Parts of Speech - English Grammar & Vocabulary

📌 What are Parts of Speech?

Every word in English belongs to one of eight categories called Parts of Speech. Understanding them is the foundation of English grammar — and one of the most frequently tested topics in BCS, Bank, and all competitive exams. They tell us how a word functions in a sentence.

#	Part of Speech	Function	Example
1	Noun	Names a person, place, thing, or idea	Dhaka, book, happiness
2	Pronoun	Replaces a noun	he, she, it, they, who
3	Verb	Shows action or state	run, is, write, become
4	Adjective	Describes a noun	big, beautiful, five
5	Adverb	Modifies verb, adjective, or another adverb	quickly, very, always
6	Preposition	Shows relationship (time, place, direction)	in, on, at, by, for
7	Conjunction	Joins words, phrases, or clauses	and, but, or, because
8	Interjection	Expresses sudden emotion	Oh!, Alas!, Hurrah!

🧠 Remember: NAVY PACI

Noun · Adjective · Verb · adY(verb) · Preposition · A(interjection) · Conjunction · pronoun(I)

💡 The Golden Rule

The same word can function as different parts of speech depending on its role in the sentence. Always determine the function in context:

"fast" — adjective (a fast car), adverb (runs fast), noun (a long fast), verb (to fast during Ramadan)
"well" — adverb (sings well), adjective (I feel well), noun (a well of water), interjection (Well! That's surprising!)

📌 1. Noun

A noun is a word that names a person, place, thing, or idea. It is the most common part of speech — most sentences revolve around nouns.

Types of Nouns

Type	Definition	Examples
Proper Noun	Specific name (capitalized)	Bangladesh, Shakespeare, January
Common Noun	General name	country, writer, month
Collective Noun	Group of things	team, flock, committee
Abstract Noun	Ideas/feelings (can't touch)	freedom, love, honesty
Material Noun	Substances/materials	gold, water, rice
Countable Noun	Can be counted	book, pen, apple
Uncountable Noun	Cannot be counted	information, furniture, advice

💡 Exam Alert — Uncountable Nouns

Uncountable nouns frequently asked: information, furniture, advice, news, luggage, machinery, equipment, homework, knowledge, scenery, poetry, bread
These do NOT take "s" or "a/an" — say "a piece of advice" not "an advice"
❌ informations, furnitures, advices, equipments → ✅ pieces of information/furniture/advice/equipment

Important Collective Nouns

Collective nouns are a favourite exam topic. Memorize these commonly tested ones:

Collective Noun	Used For
A flock of	birds / sheep
A herd of	cattle / elephants
A swarm of	bees / insects
A pack of	wolves / cards
A bunch of	keys / flowers / grapes
A fleet of	ships / vehicles
A bouquet of	flowers
A library of	books

Noun Gender (for exams)

Masculine	Feminine
king	queen
actor	actress
host	hostess
hero	heroine
nephew	niece
wizard	witch
bridegroom	bride
monk	nun

📌 2. Pronoun

A pronoun is used in place of a noun to avoid repetition. Using the right pronoun case is one of the most tested grammar topics.

Type	Examples	Usage
Personal	I, you, he, she, it, we, they	Subject/Object of sentence
Possessive	my, your, his, her, our, their, mine	Shows ownership
Reflexive	myself, yourself, himself, herself	Action reflects back on subject
Relative	who, whom, which, that, whose	Connects clauses
Demonstrative	this, that, these, those	Points to something
Interrogative	who, what, which, whom, whose	Asks a question
Indefinite	anyone, someone, nobody, each, all	Refers to non-specific things

📝 Example

Without pronoun: Rahim went to Rahim's school. Rahim met Rahim's friend there.

With pronoun: Rahim went to his school. He met his friend there.

Pronoun Cases — Exam Favourite

Person	Subjective (Subject)	Objective (Object)	Possessive Adj.	Possessive Pron.	Reflexive
1st Sing.	I	me	my	mine	myself
2nd	you	you	your	yours	yourself
3rd Sing. (M)	he	him	his	his	himself
3rd Sing. (F)	she	her	her	hers	herself
3rd Sing. (N)	it	it	its	—	itself
1st Plural	we	us	our	ours	ourselves
3rd Plural	they	them	their	theirs	themselves

💡 Exam Alert — Who vs Whom

Who = subject (does the action): Who called you?
Whom = object (receives the action): Whom did you call?

Quick test: If you can replace it with "he/she" → use who. If you can replace with "him/her" → use whom.

📌 3. Verb

A verb expresses an action or a state of being. It is the most important word in a sentence — no sentence is complete without a verb.

