Overview

One of the keys to writing grammatical sentences is understanding grammar. The ability to identify the parts of speech is a basic skill that forms a platform for your writing skills. The basic parts of speech are nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions, and interjections.

Nouns identify people, places, things, and ideas. Apostrophes can be used with nouns to show possession. Pronouns take the place of nouns, groups of words acting as nouns, and other pronouns. Pronouns refer to antecedents, which are words or groups of words identified by the pronouns. Verbs express actions or states of being.

Additional parts of speech are not required in sentences, but they make your writing more specific by describing or limiting the meaning of your text. Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns. Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs. Prepositions show the relationships of nouns and pronouns to other words in sentences. Conjunctions join single words or groups of words. Interjections are words or phrases that express emotion or exclamation.