You might say, “I left my bike leaning against the garage.” In this sentence, against is the preposition because it tells us where you left your bike. Prepositions tell you the relationships between other words in a sentence. Conversely, the verbs that do refer to literal actions are known as action verbs.Īn adverb is a word that describes an adjective, a verb, or another adverb.Īlways is describing how frequently a cheetah is faster (adjective) than a lion. Verbs that refer to feelings or states of being, like to love and to be, are known as nonaction verbs. Not all verbs refer to literal actions, though. Verbs are words that describe specific actions, like running, winning, and being amazing. Go! Be amazing! Run as fast as you can! Win the race! Congratulate every participant who put in the work and competed! Sometimes, adjectives are at the end of a sentence (“My dog is black”). An adjective can go right before the noun it’s describing (“I have a black dog”), but it doesn’t have to. When you’re describing the movie with these words, you’re using adjectives. You might say the movie was funny, engaging, well-written, or suspenseful. How would you describe it to a friend who’s never seen it? Pronouns are divided into a number of categories, and we cover them all in our guide to pronouns:Īdjectives are the words that describe nouns. Instead of saying Jennifer’s name three times in a row, you substituted she and her, and your sentences remained grammatically correct. You might say, “Jennifer was supposed to be here at eight,” then follow it with “ She’s always late next time I’ll tell her to be here a half hour earlier.” Pronouns are words you substitute for specific nouns when the reader or listener already knows which specific noun you’re referring to. Proper nouns are names or titles for specific things, like Jupiter and Jeopardy!

Common nouns are general names for things, like planet and game show. Nouns fall into two categories: common nouns and proper nouns. Basically, anything that names a “thing” is a noun, whether you’re talking about a basketball court, San Francisco, Cleopatra, or self-preservation. Grammarly helps you communicate confidently Write with Grammarly The 8 parts of speech 1Ī noun is a word that names a person, place, concept, or object.

What part of speech is the word the