appositive, Absolute
• Pronoun Reference
• Relative Pronouns: Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Clauses
• Avoiding Modifier Problems
• Transitions
• Would, Should, Could
• Achieving Parallelism
• Definite and Indefinite Articles
• Two-Word Verbs

TIP Sheet THE EIGHT PARTS OF SPEECH

There are eight parts of speech in the English language: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection. The part of speech indicates how the word functions in meaning as well as grammatically within the sentence. An individual word can function as more than one part of speech when used in different circumstances. Understanding parts of speech is essential for determining the correct definition of a word when using the dictionary.

1. NOUN

• A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, or idea.

man... Butte College... house... happiness

A noun is a word for a person, place, thing, or idea. Nouns are often used with an article ( the , a , an ), but not always. Proper nouns always start with a capital letter; common nouns do not. Nouns can be singular or plural, concrete or abstract. Nouns show possession by adding 's . Nouns can function in different roles within a sentence; for example, a noun can be a subject, direct object, indirect object, subject complement, or object of a preposition.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher , and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!

See the TIP Sheet on "Nouns" for further information.

2. PRONOUN

• A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun.

She... we... they... it

A pronoun is a word used in place of a noun. A pronoun is usually substituted for a specific noun, which is called its antecedent. In the sentence above, the antecedent for the pronoun she is the girl. Pronouns are further defined by type: personal pronouns refer to specific persons or things; possessive pronouns indicate ownership; reflexive pronouns are used to emphasize another noun or pronoun; relative pronouns introduce a subordinate clause; and demonstrative pronouns identify, point to, or refer to nouns.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!

See the TIP Sheet on "Pronouns" for further information.

3. VERB

• A verb expresses action or being.

jump... is... write... become

The verb in a sentence expresses action or being. There is a main verb and sometimes one or more helping verbs. (" She can sing." Sing is the main verb; can is the helping verb.) A verb must agree with its subject in number (both are singular or both are plural). Verbs also take different forms to express tense.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared . Oh my!

See the TIP Sheet on "Verbs" for more information.

4. ADJECTIVE

• An adjective modifies or describes a noun or pronoun.

pretty... old... blue... smart

An adjective is a word used to modify or describe a noun or a pronoun. It usually answers the question of which one, what kind, or how many. (Articles [a, an, the] are usually classified as adjectives.)

See the TIP Sheet on "Adjectives" for more information.

5. ADVERB

• An adverb modifies or describes a verb, an adjective, or another adverb.

gently... extremely... carefully... well

An adverb describes or modifies a verb, an adjective, or another adverb, but never a noun. It usually answers the questions of when, where, how, why, under what conditions, or to what degree. Adverbs often end in -ly.

See the TIP Sheet on "Adverbs" for more information.

6. PREPOSITION

• A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying another word in the sentence.

by... with.... about... until

(by the tree, with our friends, about the book, until tomorrow)

A preposition is a word placed before a noun or pronoun to form a phrase modifying another word in the sentence. Therefore a preposition is always part of a prepositional phrase. The prepositional phrase almost always functions as an adjective or as an adverb. The following list includes the most common prepositions:

See the TIP Sheet on "Prepositions" for more information.

7. CONJUNCTION

• A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses.

and... but... or... while... because

A conjunction joins words, phrases, or clauses, and indicates the relationship between the elements joined. Coordinating conjunctions connect grammatically equal elements: and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet. Subordinating conjunctions connect clauses that are not equal: because, although, while, since, etc. There are other types of conjunctions as well.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my!

See the TIP Sheet on "Conjunctions" for more information.

8. INTERJECTION

• An interjection is a word used to express emotion.

Oh!... Wow!... Oops!

An interjection is a word used to express emotion. It is often followed by an exclamation point.

The young girl brought me a very long letter from the teacher, and then she quickly disappeared. Oh my !

See the TIP Sheet on "Interjections" for more information.

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Unit 1: Parts of speech: the noun

About this unit.

Here's the thing: I love nouns. But wait! Nouns aren't just things! They can also be people and places. They're my favorite parts of speech. Without them, we'd never be able to talk about anything !

Welcome to grammar!

• Introduction to grammar (Opens a modal)

Introduction to nouns

• Introduction to nouns (Opens a modal)
• Introduction to singular and plural nouns (Opens a modal)
• Identifying nouns Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!
• Singular and plural nouns Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!

Types of nouns

• Common and proper nouns (Opens a modal)
• Concrete and abstract nouns (Opens a modal)
• Common and proper nouns Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!
• Concrete and abstract nouns Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!

Irregular plural nouns: base plurals and irregular endings

• Irregular plural nouns: -f to -ves plurals (Opens a modal)
• Irregular plural nouns: -en plurals (Opens a modal)
• Irregular plural nouns: the base plural (Opens a modal)
• Irregular plural nouns: f to -ves plurals Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!
• Irregular plural nouns: -en plurals Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!
• Irregular plural nouns: the base plural Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!

Irregular plural nouns: mutant and foreign plurals

• Irregular plural nouns: mutant plurals (Opens a modal)
• Irregular plural nouns: foreign plurals (Opens a modal)
• BONUS VIDEO – Origin of the mutant plural (Opens a modal)
• Irregular plural nouns: mutant plurals Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!
• Irregular plural nouns: foreign plurals Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!
• Irregular plural nouns review Get 3 of 4 questions to level up!

• My Storyboards

8 Parts of Speech

Parts of speech are an important aspect of the language taught in English Language Arts and English as a New Language classrooms. Not only do the parts of speech help in formulating correct sentences, they also help the reader to understand what is taking place. As a staple of clear communication and analysis, mastery of the parts of speech is essential for students. The eight parts of speech chart on the right is a great visual for displaying the 8 categories of words that are included.

Teachers use a variety of different approaches to engage students in their parts of speech lesson plans. One popular idea for a "bodily kinesthetic" activity for parts of speech is to conduct a scavenger hunt to have students identify the 8 different parts of speech existing around the classroom. There is also the classic lesson on parts of speech that instructs students to diagram and label sentences provided by the teacher.

A parts of speech writing activity could begin with students first writing about a simple topic like what they are going to do after school. After they have their sentences down, they could work individually or with a partner to label each of the 8 parts of speech. Another fun part of speech activity is to have students play "Grammar Bingo". They can fill in a bingo card that includes all 8 parts of speech!

These are all effective activities for part of speech where students can see the language in action or on paper and identify these important grammatical elements. However, the reality is that this particular part of language learning and development can be boring and dry for students. Teachers can liven up their parts of speech lesson plans for elementary, middle and high school students with Storyboard That!

Storyboard That can help teachers use more creative ways to teach parts of speech!

The 8 Parts of Speech Lessons Help You

• Understand clearly what is being said in a sentence.
• Know how and when to use words correctly.
• Reflect more accurately on the English language.

What are the Parts of Speech?

Do you know each part of speech, 8 parts of speech activity.

The parts of speech activity below shows how you can use the Storyboard That Creator to make storyboards depicting the different parts of speech, in this case three different verbs. Teachers can quickly create a parts of speech lesson plan using the "create an assignment" wizard where they can input directions and even a template to help students get started. The template could include the titles of the parts of speech for students to depict such as:

8 Parts of Speech Lesson Plans

In reading and writing, it is important to make clear for your audience who or what is most important in a sentence, what is happening, and other important details that enhance the information being conveyed. Using the Storyboard Creator in your parts of speech lesson allows students to make visual depictions of the parts of speech and help them remember these important pieces of writing!

Some General Elementary School Parts of Speech Activity Ideas

• Use Storyboard That’s parts of speech template to create your own storyboard using the 8 parts of speech.
• Provide students with a sentence that has certain underlined or highlighted words by replacing "EXAMPLE SENTENCE".

Note: If you're not a Storyboard That user yet, sign up for a free trial .

• Have students make a visualization of the sentences on the storyboard.
• While creating the storyboards, students will make sure to point out which part of speech they are illustrating by drawing attention to the word using an arrow or other indicator.
• Lesson Extension: Have students come up with their own sentences and use storyboards to depict them!

