Word Classes in English

Word Class

 WORD CLASS

A word class is a group of words that have the same basic behaviour.

"Word Class" or Parts of Speech” are the basic types of words that English has. 

Most grammar books say that there are eight parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, conjunctions, prepositions and interjections

We will add one more type: articles.


Open Word Class

An Open Class is a grammatical class of words with a potentially unlimited membership.

These words have content meaning.

Eg:

‣Noun
‣Verb
‣Adjective
‣Adverb


Closed Word Class

Closed Class is a grammatical class of words with limited membership.

These words have primarily grammatical meaning.

Eg:
‣Articles
‣Prepositions
‣Demonstratives
‣Conjunctions
‣Determiners
‣Pronouns
‣Interjections




Noun 

A noun is a naming word. It names a person, place, thing, idea, living creature,quality, or action.
Examples:
cowboy, 
theatre, 
box,
thought, 
tree, 
kindness,
arrival


Verb 

A verb is a word which describes an action (doing something) or
a state (being something).
Examples: 
walk, 
talk,
think, 
believe, 
live, 
like,
want


Adjective 

An adjective is a word that describes a noun. It tells you something about the noun.
Examples: 
big, 
yellow,
thin, 
amazing, 
beautiful,
quick, 
important

Adverb 

An adverb is a word which usually describes a verb. It tells you how
something is done. It may also tell you when 
or where something
happened.
Examples: 
slowly,
intelligently, 
well,
yesterday, 
tomorrow,
here, 
everywhere

Pronoun

A pronoun is used instead of a noun, to avoid repeating the noun.
Examples: 
I, 
you, 
he, 
she, 
it, 
we, 
they

Conjunction 

A conjunction joins two words, phrases or sentences together.
Examples: 
but, 
so, 
and, 
because, 
or

Preposition 

A preposition usually comes before a noun, pronoun or noun phrase.
It joins the noun to some other part of the sentence.
Examples: 
on, 
in, 
by,  
with, 
under, 
through, 
at

Interjection 

An interjection is an unusual kind of word, because it often stands alone.
Interjections are words which express emotion or surprise and they are usually followed by exclamation
marks.
Examples
Ouch!, 
Hello!, 
Hurray!, 
Oh no!, 
Ha!

Article 

An article is used to introduce a noun.
Examples:
the, 
a, 
an

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