Parts of Speech Definitions for Elementary School

Parts of speech are the building blocks of language. They stack together to make sentences.

The eight parts of speech may be exciting to grammarians, but elementary-age kids probably aren't quite so enthusiastic about nouns, pronouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, prepositions, interjections and conjunctions. Defining the parts of speech in terms and examples interesting to elementary-age students may help them remember and understand the parts of speech better.

Nouns, Pronouns and Adjectives

The definitions for nouns, pronouns and adjectives are intertwined, as these parts of speech work together to create descriptive sentences.

A noun is a person, place, thing or idea. If you can say "the" in front of a word and it makes sense without adding any other words, you have a noun. For example, "the dog" makes sense, so "dog" is a noun. "The gross" sounds incomplete because the listener is thinking, "The gross what?" "Gross" is not a noun. Pronouns are words that replace nouns so you don't have to say the same nouns over and over. Instead of the sentence, "My cat is pretty, my cat is furry and my cat likes to take naps," pronouns make it simpler: "My cat is pretty, she is furry and she likes to take naps."

Pronouns include words that replace girls' names, such as she and her, as well as words that replace boys' names, such as he and him. Pronouns also replace nouns that are groups of people: they, we, us, our, them. Possessive pronouns show who owns something: his, hers, ours, theirs, its. Possessive pronouns never have an apostrophe in them.

Adjectives describe nouns and pronouns by offering more information about how the noun or pronoun looks, sounds, feels, smells or tastes. For example, "Sam lost his book and he got in trouble." Now add adjectives: "Sam lost his science book and he got in big trouble." "Science" and "big" are adjectives in this sentence.

Verbs and Adverbs

Verbs and adverbs work together. Verbs come in two main types: action and state of being. Action verbs are easier to learn because they describe movement and thought processes --- jump, step, fall, think, decide, know. State-of-being verbs connect adjectives with nouns or pronouns --- Tom is sad, Sarah was lonely.

Adverbs describe verbs, adjectives and other adverbs. Adverbs often answer the following questions: How? When? Where? To what extent? For example, "I ran quickly." How? Quickly. Here, "quickly" is an adverb that describes a verb. Many adverbs end in "ly," such as happily, thoughtfully and carefully, but not all "ly" words are adverbs.

Conjunctions

Conjunctions join sentences and parts of sentences. Remember the most common conjunctions with the mnemonic "FANBOYS" --- for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so. Some conjunctions come in pairs, such as either/or, neither/nor and not only/but also. Conjunctions help the sentences, "He went to the store. He bought bread. He bought milk," become "He went to the store and bought bread and milk."

Prepositions

This cat sat in the egg carton. "In" is a preposition.

If elementary-age kids can visualize a cat and box, they can remember the definition for a preposition. Most prepositions describe "anywhere a cat can go." The cat can go in, through, over, under, around, in, out, to, from, toward or away from the box, for example.

Interjections

Ouch! This cactus is prickly.

Interjections are words or phrases used by themselves, followed by a comma or an exclamation point, to express emotion. Follow a strong-emotion interjection with an exclamation point: "Hey! You stepped on my foot!" Place a comma after a weaker emotion: "Oh OK, I guess you're still my friend."

References

• Fun Easy English: Parts of Speech
• Design-Your-Homeschool: The Eight Parts of Speech
• Capital Community College: The Parts of Speech
• Enchanted Learning: Parts of Speech

Resources

• ABCteach: Parts of Speech Printables
• Tooter4kids: Parts of Speech Poem
• Nicholas Academy: Printable Parts of Speech Chart
• Schoolhouse Rock: Grammar Rock Lyrics