Example Project for the 8 Parts of Speech

More Parts of Speech Project Ideas

• Make a storyboard that describes and illustrates the most common prepositions.
• Make a T-chart that illustrates examples of action verbs and nonaction verbs.
• Choose at least one prepositional phrase and make a storyboard to illustrate it.
• Make a storyboard that illustrates adjectives that express emotion. Teachers can either give students a list so that students all have the same words, or have students choose their own.
• Research and define the many different speech definitions such as: independent clauses, complex sentences, main verbs, and so much more!
• A fun adverbs project idea is to have students answer a prompt in the storyboard such as the one below. The teacher can include the prompt in the template and have the students write and illustrate their answer using as many other adverbs as they can! To modify this assignment, the template could include the description box on the bottom where students can write more full sentences showing their understanding of how to use adverbs. This project could also be modified to be an activity for any of the 8 parts of speech.

Related Activities

How to Teach Parts of Speech with Games and Activities

Choose games and activities.

Select games and activities that are engaging and appropriate for the age and skill level of your students. Examples of games and activities that teach parts of speech include Mad Libs, Charades, Parts of Speech Bingo, Parts of Speech Jeopardy, and Word Sorts.

Define Parts of Speech

Before starting the games and activities, make sure your students understand the basics of parts of speech. Define and provide examples of the main parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Model Parts of Speech Use

Model the use of different parts of speech to ensure that students understand how they function in language. Use sentences or examples from the games or activities you have chosen to illustrate the different parts of speech.

Play Games and Activities

Play the games and activities with your students, making sure to explain the rules and provide any necessary guidance. Encourage active participation and engagement from all students, and provide support or additional practice for students who may need it.

Reinforce Learning

After playing the games and activities, reinforce learning by reviewing the parts of speech used and how they function in language. Ask students to explain how they used different parts of speech in the games and activities and provide feedback or corrections as needed.

Create Your Own Games and Activities

Encourage students to create their own games and activities that incorporate parts of speech. This can help them solidify their understanding of the concepts and provide opportunities for peer teaching and learning.

Assess Understanding

Finally, assess students' understanding of parts of speech through quizzes, writing assignments, or other assessments. Make sure that your assessments reflect the skills and knowledge you want students to acquire, such as identifying parts of speech and using them correctly in context. Use the results of your assessments to guide further instruction and support for students who may need it.

Frequently Asked Questions about 8 Parts of Speech

What is included in a parts of speech chart.

The 8 parts of speech to include in a parts of speech chart are:

• Noun : Nouns are a person, place, thing, or idea
• Verb : Verbs are actions or states of being
• Adjective : Adjectives describe nouns
• Adverb : Adverbs describe a verb, adjective or another adverb
• Pronoun : Pronouns stand in for a noun
• Preposition : Prepositions link a noun to another word
• Conjunction : Conjunctions join words, clauses, and sentences
• Interjection : Interjections are short exclamations

What are some parts of speech activities to do with students?

There are many 8 parts of speech lesson plans that incorporate the storyboard Creator that will help students visualize and be able to demonstrate their understanding. Some parts of speech activities using the Storyboard That Creator are:

• Create a visual part of speech diagram of a sentence using a storyboard! Many teachers instruct students to diagram parts of speech in their sentences by underlining or circling different parts of speech. However, by illustrating what is occurring in the sentence and how those parts of speech are related, students are more apt to retain the information.
• Create a list of all of the different parts of speech with illustrations and definitions.
• Make a quiz for a fellow classmate!

How can teachers create parts of speech lesson plans in Storyboard That?

Creating assignments in Storyboard That is as easy as 1-2-3! The easiest way to create a lesson is to copy one of our awesome premade lesson plans and customize it how you see fit. To create a lesson from scratch, simply follow the “create an assignment” steps.

What is the difference between proper nouns and common nouns?

The difference between a proper noun and a common noun is that a common noun refers to general things, such as a mountain, river, or lake. A proper noun, however, refers to a specific noun, such as Mt. Everest, Nile River, or Lake Michigan.

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• School Guide
• English Grammar Free Course
• English Grammar Tutorial
• Parts of Speech
• Figure of Speech
• Tenses Chart
• Essay Writing
• Email Writing
• NCERT English Solutions
• English Difference Between
• SSC CGL English Syllabus
• SBI PO English Syllabus
• SBI Clerk English Syllabus
• IBPS PO English Syllabus
• IBPS CLERK English Syllabus
• English Grammar : Learn Rules of Grammar and Basics
• Parts of Speech: Definitions, Examples & 8 Types
• What is a Noun? Types, Definitions and Examples (List)
• Proper Noun - Definition, Examples, & Rules
• Common Noun - Definition, Examples, List & Usage
• Plural Noun - Rules and Examples
• Possessive Noun - Meaning, Usage, Rules and Examples
• What is Collective Noun? List of Examples, Uses and Exercises
• Abstract Nouns - Definition, Examples, List, Usage
• What is a Compound Noun? Definition, Types & Examples
• What are Countable Noun?
• What are Uncountable Noun - How to use them?
• Material Noun: Definition, Examples, Rules & Exercises
• Pronoun Definition - Rules and Types of Pronouns
• Reflexive Pronoun
• Subject Pronouns - Definition, Example and Exercise
• Relative Pronouns - Definition, Uses and Examples
• Demonstrative Pronouns - Definition and Examples
• Possessive Pronouns - Definition, Usage and Examples
• Indefinite Pronoun
• Personal Pronoun - Definition, Rules and Examples
• Interrogative Pronoun
• Reciprocal Pronouns - Definition, Examples & Uses
• What is a Verb? Types, Uses, Examples
• Main Verbs - Meaning, Types and Examples
• Helping Verb: Definition, Types and Examples
• Auxiliary Verbs: Definition, Examples & List
• Irregular Verbs
• What Are Modal Verbs? – Definition, Usage & Examples
• What is A Gerund? Definition and Examples
• Adjective - Definition, List, Types, Uses and Examples
• Proper Adjectives Definition and Examples
• Possessive Adjectives - Definition, Example and List
• Interrogative Adjective - Meaning, Definition and Examples
• What Is an Adverb? Definition, List & Examples
• Conjunctive Adverbs - Meaning, Examples and Exercises
• Adverbs of Time - Examples, Meaning, and Definition
• Adverbs of Frequency - Definition, Examples, and Usage
• Adverbs of Place - Definition, List and Examples
• What are Adverbs of Degree? Definition, List and Examples
• Adverbs of Manner - Meaning, Definition and Examples

Conjunction

• What is a Conjunction - Meaning, Definition, Types & Exercises
• Subordinating Conjunction - Meaning, Definition, Types and Examples

Preposition

Interjection.

• Interjections - Definition, Types, Rules and Examples
• Definite and Indefinite Articles ( A, An, The)
• Subject-Verb Agreement Rules: Examples & Exercises
• Active and Passive Voice Rules for Competitive Exams
• What is Tense? Types, Definitions & Examples
• Tense Chart in English - Rules, Examples, Types & Mind map

Parts of Speech: Definitions, Examples & 8 Types

Every word is a part of speech playing a specific role in sentences or paragraphs. Parts of speech provide an organized way to align words and phrases, it is a fundamental meaning for a language to become more understandable and serve a specific purpose. Here, in this article, we will see what is Part of Speech, its types, and its uses. So let us dive in deeper to learn more about it!

Table of Content

What is Part of Speech?

Parts of speech chart.

• Different Types of Parts of Speech :
• Parts of Speech Examples Using Sentences
• Quiz to practice Parts of Speech 

Parts of Speech – FAQs

The English language has thousands of words and every word has some function to perform. Some words are there to show action, some to join, and some to name something. There are 8 different parts of speech including nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunction, and interjection. And together, all the functions performed by words in the English language fall under Parts of speech.           

