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Students often ask me how to identify parts of speech. Well, imagine you’re back in high school. Students tend to form cliques—groups that “hang out” together. The athletes stick with the athletes, the cheerleaders with cheerleaders, and the chess club huddles quietly in their corner.
Parts of speech are like these cliques: they naturally group together into phrases. Each phrase has a leader (the head of the clique) and its buddies—modifiers and objects of phrases that stick close, adding details and supporting.
If you can spot the cliques (phrases), their leader (the core part of speech), and their hangout buddies (modifiers), identifying parts of speech becomes easy. Let’s dive in and break this down!
The Eight Parts of Speech
In English, there are three main roles in a sentence.
- You have the core pieces; these are nouns and verbs.
- There are modifiers which support and add detail to the main pieces. Modifiers can perform their task directly or indirectly.
- Then, there are the connectors. They help us sort and link ideas together.
- Some of the parts of speech can crossover to integrate with other phrase types.
When you understand the roles each part of speech plays in building a sentences, you suddenly realize how to identify parts of speech – easily.
1. The Core Parts of Speech and their Relationships
What makes a part of speech a core piece is that it the main building block in a sentence. When you put the core parts of speech together, you form a sentence.
If you want to learn how to identify parts of speech, you look for the core parts in the sentence structure. They are like planets in the solar system and they have moons orbiting around them. These would be the modifiers.
Let’s identify the core parts of speech first. Then we’ll look at the modifiers that orbit around them.
Defining Nouns, their Classifications, Roles, and Relationships
The noun is a core part of speech although it can also play subordinate roles in the sentence.
Definition: Nouns name people, places, things, or ideas.
Classifications: Nouns fall under different classifications and learning more about these classifications will help you understand the parts that associate with nouns.
Type of Noun | Meaning & Relationships | Examples |
Common | Words that represent people, places, and things in an unofficial or informal way. They are often preceded by articles or other types of determiners. | a dog, a table, a mountain |
Proper | Titles or official names for people, places, and things. Some official names carry the definite article (the) while others do not. | The Eiffel Tower, William Shakespeare, the Amazon River |
Abstract | These are nouns that cannot be experienced by any of the 5 senses. Many abstract nouns are not countable, meaning they don’t come with articles. However, other determiners like indefinite articles or possessive adjectives may be needed instead. | love, freedom, intelligence |
Concrete | Nouns that can be sensed by any of the 5 senses. Concrete nouns, like common nouns, often come with an article or other determiner. | an apple, a book, a car |
Countable | Countable nouns are nouns that can be counted. Every countable noun is accompanied by an article (or some other determiner). | chairs, oranges, pencils |
Uncountable | These are nouns that cannot be counted either because they are abstract or due to their physical qualities. | water, sand, information |
Collective | Collective nouns are a group, organization, team, or collective of some kind, made up of individual things or members. | a team, a flock, a committee |
Role: Nouns are at the center of noun phrases and typically act as subjects or objects in sentences. Additionally, nouns can also be the object of a prepositional phrase.
Relationships: The noun sits at the heart of the noun phrase and can take direct or indirect modifiers.
Now, let’s move on to verbs.
Defining Verbs, their Classifications, Roles, and Relationships
Definition: Verbs express the action of the sentence.
Classifications: There are a number of classifications for verbs. Moreover, each type of verb has a different pattern that follows it.
Type of Verb | Meaning & Relationships | Examples |
Intransitive Verbs | Subject + Verb | No object | We + win. |
Transitive Verbs | Subject + Verb + Object | We + beat + them. |
Linking Verbs | Subject + Linking Verb + Noun or Adjective Object | The soup + smells + delicious |
Verbs with Infinitive Objects | Subject + Verb + Verb Object Phrase | I + tried + to fix the computer. |
Verbs with Gerund Objects | Subject + Verb + Verb Object Phrase | They + avoided + paying the full amount. |
Verbs with two objects | Subject + Verb + Direct Object (Whom) + Indirect Object (What) | I + will send + you + an email. |
Role: A verb’s role in the sentence is to start the predicate, and it sits between the subject and object nouns. We native speakers learn this concept early on in school, as my memory goes all the way back to 2nd grade (7 years old).
This means knowing how to identify parts of speech, truly starts with knowing simple sentence formation. Once we have finished introducing the other parts of speech, we will proceed with parts of speech and sentence structure.
Relationships: The verb can be modified both directly and indirectly by adverbs and adverbial phrases that express the how, where, when, and why. In addition, verbs can also be part of a verb phrase that includes a pronoun or a noun phrase in the predicate.
Defining Pronouns, their Classifications, Roles, and Relationships
Definition: Pronouns replace a noun that we have previously established.
Classifications: There are many classes of pronouns, some of which occupy the same spaces that nouns would. On the other hand, other pronouns tend to act as finishers in a sentence, coming in right at the end. Observe the table below.
