Parts of Speech

El método, paso a paso

1. 1

   Find the verb first

   'The tired student finished her essay quickly.' → finished

   The verb is the engine of the sentence and everything else arranges around it. Locating it first makes identifying the subject straightforward, and the subject is usually the main noun.

2. 2

   Identify nouns as things the sentence is about

   student, essay

   Nouns name people, places, things or ideas. A useful test is whether the word can follow 'the' — 'the student' works, 'the quickly' does not. Abstract nouns like freedom and happiness name ideas rather than objects.

3. 3

   Spot adjectives and adverbs by what they modify

   tired describes student (adjective) · quickly describes finished (adverb)

   Adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. The -ly ending is a common signal for adverbs but not a reliable rule — 'fast' and 'well' are adverbs without it.

4. 4

   Recognise the joining and positioning words

   prepositions: in, on, under, before · conjunctions: and, but, because

   Prepositions show relationships of place or time between things. Conjunctions join words, phrases or clauses. Both are small closed sets, so they can be learned as lists rather than identified by test.

5. 5

   Classify by function, not by the word

   'a run' (noun) · 'they run' (verb) · 'run shoes' (adjective-like)

   The same word takes different classes depending on its job. Asking what the word is doing in this sentence, rather than what class it usually belongs to, is the only reliable method.

The class depends on the job

Students often learn parts of speech as lists of words to memorise, which fails as soon as a familiar word appears in an unfamiliar role. 'Water' is a noun in 'the water is cold' and a verb in 'water the plants'.

Teaching the question — what is this word doing here? — rather than the list means students can classify words they have never analysed before. It also prepares them for the grammar questions that dominate the SAT and GCSE English language papers.

• Noun — names a person, place, thing or idea
• Verb — an action or state of being
• Adjective — describes a noun
• Adverb — describes a verb, adjective or adverb
• Pronoun — stands in for a noun
• Preposition — shows relationship of place or time
• Conjunction — joins words or clauses
• Determiner — introduces a noun (the, a, this, my)

Why word classes are worth knowing

Almost every later grammar rule is stated in these terms. Subject-verb agreement requires identifying the subject and the verb. Modifier placement requires recognising an adjective phrase. Punctuation between clauses requires knowing what a clause is.

A student who cannot identify a verb cannot be taught tense consistency, and one who cannot identify a pronoun cannot be taught pronoun agreement. This is the vocabulary the rest of grammar is written in.

Adverbs do not all end in -ly

The -ly ending is a useful signal, and treating it as a rule causes two errors. Many adverbs lack it — fast, well, often, very, quite — and some adjectives have it, such as friendly, lovely and lonely.

The reliable test is what the word modifies. If it describes a noun it is an adjective, whatever its ending; if it describes a verb, adjective or another adverb, it is an adverb.

How we teach parts of speech

We teach the function question rather than word lists, and we test it with words that change class between sentences. A student who can explain why 'run' is a noun in one sentence and a verb in another has understood the idea.

We start every sentence analysis with the verb. It is the most reliable anchor, and once it is found the subject and the modifiers fall into place with much less guesswork.