Parts of Speech Definition

The parts of speech are the “traditional grammatical categories to which words are assigned in accordance with their syntactic functions, such as noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and so on.” In other words, they refer to the different roles that words can play in a sentence and how they relate to one another based on grammar and syntax.

All Parts of Speech with Examples 

There are 8 different types of parts of speech i.e., Nouns, Pronouns, Adjectives, Verbs, Adverb, prepositions, Conjunction, and Interjection.

Noun –

A   noun   is a word that names a person, place, thing, state, or quality. It can be singular or plural. Nouns are a part of speech.

• Function: Refers to Things or person
• Examples: Pen, Chair, Ram, Honesty
• Sentences: Cars are expensive, This chair is made of wood, and Ram is a topper, Honesty is the best policy.

Pronoun –

The word used in place of a noun or a noun phrase is known as a pronoun. A pronoun is used in place of a noun to avoid the repetition of the noun. 

• Function: Replaces a noun
• Examples: I, you, he, she, it, they
• Sentences: They are expensive, It is of wood, He is a topper, It is the best policy

Adjective –

A word that modifies a noun or a pronoun is an adjective. Generally, an adjective’s function is to further define and quantify a noun or pronoun.

• Function: Describes a noun
• Examples: Super, Red, Our, Big, Great, class
• Sentences: Supercars are expensive, The red chair is for kids, Ram is a class topper, and Great things take time.

Verb –

A word or a group of words that describes an action, a state, or an event is called a verb. A verb is a word that says what happens to somebody or what somebody or something does.

• Function: Describes action or state
• Sentences: I play football, I will be a doctor, I like to work, I love writing poems.

Adverb –

A verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence is typically modified by an adverb . Adverbs often answer questions like “how,” “in what way,” “when,” “where,” and “to what extent” by expressing things like method, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc

• Function: Describes a verb, adjective, or adverb
• Examples: Silently, too, very
• Sentences: I love reading silently, It is too tough to handle, He can speak very fast.

Preposition –

A preposition is called  a connector or linking word which has a very close relationship with the noun, pronoun or adjective that follows it . Prepositions show position in space, movement, direction, etc.

• Function: Links a noun to another word
• Examples: at, in, of, after, under,
• Sentences: The ball is under the table, I am at a restaurant, she is in trouble, I am going after her, It is so nice of him

Conjunction –

A  conjunction  is a word that connects clauses, sentences, or other words.  Conjunctions  can be used alone or in groups of two.

• Function: Joins clauses and sentences
• Examples: and, but, though, after
• Sentences: First, I will go to college and then I may go to Fest, I don’t have a car but I know how to drive, She failed the exam though she worked hard, He will come after he finishes his match. 

Interjection –

An  interjection  is a word or phrase expressing some sudden feelings of sadness or emotions. 

• Function: Shows exclamation
• Examples: oh! wow!, alas! Hurray!
• Sentences: Oh! I got fail again, Wow! I got the job, Alas! She is no more, Hurray! We are going to a party.

These are the main parts of speech, but there are additional subcategories and variations within each. Understanding the different parts of speech can help construct grammatically correct sentences and express ideas clearly.

Sentence Examples for the 8 Parts of Speech

• Examples: Luggage, Cattle.
• Sentence:  Never leave your luggage unattended.
• In some places, cattle are fed barely.
• Examples: who, either, themselves
• Sentence: I know a man who plays the guitar very well.
• Either of the two cars is for sale.
• They enjoyed themselves at the party.
• Examples: kind, moving, wounder.
• Sentence: 
• She is a kind person.
• Boarding a moving bus can be dangerous.
• Never poke a wounded animal.
• Examples: Praise, Hate, Punish
• Sentence: She always praises her friends.
• I don’t hate anybody.
• The boy has been punished by his teacher
• Examples: Always, enough, immediately
• Sentence: we should always help each other.
• We should be wise enough to understand what is good for us.
• We should leave bad habits immediately.
• Examples: Off, Below, From. to
• He plunged off the cliff
• I live below the 9th floor.
• I travel daily from Delhi to Noida.
• Examples: whereas, as well as, so, 
• Sentence: The new software is fairly simple whereas the old one was a bit complicated.
• The finance company is not performing well as well as some of its competitors.
• He was ready so he may come. 
• Examples: oops! whoa! phew! 
• Sentence: Oops! I forgot to mention her name.
• Whoa! you drive fast. 
• Phew! That was a close call, we had a narrow escape.

Parts of Speech Exercise – Test your Knowledge of Part of speech 

Choose the correct Parts of Speech of the BOLD word from the following questions.

1. Let us play, Shall We?

       a. Conjunction        b. Pronoun        c. Verb

2.  I t is a good practice to arrange books on shelves.

      a. Verb       b. Noun       c. Adjective

3. Whose books are these?

      a. Pronoun      b. Preposition      c. verb

4.   Father, please get me that toy. 

     a. Pronoun      b. Adverb      c. Adjective

5.  His mentality is rather obnoxious.

     a. Adverb      b. Adjective      c. Noun

6.  He is the guy whose money got stolen.

      a. Pronoun       b. Conjunction       c. Adjective

7. I will have finished my semester by the end of this year.

      a. Interjection       b. Conjunction       c. Preposition

8. Bingo! That’s the one I have been looking for

    a. Interjection      b. Conjunctio      c. Preposition

Quiz Answers:

1. c,  2. b,  3. a,  4. c,  5. a,  6. b,  7. c,  8. a

Also Check:

• English Grammar
• Figures of Speech
• Learn English Grammar Online
• Difference Between Adjective and Verb

Q1. What are Parts of Speech?

A word is assigned to a category as per its function, and those categories are together known as Parts of Speech.

Q2. What are the 8 Parts of Speech?

Noun, Pronoun, Adjective, Verb, Adverb, Preposition, Conjunction, Interjection.

Q3. How many Parts of Speech are there?

There are a total of 8 parts of Speech.

Q4. What Part of Speech is “our”?

“Our” is a adjective type of Part of Speech. Eg. Our car.

Q5. What Part of Speech is “Quickly”?

Adverb. let us understand it with this example – Milk sours quickly in warm weather.

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19 Parts of Speech Activities That Will Up Your Grammar Game

It’s time to think beyond Mad Libs.

Learning nouns, verbs, adjectives, and other parts of speech can seem boring to kids. It’s one of those basic skills that they need to master grammar, but it doesn’t always seem like much fun. For years, teachers have used Mad Libs to spice it up, but there are plenty of other engaging parts of speech activities out there to try. Here are some of our favorites.

1. Color a parts of speech picture.

Coloring pages are really popular parts of speech activities, with hundreds of them available online. Try this one for free at the site below.

Learn more: A World of Language Learners

2. Make parts of speech signs.

Cut out the large letters and break your class into group by parts of speech. Have each group fill the letters with definitions and examples of their assigned part. Hang up their creations as part of your classroom decor!

Learn more: Panicked Teacher/Instagram

3. Play parts of speech bingo.

This free printable bingo game can be used over and over again in your classroom. Use it with vocabulary or spelling words, or terms from your current lessons in other subjects too.

Learn more: 123Homeschool4Me

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4. Re-purpose a set of UNO cards.

Replace the numbers on a set of UNO cards with words instead. The game play is the same, but instead of numbers, players much put down a matching color or part of speech.

Learn more: Best Teacher Resources Blog

5. Build sentences with LEGO bricks.

Sort LEGO bricks by color, then write words on them using masking tape. Use one color for all the nouns, another for verbs, and so on. Then, build sentences with the bricks, identifying each part of speech as you go.

Learn more: There’s Just One Mommy

6. Throw darts and give examples.

Snag a Velcro dart board at the dollar store and label the different sections with parts of speech. Kids throw a ball or dart, and have to give an example of the part they land on in order to get the points. Fun!

Learn more: The Kinder Teacher/Instagram

7. Face off in tic-tac-toe.

Label the parts of a tic-tac-toe board with various parts of speech. To get the square, the player must give an example of that type.

