How to identify parts of speech

Once you have learned about nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, you will be able to identify them in sentences and tell them apart from each other. Some words can be used as more than one part of speech. This is particularly true of words that can be both nouns and verbs. Pay attention to how a word is used in a sentence before you decide if it is a noun, verb, adverb or adjective.

For example, in the sentence below, book is used as a verb.

Will you book us a court for 3 pm?

But in the following sentence, book is a noun.

I need to look for my math book. Remember that verbs show action or state of being.

Nouns identify a person, place or thing. There are common nouns and proper nouns. Proper nouns are names of people, places or events, which are always capitalized.

Uncle Joe lives in San Francisco.

Adjectives and adverbs describe other words. Adjectives describe nouns or pronouns. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Many adjectives can be made into adverbs by adding an –ly ending.

His total bowling score was 145. (Total is an adjective.) That is totally awesome! (Totally is an adverb.)