English · Grammar · SSC & HSC
Parts of Speech — 8 Types with Definition & Examples
Noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection, with examples of each.
Parts of speech are the eight categories every English word falls into according to the job it does in a sentence: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. A word is not fixed to one category — "water" is a noun in "drink water" and a verb in "water the plants" — so always classify a word by the work it is doing in that sentence.
Where it is set: SSC & HSC English — Grammar foundation
The eight classes
English sorts every word into one of eight classes according to the work it does in a sentence. Traditional grammar, which Bangladeshi textbooks follow, names them noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection.
The classes are not labels stuck to words in a dictionary. They describe jobs, and the same word can hold different jobs on different days.
The eight parts of speech
| Part of speech | What it does | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | names a person, place, thing or idea | Rahim, Dhaka, book, honesty |
| Pronoun | stands in place of a noun | he, she, it, they, who, this |
| Verb | expresses an action or a state | go, write, is, seem |
| Adjective | describes a noun or pronoun | tall, blue, honest, many |
| Adverb | modifies a verb, adjective or another adverb | quickly, very, yesterday, here |
| Preposition | shows a relation between a noun and another word | in, on, at, by, with |
| Conjunction | joins words, phrases or clauses | and, but, because, although |
| Interjection | expresses sudden feeling | Alas! Hurrah! Oh! |
- ✓ Alas! The poor boy quickly ran into the room and hid behind it. — this one sentence contains all eight classes
- ✓ Interjection: Alas · Adjective: poor · Noun: boy · Adverb: quickly · Verb: ran · Preposition: into · Conjunction: and · Pronoun: it
A word belongs to a class only inside a sentence
This is the single idea that makes the topic usable rather than a list to memorise. Water is a noun in drink water and a verb in water the plants. Fast is an adjective in a fast car, an adverb in he runs fast, a verb in Muslims fast in Ramadan and a noun in break the fast.
So never ask "what part of speech is this word". Ask "what is this word doing here".
| Word | As a noun | As a verb | As an adjective / adverb |
|---|---|---|---|
| water | Drink some water. | Water the plants. | — |
| fast | He broke his fast. | They fast in Ramadan. | a fast car / he runs fast |
| light | Turn on the light. | Light the lamp. | a light bag |
| well | The village well is deep. | Tears welled up. | He sings well. |
| round | a round of talks | round the corner | a round table |
- ✓ He booked a room. / He read a book. — book as verb, then as noun
- ✓ The train was late. / He came late. — late as adjective, then as adverb
Nouns, pronouns and their subtypes
Exam questions often ask for the subtype rather than the class, so the divisions inside noun and pronoun are worth knowing separately.
- Proper noun — a particular name, always capitalised: Rahim, Bangladesh, the Padma.
- Common noun — any member of a class: boy, city, river.
- Collective noun — a group taken as one: team, class, army, flock.
- Material noun — a substance: gold, water, rice.
- Abstract noun — a quality or idea: honesty, beauty, childhood.
- Pronouns divide into personal (I, he), possessive (mine, his), reflexive (myself), demonstrative (this, those), relative (who, which), interrogative (who? what?) and indefinite (someone, all).
- ✓ Honesty is the best policy. — honesty is an abstract noun
- ✓ The team has won its first match. — team is a collective noun
Verbs, adjectives and adverbs
These three carry most of the meaning of a sentence, and the distinctions inside them explain several other items in the paper.
| Class | Subtype | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Verb | transitive (takes an object) | He wrote a letter. |
| Verb | intransitive (no object) | The baby sleeps. |
| Verb | auxiliary (helps another verb) | He is going. |
| Verb | modal | He can swim. |
| Adjective | of quality | a beautiful garden |
| Adjective | of quantity / number | much rice, five boys |
| Adjective | demonstrative | this book |
| Adverb | of manner | He works carefully. |
| Adverb | of time / place | He came yesterday / here. |
| Adverb | of degree | She is very clever. |
- ✓ Only transitive verbs can be made passive — which is why He sleeps has no passive form.
- ✓ She sings beautifully. — beautifully is an adverb of manner modifying sings
Telling adjective from adverb
The commonest confusion in this topic is between adjective and adverb, because many adverbs are simply an adjective plus -ly. The test is what the word is describing, not how it ends.
- Describing a noun → adjective: a careful driver.
- Describing a verb → adverb: he drives carefully.
- After be, seem, look, feel, become → adjective, not adverb: She looks happy, not happily.
- Some adverbs have no -ly: fast, hard, late, early, straight.
- Beware the pairs that change meaning: hard (with effort) versus hardly (almost not); late versus lately (recently).
- ✗ She looks beautifully in that dress. ✓ She looks beautiful in that dress. — after look, an adjective
- ✗ He works hardly. ✓ He works hard. — hardly means “almost not”
Practice
Work through these before you check the answers — the reasoning matters more than the answer.
- Name the part of speech: “The poor need our help.”
- Name the part of speech: “He runs fast.”
- Name the part of speech: “Alas! He is no more.”
- Name the part of speech: “He is watering the plants.”
- Name the noun subtype: “Honesty is the best policy.”
- Adjective or adverb: “She looks ___ (happy/happily).”
- Name the part of speech: “He came but she did not.”
- Transitive or intransitive: “The child sleeps.”
Answers
- Noun — an adjective used as a plural noun.
- Adverb — it modifies the verb runs.
- Interjection.
- Verb — water used as an action.
- Abstract noun.
- happy — after look, an adjective is needed.
- Conjunction.
- Intransitive — there is no object, so it has no passive form.
Frequently Asked Questions
Traditional grammar, which Bangladeshi textbooks and board exams follow, counts eight: noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. Some modern descriptions count nine by separating determiners from adjectives, but for the SSC and HSC exams the answer is eight.
Yes, and most common English words are. Fast alone can be a noun, a verb, an adjective and an adverb depending on the sentence. This is why the question to ask is always what a word is doing in this sentence, never what a word "is". Exam questions are built on exactly this point.
An adjective describes a noun or pronoun (a careful driver); an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb (he drives carefully). The -ly ending is a useful hint but not a rule — fast, hard and late are adverbs without it, and friendly and lovely are adjectives with it.
Because look here is a linking verb, not an action verb — it links the subject to a description of the subject, like is. So the word describes she, which makes it an adjective. The same applies after seem, feel, become, taste and sound. “She looks beautifully” would mean her manner of looking at something.
Keep going
Every grammar rule, plus paragraphs, compositions and applications for SSC and HSC.