Learn more: Teacher Thrive

8. Bag it up.

This is really several parts of speech activities in one. Label a series of bags with the parts of speech, and have your class define each one as you go. Have students write a series of words on index cards (try using vocab or spelling words), then sort them into the correct bags. Finally, pull a word from each bag one at a time and ask a student to use it in a sentence.

Learn more: Education.com

9. Dress up a sentence.

Take a very basic sentence and dress it up using various parts of speech. Teachers and kids both love this one, since it really emphasizes practical application. Get a free printable worksheet to use with this here.

Photo: Teach Starter/Instagram

10. Use parts of speech clip cards.

Parts of speech activities like this one are perfect for independent learning centers. Visit the link for a free printable set of cards.

Learn more: This Reading Mama

11. Hunt and sort eggs.

Fill plastic eggs with a variety of words and hide them around your room (or even the playground). Send kids out to find them, then open and sort them into the correct bucket. ( Find more fun plastic egg activities for the classroom here. )

Learn more: For the Love of First Grade

12. Go on a parts of speech scavenger hunt.

Grab a stack of old magazines and send students on a hunt to find the various parts of speech. They can cut them out and glue them to posters to hang around the room.

Learn more: Miss Gorton’s Class/Instagram

13. Add a grammar twist to Jenga.

Use colored Jenga blocks to help kids review the parts of speech. Get the full rules and free printables at the link below.

Learn more: Teaching With Jennifer Findlay

14. Learn the Parts of Speech Poem.

This anonymously-written poem has been around a long time. Have your students learn it, and they can use it as a guide during all sorts of parts of speech activities.

Learn more: Teaching With Miss Cooper/Instagram

15. Play Hangman with parts of speech.

Put a grammar spin on Hangman by giving students a clue about the part of speech being spelled out.

Learn more: Crafting Connections

16. Make your morning message more meaningful.

Take a few moments to analyze your morning message (or any other memo or handout kids receive or read) to look for various parts of speech.

Learn more: Learning Like Littles

17. Match up parts of speech dominoes.

Make free printable word dominoes, then match a part of speech with an example word on each turn.

Learn more: Homeschool Giveaways & Freebies

18. Sort magnetic poetry words and make sentences.

If you’ve got magnetic poetry words on hand, they’re ideal for parts of speech activities! Sort them by type, then make sentences that fit specific patterns (e.g. “article + adjective + noun + helping verb + verb” etc.)

19. Sort vocabulary words with a free printable.

Use our free customizable printable to sort vocabulary words from your current lessons. Grab it here.

Looking for more ways to mix up your grammar lessons? Try these 6 Ways to Make Teaching Grammar Fun.

If you’re tired of hearing kids grumble when it’s time to talk poetry, check out these entertaining Poetry Games and Activities .

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• English Grammar
• Grammar Exercises
• Parts Of Speech Exercises

Parts of Speech Exercises with Answers

Every topic in English grammar requires good understanding and a lot of practice. A thorough knowledge of the various grammatical components and their application is necessary to master the English language . This article provides you with a few practice exercises for parts of speech . Check it out.

Table of Contents

Exercise 1 – identify the adverb, exercise 2 – use the appropriate pronoun.

• Exercise 3 –  Underline the Preposition

Exercise 4 – Identify the Part of Speech

Frequently asked questions on parts of speech exercises.

Give below are a few exercises. Try them out and assess your understanding of the different parts of speech.

Go through the given sentences and identify the adverb.

• We have seen this before.
• The postman comes to her daily.
• The man repeated the same thing thrice.
• Your friend called again.
• Please walk forward.
• The horse ran away.
• My brother writes clearly.
• The army fought bravely.
• The mangoes are almost ripe.
• Are you keeping well?

Fill the blanks with correct pronouns.

• Shyam is my brother. ___ study in the same class
• Between Ritu and me, __ am the younger one.
• Do you see this book with my name on it? It is ___.
• Miss Gwen is our new class teacher. ___ is very sweet.
• While cutting vegetables, Mitu cut ___.
• The jury got divided among ___.
• I’m coming too. Please wait for __.
• Nobody but ___ was present.
• ___ book is better than the other.
• Is the mug ___? It was on your table.

Exercise 3 – Underline the Preposition

Identify the prepositions in the following passage.

Goldilocks used to live with her parents in a cabin near the forest. One day, she decided to go for a walk. She strolled down the lane that led to the forest and came across a cottage. Feeling intrigued, she decided to check whose house it was. She knocked on the door, but no one answered. Then she decided to go in and check. Once she came into the cottage, she saw three soup bowls kept on the table. Feeling hungry, she drank the soup out of the smallest bowl. She saw a flight of stairs that led to a room above. She decided to go and see the rooms. On reaching the rooms, she saw there were three beds. Feeling sleepy with all the walking and hot soup, she decided to take a nap and slept on the smallest bed. When she woke up, she saw three bears standing in front of her, and the smallest bear among them crying loudly. Terrified, she started screaming and ran past the bear family to reach her home.

Goldilocks used to live with her parents in a cabin near the forest. One day, she decided to go for a walk. She strolled  down the lane that led to the forest and came across a cottage. Feeling intrigued, she decided to check whose house it was. She knocked on the door, but no one answered. Then she decided to go in and check. Once she came into the cottage, she saw three soup bowls kept on the table. Feeling hungry, she drank the soup out of the smallest bowl. She saw a flight of stairs that led to a room above . She decided to go and see the rooms. On reaching the rooms, she saw there were three beds. Feeling sleepy with all the walking and hot soup, she decided to take a nap and slept on the smallest bed. When she woke up, she saw three bears standing in front of her, and the smallest bear among them crying loudly. Terrified, she started screaming and ran past the bear family to reach her home.

Go through the following sentences and identify the part of speech of the underlined words.

• Namitha is not coming today.
• My mom will be leaving to Bangalore tomorrow .
• The teacher asked the students to stand.
• He is my brother.
• There is a cat under the table.
• The clothes did not dry as it was raining all night.
• Sheena and her sister dance well .
• I am wearing a green dress for the party.
• Oh ! That is really sad.
• She is coming with me.
• Verb, adverb
• Preposition
• Conjunction
• Conjunction, adverb
• Interjection

What are parts of speech?

Words are classified into different classes called parts of speech depending on their usage.

What comes under parts of speech?

Noun, adjective, pronoun, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection come under parts of speech.

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Assignment 2: Parts-of-Speech Tagging (POS)

Assignment 2: parts-of-speech tagging (pos) #.

Welcome to the second assignment of Course 2 in the Natural Language Processing specialization. This assignment will develop skills in part-of-speech (POS) tagging, the process of assigning a part-of-speech tag (Noun, Verb, Adjective…) to each word in an input text. Tagging is difficult because some words can represent more than one part of speech at different times. They are Ambiguous . Let’s look at the following example:

The whole team played well . [adverb]

You are doing well for yourself. [adjective]

Well , this assignment took me forever to complete. [interjection]

The well is dry. [noun]

Tears were beginning to well in her eyes. [verb]

Distinguishing the parts-of-speech of a word in a sentence will help you better understand the meaning of a sentence. This would be critically important in search queries. Identifying the proper noun, the organization, the stock symbol, or anything similar would greatly improve everything ranging from speech recognition to search. By completing this assignment, you will:

Learn how parts-of-speech tagging works

Compute the transition matrix A in a Hidden Markov Model

Compute the emission matrix B in a Hidden Markov Model

Compute the Viterbi algorithm

Compute the accuracy of your own model

Important Note on Submission to the AutoGrader #

Before submitting your assignment to the AutoGrader, please make sure you are not doing the following:

You have not added any extra print statement(s) in the assignment.

You have not added any extra code cell(s) in the assignment.

You have not changed any of the function parameters.

You are not using any global variables inside your graded exercises. Unless specifically instructed to do so, please refrain from it and use the local variables instead.

You are not changing the assignment code where it is not required, like creating extra variables.

