Quick summary
Every word in a sentence does a job. Grammar puts these jobs into 8 groups called the Parts of Speech. If you know the job of a word, you can make correct sentences, spot errors and answer grammar questions fast.
Hindi help: Parts of Speech = शब्दों के भेद. Marathi help: शब्दांच्या जाती.
The 8 parts of speech
| Part | Job (what it does) | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Noun (नाम) | names a person, place, thing or idea | Ravi, Nagpur, pen, honesty |
| Pronoun (सर्वनाम) | used in place of a noun | he, she, it, they, we |
| Verb (क्रियापद / क्रिया) | shows action or state | run, write, is, have |
| Adjective (विशेषण) | describes a noun | tall, red, five, clever |
| Adverb (क्रियाविशेषण) | tells how, when, where about a verb, adjective or adverb | slowly, today, here, very |
| Preposition (शब्दयोगी अव्यय) | shows the link of a noun with other words | in, on, at, under, with |
| Conjunction (उभयान्वयी अव्यय / समुच्चयबोधक) | joins words or sentences | and, but, or, because |
| Interjection (केवलप्रयोगी अव्यय / विस्मयादिबोधक) | shows sudden feeling | Oh!, Wow!, Alas!, Hurray! |
Key points
- Kinds of noun: proper (Pune), common (city), collective (team, flock), material (gold, wood), abstract (love, courage).
- Kinds of pronoun: personal (I, you), possessive (mine, yours), reflexive (myself), demonstrative (this, those), interrogative (who, which), relative (who, which, that).
- A verb can be main (eat) or helping (is, am, are, was, has, will, can).
- Adjectives of number and quantity: five boys, some milk, much water, many books.
- Many adverbs end in -ly (quickly), but not all (fast, soon, well).
- One word can be a different part of speech in different sentences: "I run daily" (verb) – "I went for a run" (noun).
Language study
- Example sentence broken into parts: "Oh! the little boy quickly ran to his mother and cried."
- Oh – interjection, the – article (a kind of adjective), little – adjective, boy – noun, quickly – adverb, ran – verb, to – preposition, his – pronoun (possessive), mother – noun, and – conjunction, cried – verb.
5 important questions
Q1. Identify the part of speech of the underlined word: "She sings sweetly."
Adverb – it tells how she sings.
Q2. Pick out the conjunction: "I was tired but I finished my homework."
But.
Q3. Write the abstract noun of "brave" and "honest".
Bravery, honesty.
Q4. "The team is playing well." What kind of noun is "team"?
Collective noun – it names a group.
Q5. Use "light" as a noun and as an adjective.
Noun: Switch on the light. Adjective: This bag is light.
Exam tip
To find the part of speech, ask what job the word does in THAT sentence, not what it usually is.