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Word classes and phrase classes

Major word classes​

English has four major word classes: nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs. They have many thousands of members, and new nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are often created. Nouns are the most common type of word, followed by verbs. Adjectives are less common and adverbs are even less common.

Many words belong to more than one word class. For example, book can be used as a noun or as a verb; fast can be used as an adjective or an adverb:

  • It’s an interesting book. (noun)
  • We ought to book a holiday soon. (verb)
  • He loves fast cars. (adjective)
  • Don’t drive so fast! (adverb)

Typical word-class suffixes​

A suffix can often, but not always, tell us if a word is a noun, verb, adjective or adverb:

nounsverbsadjectivesadverbs
stationgovernmentcrueltysoftenidentifyindustrialisedrinkableJapaneseuselesscarefullyeasilysadly

A good learner’s dictionary will tell you what class or classes a word belongs to.

See also
  • Nouns
  • Verbs
  • Adjectives
  • Adverbs
  • Suffixes
  • Word formation

Other word classes​

The other word classes include prepositions, pronouns, determiners, conjunctions and interjections.

Prepositions​

Prepositions describe the relationship between words from the major word classes. They include words such as at, in, on, across, behind, for:

  • We went to the top of the mountain.

  • (to describes the relationship between went and top; of describes the relationship between top and mountain)

  • Are you ready for lunch yet?

  • (for describes the relationship between ready and lunch)

See also
  • Prepositions

Pronouns​

Pronouns are words which substitute for noun phrases, so that we do not need to say the whole noun phrase or repeat it unnecessarily. Pronouns include words such as you, it, we, mine, ours, theirs, someone, anyone, one, this, those:

  • That*’s Gerry in the photo. He lives in Barcelona.*
  • This jacket’s mine. That must be Linda’s.
See also
  • Pronouns

Determiners​

Determiners come before nouns. They show what type of reference the noun is making. They include words such as a/an, the, my, his, some, this, both:

  • Have you got a ruler I can borrow?
  • I need some paper for my printer.
  • This phone isn’t easy to use.
See also
  • Determiners (the, my, some, this)

Conjunctions​

Conjunctions show a link between one word, phrase or clause and another word, phrase or clause. They include and, but, when, if, because:

  • Joe and Dan are brothers.
  • It was okay, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a restaurant.
  • We’ll ring you when we get to London.
See also
  • Conjunctions

Interjections​

Interjections are mostly exclamation words (e.g. gosh! wow! oh!), which show people’s reactions to events and situations:

  • A: I’m giving up my job.
  • B: Oh.
  • Yippee*! I don’t have to go to work tomorrow!*
  • Gosh*! What an awful smell!*
See also
  • Interjections (ouch, hooray)
  • Discourse markers (so, right, okay)

Phrase classes​

The different word classes can form the basis of phrases. When they do this, they operate as the head of the phrase. So, a noun operates as the head of a noun phrase, a verb as the head of a verb phrase, and so on. Heads of phrases (H) can have words before them (e.g. determiners (det), adjectives (adj), adverbs (adv)) or after them (e.g. postmodifiers (pm) or complements (c)):

Noun phrase (underlined)​

  • [DET] That [ADJ] old [H] box [PM (clause)] you left in the kitchen has got a hole in it.
  • *(*That old box you left in the kitchen has got a hole in it.)

Adverb phrase (underlined)​

  • It all happened [ADJ] very [H] suddenly*.*
  • (It all happened very suddenly*.*)

Prepositional phrase (underlined)​

  • [H] The President [C] of the United States arrives tomorrow.
  • (The President of the United States arrives tomorrow.)
See also
  • Noun phrases
  • Verb phrases
  • Adjective phrases
  • Adverb phrases
  • Prepositional phrases