If you do any of the following, you will get something like, Grader not found (or similarly unexpected) error upon submitting your assignment. Before asking for help/debugging the errors in your assignment, check for these first. If this is the case, and you don’t remember the changes you have made, you can get a fresh copy of the assignment by following these instructions .

0 Data Sources

1 POS Tagging

1.1 Training

Exercise 01

1.2 Testing

Exercise 02

2 Hidden Markov Models

2.1 Generating Matrices

Exercise 03

Exercise 04

3 Viterbi Algorithm

3.1 Initialization

Exercise 05

3.2 Viterbi Forward

Exercise 06

3.3 Viterbi Backward

Exercise 07

4 Predicting on a data set

Exercise 08

Part 0: Data Sources #

This assignment will use two tagged data sets collected from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) .

Here is an example ‘tag-set’ or Part of Speech designation describing the two or three letter tag and their meaning.

One data set ( WSJ-2_21.pos ) will be used for training .

The other ( WSJ-24.pos ) for testing .

The tagged training data has been preprocessed to form a vocabulary ( hmm_vocab.txt ).

The words in the vocabulary are words from the training set that were used two or more times.

The vocabulary is augmented with a set of ‘unknown word tokens’, described below.

The training set will be used to create the emission, transmission and tag counts.

The test set (WSJ-24.pos) is read in to create y .

This contains both the test text and the true tag.

The test set has also been preprocessed to remove the tags to form test_words.txt .

This is read in and further processed to identify the end of sentences and handle words not in the vocabulary using functions provided in utils_pos.py .

This forms the list prep , the preprocessed text used to test our POS taggers.

A POS tagger will necessarily encounter words that are not in its datasets.

To improve accuracy, these words are further analyzed during preprocessing to extract available hints as to their appropriate tag.

For example, the suffix ‘ize’ is a hint that the word is a verb, as in ‘final-ize’ or ‘character-ize’.

A set of unknown-tokens, such as ‘–unk-verb–’ or ‘–unk-noun–’ will replace the unknown words in both the training and test corpus and will appear in the emission, transmission and tag data structures.

Implementation note:

For python 3.6 and beyond, dictionaries retain the insertion order.

Furthermore, their hash-based lookup makes them suitable for rapid membership tests.

If di is a dictionary, key in di will return True if di has a key key , else False .

The dictionary vocab will utilize these features.

Part 1: Parts-of-speech tagging #

Part 1.1 - training #.

You will start with the simplest possible parts-of-speech tagger and we will build up to the state of the art.

In this section, you will find the words that are not ambiguous.

For example, the word is is a verb and it is not ambiguous.

In the WSJ corpus, \(86\) % of the token are unambiguous (meaning they have only one tag)

About \(14\%\) are ambiguous (meaning that they have more than one tag)

Before you start predicting the tags of each word, you will need to compute a few dictionaries that will help you to generate the tables.

Transition counts #

The first dictionary is the transition_counts dictionary which computes the number of times each tag happened next to another tag.

This dictionary will be used to compute: $ \(P(t_i |t_{i-1}) \tag{1}\) $

This is the probability of a tag at position \(i\) given the tag at position \(i-1\) .

In order for you to compute equation 1, you will create a transition_counts dictionary where

The keys are (prev_tag, tag)

The values are the number of times those two tags appeared in that order.

Emission counts #

The second dictionary you will compute is the emission_counts dictionary. This dictionary will be used to compute:

In other words, you will use it to compute the probability of a word given its tag.

In order for you to compute equation 2, you will create an emission_counts dictionary where

The keys are (tag, word)

The values are the number of times that pair showed up in your training set.

Tag counts #

The last dictionary you will compute is the tag_counts dictionary.

The key is the tag

The value is the number of times each tag appeared.

Exercise 01 #

Instructions: Write a program that takes in the training_corpus and returns the three dictionaries mentioned above transition_counts , emission_counts , and tag_counts .

emission_counts : maps (tag, word) to the number of times it happened.

transition_counts : maps (prev_tag, tag) to the number of times it has appeared.

tag_counts : maps (tag) to the number of times it has occured.

Implementation note: This routine utilises defaultdict , which is a subclass of dict .

A standard Python dictionary throws a KeyError if you try to access an item with a key that is not currently in the dictionary.

In contrast, the defaultdict will create an item of the type of the argument, in this case an integer with the default value of 0.

See defaultdict .

Expected Output #

The ‘states’ are the Parts-of-speech designations found in the training data. They will also be referred to as ‘tags’ or POS in this assignment.

“NN” is noun, singular,

‘NNS’ is noun, plural.

In addition, there are helpful tags like ‘–s–’ which indicate a start of a sentence.

You can get a more complete description at Penn Treebank II tag set .

Part 1.2 - Testing #

Now you will test the accuracy of your parts-of-speech tagger using your emission_counts dictionary.

Given your preprocessed test corpus prep , you will assign a parts-of-speech tag to every word in that corpus.

Using the original tagged test corpus y , you will then compute what percent of the tags you got correct.

Exercise 02 #

Instructions: Implement predict_pos that computes the accuracy of your model.

This is a warm up exercise.

To assign a part of speech to a word, assign the most frequent POS for that word in the training set.

Then evaluate how well this approach works. Each time you predict based on the most frequent POS for the given word, check whether the actual POS of that word is the same. If so, the prediction was correct!

Calculate the accuracy as the number of correct predictions divided by the total number of words for which you predicted the POS tag.

88.9% is really good for this warm up exercise. With hidden markov models, you should be able to get 95% accuracy.

Part 2: Hidden Markov Models for POS #

Now you will build something more context specific. Concretely, you will be implementing a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) with a Viterbi decoder

The HMM is one of the most commonly used algorithms in Natural Language Processing, and is a foundation to many deep learning techniques you will see in this specialization.

In addition to parts-of-speech tagging, HMM is used in speech recognition, speech synthesis, etc.

By completing this part of the assignment you will get a 95% accuracy on the same dataset you used in Part 1.

The Markov Model contains a number of states and the probability of transition between those states.

In this case, the states are the parts-of-speech.

A Markov Model utilizes a transition matrix, A .

A Hidden Markov Model adds an observation or emission matrix B which describes the probability of a visible observation when we are in a particular state.

In this case, the emissions are the words in the corpus

The state, which is hidden, is the POS tag of that word.

Part 2.1 Generating Matrices #

Creating the ‘a’ transition probabilities matrix #.

Now that you have your emission_counts , transition_counts , and tag_counts , you will start implementing the Hidden Markov Model.

This will allow you to quickly construct the

A transition probabilities matrix.

and the B emission probabilities matrix.

You will also use some smoothing when computing these matrices.

Here is an example of what the A transition matrix would look like (it is simplified to 5 tags for viewing. It is 46x46 in this assignment.):

| A |…| RBS | RP | SYM | TO | UH|… | — ||—:————-| ———— | ———— | ——– | ———- |—- | RBS |…|2.217069e-06 |2.217069e-06 |2.217069e-06 |0.008870 |2.217069e-06|… | RP |…|3.756509e-07 |7.516775e-04 |3.756509e-07 |0.051089 |3.756509e-07|… | SYM |…|1.722772e-05 |1.722772e-05 |1.722772e-05 |0.000017 |1.722772e-05|… | TO |…|4.477336e-05 |4.472863e-08 |4.472863e-08 |0.000090 |4.477336e-05|… | UH |…|1.030439e-05 |1.030439e-05 |1.030439e-05 |0.061837 |3.092348e-02|… | … |…| … | … | … | … | … | …

Note that the matrix above was computed with smoothing.

Each cell gives you the probability to go from one part of speech to another.

In other words, there is a 4.47e-8 chance of going from parts-of-speech TO to RP .

The sum of each row has to equal 1, because we assume that the next POS tag must be one of the available columns in the table.

The smoothing was done as follows:

\(N\) is the total number of tags

\(C(t_{i-1}, t_{i})\) is the count of the tuple (previous POS, current POS) in transition_counts dictionary.

