Part of
speech
Function or "job"
Example words
Example sentences
1. Verb
action or state
(to) be, have, do, like, work,
sing, can, must
I am a student.
I like pizza.
2. Noun
thing or person
pen, dog, work, music, town,
London, teacher, John
This is my dog. He
lives in my house. We
live in Melbourne.
3. Adjective
describes a noun
a/an, the, 10, some, good,
big, red, well, interesting
My dog is big.
I like loud music.
4. Adverb
describes a verb,
adjective or adverb
quickly, silently, well, badly,
very, really
My dog eats quickly.
When he is
very hungry, he
eats really quickly.
5. Pronoun
replaces a noun
I, you, he, she, some
Tara is a model. She is
beautiful.
5.b Possessive
Pronoun
Show ownership
Mine, ours, yours, hers, his,
its
That is your car That
car is yours.
6. Preposition
links a noun to another
word
to, at, after, on, but
We went to school on
Monday.
7. Conjunction
joins clauses or
and, but, when, or, nor, for,
I like dogs and cats.
sentences or words,
make comparisons
-linking words
than, either or, although, if,
as, yet, that, when, since,
while, until, unless, because
I dont like cats or
dogs.
I like dogs but I don't
like cats.
8. Interjection
short exclamation,
sometimes inserted into
a sentence
oh!, ouch!, hi!, well
Ouch! That hurts!
Hi! How are you?
Well, I don't know.
Other
grammar
Characteristics /
functions
Example words
Example sentences
9. Articles
Shows if we are talking
about a certain thing or
one of many things
(definite or indefinite)
the, a, an
I saw the moon last
night.
10. Sentences
11.
Homophones
I saw a star last night.
Starts with capital letter,
includes subject and
verb, ends with
punctuation . ? or !
Words that sound the
same, but have different
meanings and are spelled
differently.
The world is round.
(cap) (subject) (verb)
Their/there/theyre,
to/too/two, your/youre,
its/its, I/eye,
weather/whether
Theyre parking their
car over there.
Youre taller than your
sister.
12. Root
words
Words and word stems
that can have suffixes &
prefixes added to it to
amend meaning.
View, train, act, fish, print,
do, decide
13. Prefixes
Groups of letters added
to the start of words to
build new words
Inter-, un-, dis-, de-, tele-,
inter-, trans-, re-,
Tidy untidy. My
room is untidy.
14. Suffixes
Groups of letters added
to the ends of words to
build new words
- ing, -ist, -ery, -ary, -est, hood, -able, -ist, -en
Fat fattest. That is
the fattest pig in the
pen.
Punctuation
Characteristics /
functions
Example words
Example sentences
15.
Contractions
A short way of writing
two words joined
together. Uses an
apostrophe to indicate
missing letter
Isnt, doesnt, wont hell,
Ill, youre, theyve, shes,
Id, cant
I cant understand why
hed do that.
16. Commas
1.separate items in a list
2.to separate two or
more adjectives
Shell be alright after
shes had a rest.
1.I like music, sport,
science and art.
2. He is funny, tall,
smart and handsome. /
describing a noun /
adverbs modifying a
verb.
He slowly, quietly and
cautiously opened the
door.
3.separate clauses in
compound sentences
3. Sally was going to
take the train, but Joe
was driving to the city.
4.subordinate less
important information
4.My cat, Whiskers, is
fat and lazy.
Your sister, Kelly, was
at the party.
17.
Apostrophes
1.in contractions (see
#15)
2.to show ownership or
belonging
s, s
1.Theyre mine.
2.We are at Kates
house.