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The 8 Basic Word Types in the English Language

With this blog, we’re going back to basics to give you a strong foundation for speaking English. To build sentences, you need words, and in English, there are eight core word types you need to know to master the basics of everyday English speech. There are, of course, more word types, but these eight will get you very far. 

The word types we’ll cover say something about the function of the word in meaning as well as grammatically in a given sentence. In a later blog, you’ll learn more about how to build sentences with these word types and dive deeper into these types. For now, let’s get started with the first type of word you’ll find in English sentences!

Nouns
This word type is used for people, places, things or ideas. Nouns can be singular or plural. There are a few different types of nouns, including: 

• 1) concrete nouns that refer to tangible objects that can be seen (i.e. phone, pen),
• 2) abstract nouns describing ideas, qualities, or concepts don’t have a physical presence (i.e. love, anger), 
• 3) proper nouns that refer to a specific person, place, or thing. Proper nouns are always capitalised (i.e. London, Dalai Lama, Google), and

To give you an example, in the following sentence, the nouns are written in bold.

• ‘Jane walks through the forest with her dog’.

Pronouns
This word type is used as a substitute for a specific noun that was already used in the text or speech. Taking the example sentence above, you can replace ‘Jane’ with the pronoun ‘she’. There are a few different types of pronouns, including:

• 1) Personal pronouns that refer to a person or people (i.e. I, she, they, you)
• 2) possessive pronouns that refer to ownership   (i.e. mine, yours, theirs)

To give you an example, in the following sentence, the pronouns are written in bold:

• ‘She walks through the forest with her dog’.
  
  
  

Verbs
This word type is used for actions, states of being, or occurrences. Every complete sentence in English includes at least one verb. Again, there are a few subsets of verbs, but today we’ll cover only a few to keep things simple:

• 1) action verbs refer, as the name says, to an action (i.e. speak, walk, eat)
• 2) stative verbs refer to a state of being, including emotions, thoughts and opinions, senses and perceptions (i.e. want, believe, doubt, smell, feel)

To give you an example, in the following sentence, the verb is written in bold:

• ‘Jane walks with her dog’.

Adjectives
This word type is used to describe attributes of nouns or pronouns that provide more information about them. Again, there are subtypes of adjectives, and these are a few:

• 1) descriptive adjectives, which are the most commonly used and describe certain qualities of nouns and pronouns (i.e. blue, bright, small)
• 2) quantitative adjectives that describe the quantity of the nouns and pronouns (i.e. two, many, several, none)

To give you an example, in the following sentence, the adjective is in bold:

• ‘Jane wears a red coat and walks a few of her tiny dogs’.

Adverbs
This word type is used to modify, or give more information about a verb, an adjective, another adverb, or a whole phrase. Adverbs typically answer questions about ‘how’, ‘when’, ‘where’, ‘to what extent’, or ‘how often’ something happens. There are many types of adverbs, but today we’ll cover the three most common ones:

• 1) adverbs of manner that describe ‘how’ (i.e. softly, quickly, brightly)
• 2) adverbs of time that describe ‘when’ (i.e. today, soon, later)
• 3) adverbs of place that describe ‘where’ (i.e. here, inside, abroad)

To give you an example, in the following sentence, the adverbs are written in bold:

• ‘Jane briskly walked her dog outside the hospital yesterday’.

Prepositions
This word type links nouns, pronouns and phrases to other words in a sentence. Prepositions can, for instance, show direction, location, place, and time. Again, there are various types of prepositions. The most common ones are highlighted below:

• 1) Prepositions of place indicate, as the name says, the location of something (i.e. around, next to, far, on, above)
• 2) Prepositions of time indicate when an event occurs (i.e. during, until, before, since, at)
• 3) Prepositions of direction indicate the movement from one place to another (i.e. toward, down, into, from)

To give you an example, in the following sentence, the prepositions are written in bold:

• ‘Jane’s dog walks next to her as they head towards the forest during her lunch break’.

Conjunctions
This word type connects words, phrases or clauses (e.g. a group of words with a subject and a verb). Conjunctions can help you express cohesive sentences and more sophisticated ideas. There are four types of conjunctions, but today we’ll cover the most common ones:

• 1) Coordinating conjunctions join words, phrases or clauses of the same grammatical type (i.e. noun with noun), and there are seven of these conjunctions: for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so
• 2) Subordinating conjunctions introduce a dependent clause and connect it to an independent clause, for example, ‘I am happy, because it’s sunny’. In this sentence, ‘because’ is the subordinating conjunction. Other examples are: since, though, unless, while.

To give you an example, in the following sentence, the conjunctions are written in bold:

• ‘Today Jane walks her dog and her sister's dog, because her sister is on holiday.’

Interjections
We’ve come to the last word type we’ll cover in today’s blog. Interjections can be described as abrupt remarks that express sudden feelings, emotions, or reactions. A few examples of interjections are: ‘Great!’, ‘Wow!’, ‘Yuck!’, ‘Hooray!’, ‘uh’, ‘um’, ‘Hey!’, ‘Bye!’

To bring back the example of Jane and her dog, the injection is written in bold:

• ‘While Jane is walking her dog she steps in a puddle of mud. ‘Yuck!’ she cries’.

I hope you enjoyed today's blog! I know grammar can sometimes be a bit intimidating as a language learner, so don’t rush and take all the time you need to get a grasp on these different word types. In the forums, I’ll create some exercises to help you practise recognising and creating coherent sentences with these word types.

If you have a request for another English language topic, please feel free to let me know, and I’ll happily dedicate a blog or language exercise to it!

Until next time!