\(C(t_{i-1})\) is the count of the previous POS in the tag_counts dictionary.

\(\alpha\) is a smoothing parameter.

Exercise 03 #

Instructions: Implement the create_transition_matrix below for all tags. Your task is to output a matrix that computes equation 3 for each cell in matrix A .

Create the ‘B’ emission probabilities matrix #

Now you will create the B transition matrix which computes the emission probability.

You will use smoothing as defined below:

\(C(t_i, word_i)\) is the number of times \(word_i\) was associated with \(tag_i\) in the training data (stored in emission_counts dictionary).

\(C(t_i)\) is the number of times \(tag_i\) was in the training data (stored in tag_counts dictionary).

\(N\) is the number of words in the vocabulary

The matrix B is of dimension (num_tags, N), where num_tags is the number of possible parts-of-speech tags.

Here is an example of the matrix, only a subset of tags and words are shown:

B Emissions Probability Matrix (subset)

Exercise 04 #

Instructions: Implement the create_emission_matrix below that computes the B emission probabilities matrix. Your function takes in \(\alpha\) , the smoothing parameter, tag_counts , which is a dictionary mapping each tag to its respective count, the emission_counts dictionary where the keys are (tag, word) and the values are the counts. Your task is to output a matrix that computes equation 4 for each cell in matrix B .

Part 3: Viterbi Algorithm and Dynamic Programming #

In this part of the assignment you will implement the Viterbi algorithm which makes use of dynamic programming. Specifically, you will use your two matrices, A and B to compute the Viterbi algorithm. We have decomposed this process into three main steps for you.

Initialization - In this part you initialize the best_paths and best_probabilities matrices that you will be populating in feed_forward .

Feed forward - At each step, you calculate the probability of each path happening and the best paths up to that point.

Feed backward : This allows you to find the best path with the highest probabilities.

Part 3.1: Initialization #

You will start by initializing two matrices of the same dimension.

best_probs: Each cell contains the probability of going from one POS tag to a word in the corpus.

best_paths: A matrix that helps you trace through the best possible path in the corpus.

Exercise 05 #

Instructions : Write a program below that initializes the best_probs and the best_paths matrix.

Both matrices will be initialized to zero except for column zero of best_probs .

Column zero of best_probs is initialized with the assumption that the first word of the corpus was preceded by a start token (“–s–”).

This allows you to reference the A matrix for the transition probability

Here is how to initialize column 0 of best_probs :

The probability of the best path going from the start index to a given POS tag indexed by integer \(i\) is denoted by \(\textrm{best_probs}[s_{idx}, i]\) .

This is estimated as the probability that the start tag transitions to the POS denoted by index \(i\) : \(\mathbf{A}[s_{idx}, i]\) AND that the POS tag denoted by \(i\) emits the first word of the given corpus, which is \(\mathbf{B}[i, vocab[corpus[0]]]\) .

Note that vocab[corpus[0]] refers to the first word of the corpus (the word at position 0 of the corpus).

vocab is a dictionary that returns the unique integer that refers to that particular word.

Conceptually, it looks like this: \(\textrm{best_probs}[s_{idx}, i] = \mathbf{A}[s_{idx}, i] \times \mathbf{B}[i, corpus[0] ]\)

In order to avoid multiplying and storing small values on the computer, we’ll take the log of the product, which becomes the sum of two logs:

\(best\_probs[i,0] = log(A[s_{idx}, i]) + log(B[i, vocab[corpus[0]]\)

Also, to avoid taking the log of 0 (which is defined as negative infinity), the code itself will just set \(best\_probs[i,0] = float('-inf')\) when \(A[s_{idx}, i] == 0\)

So the implementation to initialize \(best\_probs\) looks like this:

\( \textrm{if}\ A[s_{idx}, i] <> 0 : best\_probs[i,0] = log(A[s_{idx}, i]) + log(B[i, vocab[corpus[0]]])\)

\( \textrm{if}\ A[s_{idx}, i] == 0 : best\_probs[i,0] = float('-inf')\)

Please use math.log to compute the natural logarithm.

The example below shows the initialization assuming the corpus starts with the phrase “Loss tracks upward”.

Represent infinity and negative infinity like this:

Part 3.2 Viterbi Forward #

In this part of the assignment, you will implement the viterbi_forward segment. In other words, you will populate your best_probs and best_paths matrices.

Walk forward through the corpus.

For each word, compute a probability for each possible tag.

Unlike the previous algorithm predict_pos (the ‘warm-up’ exercise), this will include the path up to that (word,tag) combination.

Here is an example with a three-word corpus “Loss tracks upward”:

Note, in this example, only a subset of states (POS tags) are shown in the diagram below, for easier reading.

In the diagram below, the first word “Loss” is already initialized.

The algorithm will compute a probability for each of the potential tags in the second and future words.

Compute the probability that the tag of the second work (‘tracks’) is a verb, 3rd person singular present (VBZ).

In the best_probs matrix, go to the column of the second word (‘tracks’), and row 40 (VBZ), this cell is highlighted in light orange in the diagram below.

Examine each of the paths from the tags of the first word (‘Loss’) and choose the most likely path.

An example of the calculation for one of those paths is the path from (‘Loss’, NN) to (‘tracks’, VBZ).

The log of the probability of the path up to and including the first word ‘Loss’ having POS tag NN is \(-14.32\) . The best_probs matrix contains this value -14.32 in the column for ‘Loss’ and row for ‘NN’.

Find the probability that NN transitions to VBZ. To find this probability, go to the A transition matrix, and go to the row for ‘NN’ and the column for ‘VBZ’. The value is \(4.37e-02\) , which is circled in the diagram, so add \(-14.32 + log(4.37e-02)\) .

Find the log of the probability that the tag VBS would ‘emit’ the word ‘tracks’. To find this, look at the ‘B’ emission matrix in row ‘VBZ’ and the column for the word ‘tracks’. The value \(4.61e-04\) is circled in the diagram below. So add \(-14.32 + log(4.37e-02) + log(4.61e-04)\) .

The sum of \(-14.32 + log(4.37e-02) + log(4.61e-04)\) is \(-25.13\) . Store \(-25.13\) in the best_probs matrix at row ‘VBZ’ and column ‘tracks’ (as seen in the cell that is highlighted in light orange in the diagram).

All other paths in best_probs are calculated. Notice that \(-25.13\) is greater than all of the other values in column ‘tracks’ of matrix best_probs , and so the most likely path to ‘VBZ’ is from ‘NN’. ‘NN’ is in row 20 of the best_probs matrix, so \(20\) is the most likely path.

Store the most likely path \(20\) in the best_paths table. This is highlighted in light orange in the diagram below.

The formula to compute the probability and path for the \(i^{th}\) word in the \(corpus\) , the prior word \(i-1\) in the corpus, current POS tag \(j\) , and previous POS tag \(k\) is:

\(\mathrm{prob} = \mathbf{best\_prob}_{k, i-1} + \mathrm{log}(\mathbf{A}_{k, j}) + \mathrm{log}(\mathbf{B}_{j, vocab(corpus_{i})})\)

where \(corpus_{i}\) is the word in the corpus at index \(i\) , and \(vocab\) is the dictionary that gets the unique integer that represents a given word.

\(\mathrm{path} = k\)

where \(k\) is the integer representing the previous POS tag.

Exercise 06 #

Instructions: Implement the viterbi_forward algorithm and store the best_path and best_prob for every possible tag for each word in the matrices best_probs and best_tags using the pseudo code below.

• Remember that when accessing emission matrix B, the column index is the unique integer ID associated with the word. It can be accessed by using the 'vocab' dictionary, where the key is the word, and the value is the unique integer ID for that word.

Run the viterbi_forward function to fill in the best_probs and best_paths matrices.

Note that this will take a few minutes to run. There are about 30,000 words to process.

Part 3.3 Viterbi backward #

Now you will implement the Viterbi backward algorithm.