Type of Pronoun | Relationships | Examples |
Subject Pronouns | Serves as the subject. | She is reading a fascinating book. |
Object Pronouns | Serves as object of a verb or preposition. | Sarah disinvited him to her party. |
Possessive Pronouns | Serves as the object of a verb or preposition. | Don’t like at mine. |
Reflexive Pronouns | Serves as the object of a verb or preposition. | I will see myself out. |
Demonstrative Pronouns | Can serve as either the subject or object. | This is the best Christmas ever! |
Relative Pronouns | Acts as a connector and indirect modifier. | She got the job that she’s always wanted. |
Interrogative Pronouns | Starts a specific question. | Who is coming to the event? |
Indefinite pronouns | Can serve as either the subject or object. | Everything worked out in the end. |
Role: A pronouns may be the subject or object of a sentence all by itself. That is because it has no modifiers. Conversely, other pronouns such as relative pronouns may act as a linking word to another clause. In such cases, the pronoun would then classify as a connector.
Relationships: None
2. How to Identify The Modifiers and the things they Modify
If you’re here to learn English sentence structure, one word you must get comfortable with is modifier. It is such a prominent word in the English native speaker classroom.
Modifiers associate with the core parts of speech – nouns and verbs. They describe their associate in different ways. For starters, there are two ways we can modify nouns and verbs:
1. We can modify directly.
These kinds of modifiers come directly before the noun or verb.
2. We can modify indirectly.
Indirect modifiers generally follow the thing it modifies.
Let’s introduce the first type of modifier (the one whose job it is to introduce nouns).
How to Identify Determiners
Definition: A determiner is a kind of pre-adjective since many of their class types have the word “adjective” in their names. It associates with a noun as its (the noun’s) first modifier.
Classifications: There are 5 classes of determiner including: numbers, articles, quantifiers, possessives adjectives, and demonstrative adjectives.
Type of Determiner | Relationships | Examples |
Article | Expresses the definiteness or indefiniteness of the noun. Indefinite means one of a possible many. Definite means the one. | A fight broke out in the shop today. |
Number | No need to explain what numbers do. | Six matches were postponed because of the rain. |
Indefinite Adjective | Expresses the number or amount in a non-specific way. | Every student passed the exam. |
Possessive Adjective | Expresses the possession or connection to a person. | Your appearance has changed. |
Demonstrative Adjective | Demonstrates what and where the thing is. | That price is too expensive. |
Role: As a pre-modifier, determiners come before most nouns. They express the number or amount, definiteness, specificity, or possession of the noun. If there are also adjectives present, the determiner comes at the head of the noun phrase.
Relationship: Determiners associate with nouns. It is their “best friend for life.” You will find a determiner accompany most nouns.
How to Identify Adjectives
Definition: Adjectives are noun modifiers. They tell us additional information about the noun.
Role: An adjective can modify a noun (or pronoun) in one of two ways.
- It comes directly before its noun.
- It comes in the predicate, describing the subject noun or pronoun by way of a linking verb.
Relationships: They are direct modifiers of nouns. This means they come directly before the noun. You can modify with any number of adjectives before the noun.
Adjective | Meaning & Relationships | Examples |
Adjective | Modifies the noun directly. Comes after the determiner and before the noun. | Congratulations! You have a healthy baby boy! |
If you notice the example sentence in the table above, you will see the adjective “healthy” followed by a noun “baby” then the object noun “boy.” So, why is “baby” highlighted as an adjective when it’s a noun?
The answer is “baby” is a compound noun as it is modifying the noun after it. This is called a compound noun where the first noun classifies the second one, expressing what kind or type.
I look at it a different way. Compound nouns and possessive nouns (‘s) occupy the adjective position and directly modify nouns. In my view, that makes them “adjectives.”
Adjective | Meaning & Relationships | Examples |
Compound Noun | Modifies the noun directly. Classifies the noun by expressing what kind. | I need a phone cover to protect against constant drops. |
Possessive Noun (‘s) | Modifies the noun directly. Expresses the possession or connection to a person. | You can hear my neighbor’s dog all the way down the street. |
How to identify Adverbs
Definition: Adverbs are verb modifiers. They tell us the how, where, when, or why of the verb in the sentence. They can also modify adjectives or other adverbs.
Role: Adverbs are the wildcards of English sentence building as they play multiple roles.
- They modify verbs.
- They modify other modifiers.
- They frame a sentence (modifying the whole clause or sentence from the front).
- They play a key role in maintaining word order after the base phrase.
- They act as connectors when modifying from the front (however, additionally, etc.)
Relationships and Role: Adverbs are quite versatile (or flexible) and they can relate with different types of phrases. You can find an adverb operating in:
- verb phrases when modifying the verb
- noun phrases when modifying an adjective
- Prepositional phrases when modifying an adjective before the noun object of the phrase
- the tail end of the sentence amongst other adverbs or adverbial phrases.
All in all, adverbs are quite flexible and participate in many relations within a sentence.
How to Identify Prepositions
Definition: A preposition expresses the location, timing, direction, or relationship of a noun to another noun or verb.
Role: Many non-natives focus on the parts of speech that follows a preposition – a noun or gerund phrase. However, the more important relationship is what it is modifying. That’s because its role is primarily as a modifier.
As an indirect modifier, a preposition and its phrase will follow a noun.
Or it will follow the base clause, modifying it in the adverbial section of the sentence.
