Parts of speech II

Understanding the different parts of speech help us understand the structure and meaning of sentences in English.

Need a refresher? Check out our lesson on the 8 parts of speech!

Take a look at the following examples of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions, subjects and objects:

“I lost my pen” – Pen is a noun (it’s a thing).

“They ran all the way home.” – Ran is a verb (an action).

“You are a pretty girl.” – Pretty is an adjective (it describes the noun girl).

“He quietly opened the door.” – Quietly is an adverb (it describes how he opened the door).

“The spider ran across the table.” – Across is a preposition (it shows the relationship between ran and table).

“Paper is made from wood.” – Paper is the subject (it’s what the sentence is about).

“Joe ate his banana.” – Banana is the object (it’s what the action is done to).

These roles help us understand the structure and meaning of sentences. Keep an eye on how words change depending on how they’re used!

Object vs Subject

The subject is usually the word that does something; whereas, the object is the word receiving what is done. A noun can be both the subject and also the object.

Example:

“My cat is chasing the mouse” – In this sentence, the cat is doing the action.

So, the cat is the subject and the mouse is the object.

“My dog is chasing the cat” – In this sentence, the cat is receiving the action.

So, the dog is the subject, and the object is the cat.

In both of these sentences, “cat” is a noun.