A word is defined as a letter or group of letters that has meaning when spoken or written.
Word classes
English words fall into 8 grammatical word classes (known in traditional grammar as ‘parts of speech’). They form 2 large subgroups:
- Open classes include nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. Open classes continue to grow as new words are coined and taken up by writers and speakers.
- Closed classes include prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns and determiners (i.e. structural words that glue words and phrases together in clauses and sentences). Closed classes are rarely added to, and additions are often resisted.
Each word class has subtypes with different grammatical functions.
| A noun is the name of something (such as a person, animal, place, thing, feeling or action) | aunt possum valley sadness running |
| Common nouns define a type of thing (concrete or abstract) | affection child hill kindness lollies The kite was stuck in the tree. |
| Proper nouns name a specific example of a thing (e.g. specific person, place or organisation) | Ada Lovelace Plato Canberra Australian Government Julius Caesar went to Gaul. |
| Collective nouns name groups of people or animals | flock of birds mob of sheep finance committee |
| Count nouns are items that can be individually counted and made into a plural | boy/boys book/books idea/ideas tree/trees |
| Mass nouns refer to abstract concepts or things that cannot be individually counted and made into a plural | clothing education mud peace reliance rice |
| A verb is an action, process or state of being. Every English sentence and clause has a verb | hop work change expect is become Amy kicks the ball. She improved. He is 15 years old. |
| Lexical verbs are verbs that express an action, emotion or process, and can stand alone (i.e. as the ‘main’ verb of a clause; see Clauses and sentences) | Huan runs. Bob walked fast. I hate sushi. |
| Auxiliary verbs (e.g. be, have) create verb phrases with different tenses (past/present) and aspects (completed or continuous action) | Hassan has worked hard. Edwina was working hard. |
| Modal verbs (e.g. can, may, will) add speaker attitudes or speaker intentions to verb phrases | I may tell him. Bill will play tennis tomorrow. |
| An infinitive (e.g. to be, to run, to talk) is the base form of a verb. It is usually preceded by to, except after modal verbs | He wanted to be a pilot. Dogs can walk on the footpath. |
| An adjective describes or modifies a noun, providing extra information (see 'Commas and adjectives' in Common grammar questions for how to punctuate a string of adjectives) | beautiful blue clever delicious heavy lukewarm round tiny wondrous an orange book a smooth rock |
| Evaluative adjectives give a judgement | silly splendid unmanageable |
| Descriptive adjectives provide descriptive information | blue large joyful |
| Categorial adjectives define and specify | Greek wooden antique |
| An adverb details or modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Adverbs are often formed by adding ly to adjectives, but not all adverbs end in ly | beautifully cleverly [manner] regrettably sadly [stance or attitude] very extremely [intensity] underneath upstairs [place] soon later [time] He ran swiftly. She is lonely. I walked downstairs. |
| Sentence adverbs modify a whole sentence or clause | Luckily, everyone will arrive at the same time. They kindly agreed to participate. |
| Linking adverbs connect a sentence or clause with the one before it | It was very hot. We therefore went for a swim. |
| A preposition introduces a noun, noun phrase or pronoun in a prepositional phrase (see Prepositional phrases) | at before for in off on over with I went to bed under the stairs. We talked to him. |
| Simple prepositions are single words | in of from for by after towards under |
| Complex prepositions consist of 2 or 3 words | due to in terms of with respect to |
| A conjunction connects phrases or clauses in a sentence (see Clause connections for more information on types of conjunctions and how to use them) | I ran to the door and opened it. He wanted to go but he wasn’t allowed. |
| Coordinators combine 2 or more clauses that are of equal importance | and but or I ran, and we caught the bus. |
| Subordinators link dependent clauses to the main clause or a previous subclause (see Clause structure) | We ran because it was the last bus that would get us home tonight. It was the first book that was printed in English. |
| A pronoun stands for a previously mentioned noun or noun phrase | it I me we us they she he [personal] who which whom that [relative] some any [indefinite] this that [demonstrative] |
| A determiner introduces a noun or noun phrase to show its scope | a fact an important fact your free trip that original law some minor changes |
| Articles show whether the noun is definite (referring to a specific thing) or indefinite (referring to any of the things) | the a an The kangaroo was limping. [definite] A kangaroo and an echidna went past. [indefinite] |
| Possessives show who the noun belongs to | my your our his her its their her house their results your books |
| Demonstratives point out whether a singular or plural instance of the noun is being talked about (see 'This and that' in Common grammar questions) | this that these those those red balloons this lonely land |
| Quantifiers and numbers show how many of the noun are involved | every some 3 fifth all people 40 thieves |
Additional word terms
Apart from the 8 word classes, English grammar uses other terms for different forms or parts of words.
