Parts of speech chart
A parts of speech chart lists the eight kinds of words in English, noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection, with what each one does and an example. It is the reference for grammar work from 2nd grade up.
Free printable PDF, 2nd grade to 6th grade.
One page, black and white, prints the same every time.
What is on the sheet
The eight parts of speech
| Part of speech | What it does | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Noun | Names a person, place, thing or idea. | The dog chased a ball across the yard. |
| Pronoun | Stands in for a noun. | She gave it to them. |
| Verb | Shows an action or a state of being. | Birds sing. The soup is hot. |
| Adjective | Describes a noun: which one, what kind, how many. | A red kite, three tired hikers. |
| Adverb | Describes a verb, adjective or adverb: how, when, where, how much. | He ran quickly. It rained yesterday. Very cold. |
| Preposition | Shows where or when one thing is in relation to another. | The cat is under the table, before dinner. |
| Conjunction | Joins words, phrases or sentences. | Tea and cake; hurry, or we will be late. |
| Interjection | A short word that shows feeling, often with an exclamation mark. | Wow! Ouch! Oh, I forgot. |
How to read the chart
Each row is one part of speech: its name, what the word does in a sentence, and an example sentence with the words of that kind in it. The middle column is the useful one. A word's part of speech is a job, not a label stuck to it for life: "run" is a verb in "they run" and a noun in "a long run", so the question to ask is always what the word is doing here.
The examples are chosen so the target words are easy to spot and the sentences are ones a 2nd grader can read. The chart avoids the edge cases, articles as a kind of adjective, determiners, verb phrases, which belong in a lesson rather than on a wall.
Which rows come when
Nouns and verbs arrive in kindergarten and 1st grade; adjectives and pronouns in 1st and 2nd; adverbs, prepositions and conjunctions in 2nd and 3rd; interjections are named in 5th. So the chart is complete by the end of 5th grade, and a younger child can use the top rows and ignore the rest. Sixth grade uses it in reverse, to name the part of speech of a word in a sentence they are editing.
For practice, the grammar worksheets on the site cover each row as its own skill by grade.
Common questions
- Are articles (a, an, the) a part of speech?
- In most school grammars they are counted as adjectives, since they tell which noun is meant. Some lists call them determiners. The chart keeps to the traditional eight.
- Why are there exactly eight?
- Eight is the traditional count in English grammar teaching and the one the standards use. Linguists slice it differently, but the eight are enough to describe any sentence a child will write.