If the preposition expresses the how, where, when, or why, it is adverbial.
A prepositional phrase can behave like an adverb by modifying from the front of the sentence.
Relationships: The preposition associates with nouns and verbs.
3. The Connectors and the things they Connect
The connectors are the parts of speech that combine and link word, phrases, and clauses together.
We use these parts of speech to condense information so that we don’t have so many short, choppy sentences.
We also use conjunctions to express more complex ideas.
In the end, these parts of speech help us make express our ideas with different layers of complexity, and you cannot grasp more advanced concepts without knowing conjunctions really well.
How to Identify Conjunctions
Definition: Conjunctions are connectors as they can link words to words, phrases to phrases, or clauses to clauses.
Classification: Conjunctions have two types – coordinating conjunctions and subordinating conjunctions.
Type of Conjunction | Meaning & Relationships | Examples |
Coordinating | Connects grammatically equal words, phrases, and clauses according to the rules of parallelism. | We could have got a table at the restaurant, but we didn’t want to wait. |
Subordinating | Connects two grammatically unequal clauses where one is the subordinate clause and the other is the independent (main) clause) | We could have got a table at the restaurant if we had waited. (3rd Conditional) |
Role: Conjunctions bring words, phrases, and whole clauses together. Thus, you can identify them sitting between a pair of words. For longer strings of 3 or more items connected, you can identify the conjunction at the end of the string and preceded by a comma.
Relationships: Conjunctions can associate with just about any other part of speech because the coordinating conjunctions can link individual words. On the other hand, subordinating conjunctions work only with clauses. What is interesting is that my students often don’t recognize subordinating conjunctions as such. It’s almost like they are invisible. This is one of the reasons I now stress to my students the importance of understanding complex sentences and their structure.
Now that we have covered and identified each part of speech, their classifications, roles, and relationships, let’s study a technique that you will often find in the native-speaker classroom – tagging.
How to identify parts of speech with Sentence Diagramming
One way to identify parts of speech is through the practice of sentence diagramming. This is when you draw lines down from each word or specific words in a sentence, identifying the part(s) of speech underneath.
We also call this chunking, or as I like to call it, phrase mapping.
It is typical for us native speakers to do these kinds of recognition activities. In primary school and up, we focus on studying sentences, identifying the pieces, and connecting the dots. This practice develops our understanding of how English sentences work.
For more instruction on how to do perform this technique, you can refer to my full post on sentence diagramming here.
In my book, English Grammar Explained, I have diagrammed and mapped more than a hundred sentences for you to study. The structure of the book, its organization, and the content within are designed to make you a master of English sentences.
Practice the Sentence Diagramming technique in English Language Arts Grammar Workbooks
Apart from my book, which explains how English sentences work, you will also want to practice tagging in real exercises. The workbooks I’ll recommend here will give you the practice you need to identify parts of speech.
Carson Dellosa has an excellent collection of English Language Arts (ELA) workbooks. In these workbooks, you will find parts of speech exercises for you to practice this chunking technique on.
With my Affiliate link, you can search for my recommended ELA books so you can practice the parts of speech with native speaker style exercises and worksheets.
Here is a recommended list of workbooks by level:
For elementary, I recommend one or both of these books. They introduce the basic classes of the parts of speech and have vocabulary at a 3rd grade American student’s level. The sentence practice should be easy enough for an elementary student learner with at least a year of English learning.
- Spectrum Language Arts 3
- 100+ Grammar 3-4
How to identify parts of speech in different phrase types
So far, we have covered how to identify parts of speech individually. Now, let’s look at the different groupings and associations – the phrase types. We’ll start with noun phrases.
Phrase mapping a noun phrase
Noun phrases will at least contain the noun and its pre-modifier – the determiner. It’s direct modifiers are adjectives, possessive nouns, or compound nouns. Conversely, prepositional phrases or relative clauses can be its indirect modifier.
Remember that direct modifiers come before the noun while indirect modifiers come after it. This “word order” helps you understand how to identify parts of speech within various phrase types that include nouns.
Let’s bring in an example for you to study:
Phrase mapping a verb phrase
A verb phrase consists of the verb, its object, and any direct modifiers to either the verb and/or noun. Basically, it is the verb (and its modifier if there is one) and the noun phrase which may also include modifiers.
Let’s bring in another example for you to study.
Phrase mapping a prepositional phrase
And finally, we have a prepositional phrase to study. This kind of phrase starts with a preposition followed by its object noun phrase.
Let’s bring in the final example to study:
Final Thoughts
Part of understanding the parts of speech is learning how to recognize them within a sentence. Practicing this skill will help you improve your English sentence building and overall fluency.
Keep these tips in mind as you continue learning. Of course, don’t forget to revisit this guide often if you ever run into trouble, or need a refresher.
Learn How English Sentences Work with English Grammar Explained!
Understanding parts of speech is just the beginning - literally. It's the first lesson in my book, English Grammar Explained, where you can dive deeper into sentence building, word order, and sentence structure, and sentence types. It's packed with clear examples and actionable tips, it's your ultimate guide to mastering English.
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