| A participle is the form of a lexical verb that is used with an auxiliary verb. Participles (present or past) are also often used as an adjective | The fire was burning. [present participle] He has worked hard. [past participle] burning embers bouncing ball [present participle] combed hair edited document [past participle] |
| A gerund is a present (-ing) participle of a verb that acts as a noun. Gerunds can be modified by adjectives, and used as the subject or object of a verb | dancing sewing singing talking ballroom dancing ice skating Cooking is my favourite activity. She enjoys running. |
| A comparative adjective or adverb (with -er) compares 2 objects or activities | Let’s take the faster train. [comparative adjective] Go faster if you can. [comparative adverb] |
| A superlative adjective or adverb (with -est) is the extreme point on a scale (see 'Making comparisons' in Common grammar questions for more information on how to make comparatives and superlatives) | the slowest time in the competition [superlative adjective] The big snail went slowest in the race. [superlative adverb] |
| A modifier is another name for an adjective that qualifies a noun; or an adverb that qualifies a verb, adjective or other adverb | a happy retiree a glorious sunset abundant pasture He wrote elegantly. The style was very elegant. They spoke quite persuasively about the issue. |
Prefixes, suffixes and inflections (including tenses)
The open classes of words carry extra grammatical information in the prefixes and suffixes added to them.
| A prefix added before a base word can reverse or modify the meaning of the word | happy → unhappy government → nongovernment circle → semicircle |
| A suffix is an ending that changes the class of a word | keen → keenness liquid → liquefy mercy → merciful |
Inflections are suffixes that go with particular classes of words and express grammatical meanings, such as singular or plural, present or past tense, and degrees of comparison -’s inflection on common and proper nouns makes them possessive (see also Apostrophes) | a parent’s smile Mona Lisa’s smile |
| -s/es/ies inflections on nouns make them plural, whereas on verbs they make them singular and present tense | bun → buns suffix → suffixes fairy → fairies burn → burns [present tense verb] |
| -(e)d inflections on many lexical verbs (known as regular verbs) mark them as past tense (see also Irregular verb inflections) | I cook → I cooked [past tense verb] |
| -(e)d inflections make the past participle, which, when combined with an auxiliary verb, shows that the action has been completed | I have [auxiliary verb] cooked [-ed inflection] The cake was cooked. [auxiliary verb + past participle = completed action] |
| -ing inflections on lexical verbs make the -ing participle, which shows that the action is continuous. (In traditional grammar, it was called the present participle) | The temperature is [auxiliary verb] rising. [-ing inflection] [auxiliary verb + -ing participle = continuous action] |
| -er and -est inflections on adjectives and adverbs are used to make comparisons | kind → kinder → kindest fast → faster → fastest |
See also Hyphens for using hyphens with prefixes and suffixes.
See Spelling conventions for spelling rules for word endings.
Did you know?
Close encounters between the -ing participle and the gerund (verbal noun)
The overlap between these two has baffled English grammarians for decades. The key is that they have different roles in sentences.
The -ing participle is used with an auxiliary verb to express continuous action:
The fire was burning. [auxiliary verb + -ing participle]
-ing participles are also often used as adjectives to modify nouns:
burning embers bouncing ball [participles as adjectives]
A gerund is a word ending in -ing that works as a noun in phrases and clauses:
She enjoys running. He likes cooking on the barbecue.
A gerund can be modified by adjectives:
ballroom dancing loud singing strenuous fitness training
Irregular verb inflections
The regular verbs of English use the -ed or -t inflection to form the past tense and past participle (e.g. ask → asked, deal → dealt). Irregular verbs do not. Many do not use any inflection for the past tense, but change the verb’s vowel. The vowel of the past participle is often different again, and often carries an -(e)n inflection.
break → broke/broken
[present tense → past tense/past participle]
Other irregular verbs to watch out for:
choose → chose/chosen speak → spoke/spoken steal → stole/stolen
drive → drove/driven rise → rose/risen write → wrote/written
swear → swore/sworn tear → tore/torn wear → wore/worn
blow → blew/blown grow → grew/grown know → knew/known
begin → began/begun sing → sang/sung swim → swam/swum
Some irregular verbs use irregular inflections to form the past tense and past participle (e.g. the past tense and past participle of bring are both brought, not bringed).
Did you know?
Future time
English lacks a future tense that is built into the verb, like -ed for the past tense. It more than makes up for it with several alternative verb phrases to express future time.
He will come this weekend. [modal verb phrase]
He is going to come this weekend. [modal paraphrase]
He is coming this weekend. [present tense, continuous aspect]