Parts of Speech: How to Tell a Noun, Verb or Adjective

You look a word up and the dictionary says noun, or adjective, or both. You wonder whether you chose the right one, or you are asked on a test: is shy an adjective? Is Easter a proper noun? What part of speech is response? These are fair questions, and the first thing to know is a little surprising. A word does not carry its part of speech like a name tag. It gets it from the job it does in a sentence.

The eight traditional parts of speech

The traditional list has eight classes, each defined by what the word does:

Some descriptions of English add a ninth class, the determiner, for words such as the, a and this that point to a noun. Older schemes fold determiners into adjectives, which is how the list of eight comes about. For everyday learning the eight are enough, and the first four (noun, verb, adjective and adverb) carry most of the meaning in a sentence.

The same word can do different jobs

The linguistic term for a word that starts being used as a different part of speech is conversion, sometimes called zero derivation, because the word changes job without changing its shape. English does this all the time.

Take care. As a noun it means close attention or responsibility, as in with great care. As a verb it means to be concerned about something or to look after someone, as in I care about this. Same spelling, two jobs.

Take shy. Most people know it as an adjective: a shy child is easily frightened or reluctant to approach others. But a good dictionary also lists it as a verb, meaning to jump back in fear or to avoid something out of caution (she shied away from the question), and as a noun, for an act of throwing, as in a coconut shy at a fair. So the answer to "is shy an adjective?" is yes, and it is also more than that. When you ask the question about a real sentence, the answer is always one of them.

Unique is an adjective in most uses (a unique chance), and the same dictionary also lists a noun use meaning a thing without a like. It adds a usage note that many careful writers dislike very unique and more unique, on the grounds that something is either unique or it is not, even though those forms have been used since at least the eighteenth century. If you want to stay on the safe side, use almost unique or truly unique instead.

Four quick tests

When you meet a word and are not sure, try these tests on the word in its sentence.

The noun test. Can you put the or a in front of it, or make it plural? The response works, and so do two responses. That makes response a noun in that sentence.

The verb test. Can you change its tense? I respond today, I responded yesterday. A word that changes with time is acting as a verb.

The adjective test. Does it describe a noun, either before it (a shy boy) or after be or seem (he seems shy)? Can you often put very in front of it? Remember that very does not work with every adjective, as the case of unique shows.

The adverb test. Does it describe how, when or how much? Many adverbs end in -ly, such as quickly, but not all do (fast, very, often), and some -ly words are adjectives (friendly, lonely).

If a word passes more than one test, look at the whole sentence, and ask what the word is doing here.

Clues inside the word

You can often guess the class from the ending, which is another reason to learn word parts. The endings -tion, -ness, -ity and -ment usually make nouns, so production, kindness, diversity and agreement are nouns. The -tion and -sion endings explains the first of these. The endings -ous, -ful, -ive and -al often make adjectives, so famous, helpful, creative and musical are adjectives. The -able and -ible endings covers another adjective family. Many verbs end in -ize, -ify or -en, such as organize, simplify and widen.

These are clues, not rules. Friendly ends in -ly but is an adjective, and rebuttal ends in -al but is a noun, so always check the dictionary entry, and then check the sentence.

A few case files

Here are some words people look up often, with the answer and a reason.

Diversity is a noun. It names the quality of being varied. Its relatives are the adjective diverse and the verb diversify, which is a good example of a word family where each part of speech has its own form.

Rebuttal is a noun, an answer that argues against a claim. The matching verb is rebut. You offer a rebuttal, and you rebut a claim.

Response is a noun (a quick response), and the matching verb is respond. Production is a noun, and its verb is produce. In both cases the noun is the thing that results from the action.

Textual evidence is a phrase, not a single word, so ask what the phrase does. As a whole it is a noun phrase: evidence is the noun, and textual, an adjective, describes it. In an essay it names the quotations and details you take from the text itself to support a point, as in Textual evidence supports this claim.

Easter is a proper noun. A proper noun names one particular person, place, thing or event, and in English recognized proper names are capitalized. The same goes for the names of days, months and holidays, such as Monday, July and Christmas. A common noun refers to a class, such as holiday, festival or month. A proper noun can also work as a common noun when it gets a plural or a determiner, as in the three Kennedys, though that is a fairly special use.

Negative adjectives

Another popular search is for negative adjectives, words that describe something unpleasant. They are adjectives like any others, and they come in two kinds. Some carry a negative meaning on their own, such as grumpy, miserable, rude and harmful. Others are made negative with a prefix, such as unhappy, dishonest and impossible, and un-, dis- and in- explains which prefix goes with which word. Because they are adjectives, they describe a noun (a miserable day) or follow be (he is grumpy).

Practice set

Name the part of speech of the word in bold, then check the answers.

1. The diversity of the group surprised us.
2. He is very shy with strangers.
3. They care about the result.
4. She gave a calm response.
5. We visit my aunt every Easter.
6. The rebuttal was short and clear.
7. Which of these is a verb in the sentence "Don't shy away from the question": shy, away, question?
8. Is friendly an adverb because it ends in -ly?

Answers: 1. noun (it follows the and names a quality). 2. adjective (it follows is very and describes he). 3. verb (it shows what they feel, and it could change to cared). 4. noun (it follows a calm, an adjective, and names a thing). 5. proper noun (a holiday name, capitalized). 6. noun (it follows the and names an act). 7. shy (in this sentence it is a verb: shy away). 8. No. Friendly is an adjective, even though it ends in -ly.

Making it stick

You do not need to memorize grammar terms to use English well, but a little knowledge helps you read the dictionary, choose the right form and fix your own mistakes. The best practice is to look at real sentences, label a few words each day, and check yourself against a dictionary. If you want a plan for the routine, building a daily vocabulary habit shows how to do it in a few minutes.

How Wordabulary fits in

Wordabulary finds your level with a placement assessment, then gives you practice and quizzes matched to it. Every word page shows the part of speech, a definition, an example sentence and related forms, so you can see how a word changes class across its family. You can also listen to each word in British or American English.