The Viterbi backward algorithm gets the predictions of the POS tags for each word in the corpus using the best_paths and the best_probs matrices.

The example below shows how to walk backwards through the best_paths matrix to get the POS tags of each word in the corpus. Recall that this example corpus has three words: “Loss tracks upward”.

POS tag for ‘upward’ is RB

Select the the most likely POS tag for the last word in the corpus, ‘upward’ in the best_prob table.

Look for the row in the column for ‘upward’ that has the largest probability.

Notice that in row 28 of best_probs , the estimated probability is -34.99, which is larger than the other values in the column. So the most likely POS tag for ‘upward’ is RB an adverb, at row 28 of best_prob .

The variable z is an array that stores the unique integer ID of the predicted POS tags for each word in the corpus. In array z, at position 2, store the value 28 to indicate that the word ‘upward’ (at index 2 in the corpus), most likely has the POS tag associated with unique ID 28 (which is RB ).

The variable pred contains the POS tags in string form. So pred at index 2 stores the string RB .

POS tag for ‘tracks’ is VBZ

The next step is to go backward one word in the corpus (‘tracks’). Since the most likely POS tag for ‘upward’ is RB , which is uniquely identified by integer ID 28, go to the best_paths matrix in column 2, row 28. The value stored in best_paths , column 2, row 28 indicates the unique ID of the POS tag of the previous word. In this case, the value stored here is 40, which is the unique ID for POS tag VBZ (verb, 3rd person singular present).

So the previous word at index 1 of the corpus (‘tracks’), most likely has the POS tag with unique ID 40, which is VBZ .

In array z , store the value 40 at position 1, and for array pred , store the string VBZ to indicate that the word ‘tracks’ most likely has POS tag VBZ .

POS tag for ‘Loss’ is NN

In best_paths at column 1, the unique ID stored at row 40 is 20. 20 is the unique ID for POS tag NN .

In array z at position 0, store 20. In array pred at position 0, store NN .

Exercise 07 #

Implement the viterbi_backward algorithm, which returns a list of predicted POS tags for each word in the corpus.

Note that the numbering of the index positions starts at 0 and not 1.

m is the number of words in the corpus.

So the indexing into the corpus goes from 0 to m - 1 .

Also, the columns in best_probs and best_paths are indexed from 0 to m - 1

In Step 1: Loop through all the rows (POS tags) in the last entry of best_probs and find the row (POS tag) with the maximum value. Convert the unique integer ID to a tag (a string representation) using the list states .

Referring to the three-word corpus described above:

z[2] = 28 : For the word ‘upward’ at position 2 in the corpus, the POS tag ID is 28. Store 28 in z at position 2.

states[28] is ‘RB’: The POS tag ID 28 refers to the POS tag ‘RB’.

pred[2] = 'RB' : In array pred , store the POS tag for the word ‘upward’.

Starting at the last column of best_paths, use best_probs to find the most likely POS tag for the last word in the corpus.

Then use best_paths to find the most likely POS tag for the previous word.

Update the POS tag for each word in z and in preds .

Referring to the three-word example from above, read best_paths at column 2 and fill in z at position 1. z[1] = best_paths[z[2],2]

The small test following the routine prints the last few words of the corpus and their states to aid in debug.

Expected Output:

Now you just have to compare the predicted labels to the true labels to evaluate your model on the accuracy metric!

Part 4: Predicting on a data set #

Compute the accuracy of your prediction by comparing it with the true y labels.

pred is a list of predicted POS tags corresponding to the words of the test_corpus .

Exercise 08 #

Implement a function to compute the accuracy of the viterbi algorithm’s POS tag predictions.

To split y into the word and its tag you can use y.split() .

Congratulations you were able to classify the parts-of-speech with 95% accuracy.

Key Points and overview #

In this assignment you learned about parts-of-speech tagging.

In this assignment, you predicted POS tags by walking forward through a corpus and knowing the previous word.

There are other implementations that use bidirectional POS tagging.

Bidirectional POS tagging requires knowing the previous word and the next word in the corpus when predicting the current word’s POS tag.

Bidirectional POS tagging would tell you more about the POS instead of just knowing the previous word.

Since you have learned to implement the unidirectional approach, you have the foundation to implement other POS taggers used in industry.

References #

“Speech and Language Processing”, Dan Jurafsky and James H. Martin

We would like to thank Melanie Tosik for her help and inspiration

As encampments sprout on Wisconsin campuses, here's what to know about student protest rights

Across the U.S., college students are building "Gaza Solidarity Encampments " to demonstrate support for Palestinians. But as tensions rise, many students have wondered what rights they have to demonstrate on the campuses where they live and pay tuition.

The Pro-Palestinian rallies gained traction earlier this month when student organizers at Columbia University established an encampment on the main lawn. On Monday, University of Wisconsin students in Milwaukee and Madison joined the movement , calling on the university system to divest from companies that support weapons manufacturing and Israel.

The Journal Sentinel spoke to American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin staff attorney R. Timothy Muth for insights on the rights of student protesters. Here's what you need to know:

What are the protection differences between an encampment and a regular protest or march?

When protesters set up an encampment, they often set up tents and sleeping quarters near or within the organization they are protesting.

According to Wisconsin law, no person may picnic or camp on university lands, except in areas specifically designated as picnic or camping grounds. These rules include pitching tents or overnight use of sleeping bags, blankets, makeshift shelters, motor homes, campers or camp trailers on university property.

Additionally, according to Wisconsin law, universities and other government organizations are allowed to place "reasonable time, place and manner restrictions" on speech or protest activity. This means that they can regulate when, where, and how expression takes place, as long as their restrictions are content-neutral, narrowly tailored and provide sufficient alternatives to express ideas.

How do protest rules differ on a public vs. private campus?

The rules and regulations for protest at a public university need to comply with the First Amendment, Muth said, meaning that individuals have the right to assemble and express their views.

However, according to Wisconsin law, private property owners can set rules for speech on their property. A private university could enact a wide variety of restrictions, some of which could be perceived as unreasonable by protesters, because they are granted more flexibility to prohibit some speech and the locations where protesters are permitted to demonstrate.

If a police officer asks for the name of a protester, but is not placing them under arrest, does the protester have to respond?

According to Muth, a person is not required to answer any questions of law enforcement since they have rights under the Fifth Amendment to not speak. If a person is being arrested, they have the right to state that they do not want to answer questions without an attorney present.

However, Muth recommends that student protesters confirm whether or not their campuses have established rules which require them to identify themselves to campus security, as some private institutions might have a rule in place to maximize student safety.

In most cases, like at UW-Madison, campus policies do not supersede state law and protesters have a right to not respond to law enforcement.

Are there rules that govern the behavior of opposing groups at a protest?

Police are permitted to keep antagonistic groups separated, but, according to state law, the groups should be allowed to be within sight and sound of one another. Protesters of opposing groups are allowed to speak to and shout at one another during rallies and demonstrations. According to Muth, a protester cannot be arrested for exhibiting those behaviors.

At a protest, Muth said, "the police are responsible for protecting each group and their expression."

What types of speech are not protected?

Though almost all speech is protected at a protest, there is an exception for so-called "fighting words" that have the potential to cause harm to an individual or group.

This type of speech is an incendiary, obscene or defamatory statement that aims to incite violent action. This speech is directed at a specific individual or group that create an imminent threat or incite violence.

Protesters should avoid using this language, as it could lead to arrest or removal from the protest premises.

What rules should people be aware of when capturing video recording or photos at a protest?

Generally, the courts state that if a person is in a public space, they do not have any particular expectation of privacy. Therefore, individuals can be photographed or surveilled while walking down a public street, protesting, or partaking in any activities within a public area.

Campus security, the police, and counter-demonstrators are legally allowed to take photos of protesters, according to Muth.

Additionally, he said, "If the police are arresting people or using force, protesters have the First Amendment right to to record and photograph. We generally encourage people not to photograph identifiable pictures of protesters who have not agreed to be photographed."

