All words belong to a specific word class. The words in each class either function the same way, or belong to the same type. Smells like classic segregation, but who am I to judge? Back in the day, we called them parts of speech.
These are the eight main parts of spee…sorry, word classes.
- noun: person, place, thing, or idea (i.e. he, car, home, school, joy, peace), e.g., The dog was hit.
- pronoun: takes the place of a noun (his, she, they,), e.g., He was hit by a car.
- verb: action that takes place, e.g., The driver sped away.
- adjective: describes the noun, e.g., The drunk driver sped away.
- adverb: describes the verb or another adverb, e.g., The drunk driver sped away dangerously.
- preposition: defines the relationship between noun or pronoun and other words in the sentence, e.g., i.e. as, of, despite, unlike, via. The driver sped away without regard for the dog’s life.
- conjunction: connects words, thoughts, or ideas in a sentence or paragraph, for-and-nor-but-or-yet-so, FANBOYS, e.g., The driver sped away, but witnesses were able to identify his license plate number.
- interjection: any emotional greeting (or exclamation), e.g., Stop him!
