1 Different kinds of words

Figure 2 Parts of speech.

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A man stands facing a black board with the word ‘grammar’ written in the middle. The words for the parts of speech appear in a circle around the outside: pronoun, adjective, verb, preposition, interjection, adverb, conjunction, noun

Figure 2 Parts of speech.

We can all talk, write or sign in our own language without having to think very much about what words we use or the order we put them in. When we want to talk about the language we use and how it works, however, we might find it more challenging – it’s a bit like the difference between driving a car, and explaining how its engine works.

One thing you’ll need as you learn to talk about language is a set of terms to identify and label different kinds of words. You’ll also need a way to sort words into groups that do the same sort of thing. This is the first step to explaining the grammar of a language. Names for sets of words are part of everyday language: ‘days of the week’, ‘months’, ‘numbers’, ‘colours’ and so on. The set you’ll be learning are the ‘parts of speech’. Some of the terms in this set may be familiar to you from school or from learning another language, or they may be mostly new. What you’ll already know depends on when and where you went to school, as fashions in education change. What is important to remember is that even if the terms are new, you have been using the words they refer to all your life, without thinking about it too much.

To illustrate the knowledge you’ve already got, you’ll take a look at how different types of words can be grouped together.