type of word | function or "job" | example words | example sentences |
Verb | action word, when something is happening or being | (to) be, have, do, like, work, sing, can, fly | Facebook.com is a web site. I like Facebook.com. |
Noun | thing or person | foot, dog, work, music, town, London, friend, Joe | This is my hair. It lives on my head. We live in London. |
Adjective | describes a noun | a/an, the, two, more, good, big, small, well, interesting | I have two dogs. My dogs are big. I like big dogs. |
Adverb | describes a verb, adjective or adverb | quickly, silently, badly, very, really, slowly | My hair grows quickly. When it is very long, it dries really slowly. |
Pronoun | replaces a noun | I, you, he, she, some | Emma is English. She is funny. I like her. |
Preposition | links a noun to another word | to, at, after, on, but | After my English lesson on Monday I felt more confident speaking to people. |
Conjunction | joins clauses or sentences or words | and, but, when | I like Emma and I like Maria. I like Emma and Maria. I like Maria but I don't like Emma. |
Interjection | short exclamation, sometimes inserted into a sentence | oh!, ouch!, hi!, well | Ouch! That hurts! Hi! How are you? Well, I don't know. |
Which of these types do you think you use most when you are speaking? Is there a particular type of English word you find most difficult to understand? We would love to hear from you in the comments section!