Do police officers have the right to view photos and videos captured at an event?

Muth said protesters who want to guarantee that their photos and videos are not accessible to law enforcement should establish a lock or password on their phone before attending a protest.

"Under the Fourth Amendment, it is prohibited for the police to search your phone without a warrant, but that doesn't mean they won't look through an unlocked phone," Muth said.

If protesters are concerned about privacy, Muth said that it is important to evaluate their personal approach to digital security. In addition to locking phones, anything that protesters post publicly to social media can be evaluated by law enforcement following a protest and used as evidence.

Are there any restrictions when it comes to carrying weapons while at a protest?

Wisconsin law allows for the carrying of firearms in a wide variety of settings. However, according to the Wisconsin Administrative Code UWS 18.10(3) , individuals are prohibited from "carrying, possessing, or using any dangerous weapon on university lands or in university buildings or facilities, unless it is for law enforcement purposes or the person receives written approval of the chief administrative officer."

This rule applies to all lands controlled by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System. At private institutions like Marquette University, many schools prohibit the possession of weapons in campus buildings, offices and residence halls.

What other safety precautions should student protesters should keep in mind?

If protesters think there is a possibility of them getting arrested, Muth said they should memorize a phone number for somebody who can pick them up from the police station or contact a lawyer on their behalf.

If protesters believe their rights have been violated, the ACLU recommends they complete the following steps:

• Write down everything they can remember, including officers' badge and patrol car numbers and the agency they work for
• Get contact information for witnesses
• Take photographs of all injuries
• File a written complaint with the agency's internal affairs division or civilian compliant board

Tamia Fowlkes is a Public Investigator reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Contact her at [email protected].

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Congress Passed a Bill That Could Ban TikTok. Now Comes the Hard Part.

President Biden has signed the bill to force a sale of the video app or ban it. Now the law faces court challenges, a shortage of qualified buyers and Beijing’s hostility.

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By Sapna Maheshwari and David McCabe

Sapna Maheshwari reported from New York, and David McCabe from Washington.

A bill that would force a sale of TikTok by its Chinese owner, ByteDance — or ban it outright — was passed by the Senate on Tuesday and signed into law Wednesday by President Biden.

Now the process is likely to get even more complicated.

Congress passed the measure citing national security concerns because of TikTok’s Chinese ties. Both lawmakers and security experts have said there are risks that the Chinese government could lean on ByteDance for access to sensitive data belonging to its 170 million U.S. users or to spread propaganda.

The law would allow TikTok to continue to operate in the United States if ByteDance sold it within 270 days, or about nine months, a time frame that the president could extend to a year.

The measure is likely to face legal challenges, as well as possible resistance from Beijing, which could block the sale or export of the technology. It’s also unclear who has the resources to buy TikTok, since it will carry a hefty price tag.

The issue could take months or even years to settle, during which the app would probably continue to function for U.S. consumers.

“It’s going to be a royal mess,” said Anupam Chander, a visiting scholar at the Institute for Rebooting Social Media at Harvard and an expert on the global regulation of new technologies.

TikTok pledged to challenge the law. “Rest assured, we aren’t going anywhere,” its chief executive, Shou Chew, said in a video posted to the platform. “We are confident, and we will keep fighting for your rights in the courts.”

Here’s what to expect next.

TikTok’s Day in Court

TikTok is likely to start by challenging the measure in the courts.

“I think that’s the one certainty: There will be litigation,” said Jeff Kosseff, an associate professor of cybersecurity law at the Naval Academy.

TikTok’s case will probably lean on the First Amendment, legal experts said. The company is expected to argue that a forced sale could violate its users’ free speech rights because a new owner could change the app’s content policies and reshape what users are able to freely share on the platform.

“Thankfully, we have a Constitution in this country, and people’s First Amendment rights are very important,” Michael Beckerman, TikTok’s vice president of public policy, said in an interview with a creator on the platform last week. “We’ll continue to fight for you and all the other users on TikTok.”

Other groups, like the American Civil Liberties Union, which has been a vocal opponent of the bill, may also join the legal fight. A spokeswoman for the A.C.L.U. said on Tuesday that the group was still weighing its role in potential litigation challenging the law.

The government will probably need to make a strong case that ByteDance’s ownership of TikTok makes it necessary to limit speech because of national security concerns, the legal experts said.

TikTok already has a strong record in similar First Amendment battles. When he was president, Donald J. Trump tried to force a sale or ban of the app in 2020, but federal judges blocked the effort because it would have had the effect of shutting down a “platform for expressive activity.” Montana tried to ban TikTok in the state last year because of the app’s Chinese ownership, but a different federal judge ruled against the state law for similar reasons.

Only one narrower TikTok restriction has survived a court challenge. The governor of Texas announced a ban of the app on state government devices and networks in 2022 because of its Chinese ownership and related data privacy concerns. Professors at public universities challenged the ban in court last year, saying it blocked them from doing research on the app. A federal judge upheld the state ban in December, finding it was a “reasonable restriction” in light of Texas’ concerns and the narrow scope affecting only state employees.

Small Buyer Pool

Analysts estimate that the price for the U.S. portion of TikTok could be tens of billions of dollars.

ByteDance itself is one of the world’s most valuable start-ups , with an estimated worth of $225 billion, according to CB Insights, a firm that tracks venture capital and start-ups.

The steep price tag would limit the list of who could afford TikTok. Tech giants like Meta or Google would probably be blocked from an acquisition because of antitrust concerns.

Private equity firms or other investors could form a group to raise enough money to buy TikTok. Former Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in March that he wanted to build such a group. And anyone who can pony up the money still has to pass muster with the U.S. government, which needs to sign off on any purchase.

Few others have expressed public interest in buying the app.

The last time the government tried to force ByteDance to sell TikTok in 2020, the company held talks with Microsoft and the software company Oracle. (Oracle and Walmart ultimately appeared to reach an agreement with ByteDance, but the deal never materialized .)

A Complicated Divestment

Even if TikTok approaches a sale, the process of separating TikTok from ByteDance is likely to be messy.

The legislation prohibits any connection between ByteDance and TikTok after a sale. Yet TikTok employees use ByteDance software in their communications, and the company’s employees are global, with executives in Singapore, Dublin, Los Angeles and Mountain View, Calif.

It’s unclear if ByteDance would consider selling TikTok’s entire global footprint or just its U.S. operations, where the company has nearly 7,000 employees.

Breaking off just the U.S. portion of TikTok could prove particularly challenging. The app's recommendation algorithm, which figures out what users like and serves up content, is key to the success of the app. But Chinese engineers work on that algorithm, which ByteDance owns.

During Mr. Trump’s attempt to force a sale in 2020, the Chinese government issued export restrictions that appeared to require its regulators to grant permission before ByteDance algorithms could be sold or licensed to outsiders.

The uncertainty around the export of the algorithm and other ByteDance technology could also deter interested buyers.

China’s Unpredictable Role

The Chinese government could also try to block a TikTok sale.

Chinese officials criticized a similar bill after the House passed it in March, although they have not yet said whether they would block a divestment. About a year ago, China’s commerce ministry said it would “firmly oppose” a sale of the app by ByteDance.

Chinese export regulations appear to cover TikTok’s content recommendation algorithm, giving Beijing a say in whether ByteDance could sell or license the app’s most valuable feature.

It “is not a foregone conclusion by any means” that China will allow a sale, said Lindsay Gorman, a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund who specializes in emerging tech and China.

China may retaliate against American companies. On Friday, China’s Cyberspace Administration asked Apple to remove Meta’s WhatsApp and Threads from its App Store, according to the iPhone manufacturer. The Chinese government cited national security reasons in making the demand.

Sapna Maheshwari reports on TikTok, technology and emerging media companies. She has been a business reporter for more than a decade. Contact her at [email protected] . More about Sapna Maheshwari

David McCabe covers tech policy. He joined The Times from Axios in 2019. More about David McCabe