Parts of speech chart (six tiles) — free printable diagram

The six parts of speech on this chart, and what each one does

A part of speech is the job a word does in a sentence. This chart covers six of them — noun, verb, adjective, adverb, pronoun and preposition — which between them account for most of the words in an ordinary sentence.

Parts of speech on the chart

6

Noun

Names a person, place, thing or idea. For example: teacher, playground, pencil, kindness

Verb

Says what someone or something does, or is. For example: run, write, think, is

Adjective

Describes a noun. For example: red, enormous, three, careful

Adverb

Tells you more about a verb — how, when or where. For example: quickly, yesterday, outside, very

Pronoun

Stands in for a noun so you need not repeat it. For example: she, they, it, we, him

Preposition

Shows where or when something is in relation to something else. For example: on, under, before, between

• The same word can be a different part of speech in a different sentence, which is why the job matters more than the word. In "water the plants" water is a verb; in "drink the water" it is a noun. Always ask what the word is doing here.
• The traditional set is eight rather than six: the two this chart leaves off are conjunctions, which join words or clauses together (and, but, because, although), and interjections, which stand apart from the sentence to carry feeling (oh, wow, ouch). Some grammars also separate out determiners — the, a, this, my — which otherwise get grouped with adjectives.
• A quick way to test a word is to try moving or replacing it. If it can take an -s or an -ing and follow "to", it is likely a verb; if "the" can go in front of it, it is likely a noun; if it answers "what kind?" it is an adjective, and if it answers "how?" it is an adverb.
• Identifying parts of speech is not an end in itself — it is the shared vocabulary for talking about sentences, which is what makes it possible to explain why a sentence is unclear rather than only feeling that it is.