Types of Verbs

Type	Definition	Examples
Main Verb (Lexical)	Carries the core meaning	eat, write, play, sleep
Auxiliary (Helping)	Helps form tenses, questions, negatives	is, am, are, was, were, have, has, had, do, does, did
Modal Verb	Expresses ability, possibility, permission	can, could, may, might, will, would, shall, should, must
Transitive	Needs an object	She reads a book. (book = object)
Intransitive	No object needed	He sleeps. Birds fly.
Linking Verb	Connects subject to complement	She is a teacher. It seems nice.

💡 Exam Tip: Verb Forms

Every verb has 5 forms — know them for tense-related questions:

V1 (base) → V2 (past) → V3 (past participle) → V4 (present participle -ing) → V5 (third person singular -s/-es)

Example: go → went → gone → going → goes

Important Irregular Verbs (Exam Favourites)

V1 (Base)	V2 (Past)	V3 (Past Participle)
arise	arose	arisen
bear	bore	borne / born
begin	began	begun
break	broke	broken
choose	chose	chosen
do	did	done
drink	drank	drunk
drive	drove	driven
eat	ate	eaten
fly	flew	flown
forget	forgot	forgotten
give	gave	given
go	went	gone
know	knew	known
lie (recline)	lay	lain
lay (put down)	laid	laid
rise	rose	risen
see	saw	seen
shake	shook	shaken
speak	spoke	spoken
swim	swam	swum
take	took	taken
write	wrote	written

💡 Exam Trap — Lie vs Lay

This is one of the most confusing verb pairs in English exams:

Lie (to recline) — lie, lay, lain — intransitive (no object): "I lay down yesterday."
Lay (to put down) — lay, laid, laid — transitive (needs object): "She laid the book on the table."
Lie (to tell falsehood) — lie, lied, lied — "He lied to me."

📌 4. Adjective

An adjective describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. It answers: What kind? How many? Which one?

Types of Adjectives

Type	Examples	Sentence
Descriptive	beautiful, tall, red, honest	A beautiful garden
Quantitative	some, much, few, several, all	Some students left
Numeral	one, first, double, last	The first boy
Demonstrative	this, that, these, those	This book is mine
Possessive	my, your, his, her, our, their	My car is new
Interrogative	what, which, whose	Which pen is yours?

Degrees of Comparison

Positive	Comparative	Superlative	Rule
tall	taller	tallest	+er / +est
beautiful	more beautiful	most beautiful	more / most
good	better	best	irregular
bad	worse	worst	irregular
little	less	least	irregular
many/much	more	most	irregular
far	farther / further	farthest / furthest	irregular
old	older / elder	oldest / eldest	irregular
late	later / latter	latest / last	irregular

💡 Exam Alert — Elder vs Older

Elder / eldest = used ONLY for family members: my elder brother.
Older / oldest = used for anyone/anything: She is older than me.

❌ He is elder than me. → ✅ He is older than me. (comparing, not family title)

Adjective Order (OSASCOMP)

When multiple adjectives modify a noun, they follow a fixed order. Exams test this!

Order	Category	Example
1	Opinion	beautiful, ugly, nice
2	Size	big, small, tall
3	Age	old, young, new
4	Shape	round, flat, square
5	Colour	red, blue, green
6	Origin	Bangladeshi, Japanese
7	Material	wooden, cotton, silk
8	Purpose	sleeping (bag), running (shoes)

📝 Adjective Order in Practice

✅ A beautiful (opinion) small (size) old (age) round (shape) red (colour) Chinese (origin) wooden (material) box.

❌ A wooden red old small Chinese round beautiful box. (wrong order!)

🧠 Remember: OSASCOMP

Opinion · Size · Age · Shape · Colour · Origin · Material · Purpose
Think: "Oh So A Sweet Cat Of Mine Purrs"

📌 5. Adverb

An adverb modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. It tells how, when, where, how often, or to what degree.

Type	Question Answered	Examples
Manner	How?	quickly, slowly, carefully, well
Time	When?	now, yesterday, soon, already, today
Place	Where?	here, there, everywhere, upstairs
Frequency	How often?	always, never, usually, often, seldom
Degree	To what extent?	very, too, quite, almost, extremely

📝 Adjective vs Adverb — Key Distinction

She is a careful driver. (Adjective — modifies noun "driver")

She drives carefully. (Adverb — modifies verb "drives")

The food tastes good. (Adjective — after linking verb "tastes")

She plays well. (Adverb — "good" is NEVER an adverb!)

💡 Exam Alert — Tricky Adverbs

Some adverbs DON'T end in -ly: fast, hard, late, early, well, straight, enough
hard (adverb) = with effort → He works hard.
hardly = almost not → He hardly works. (different meaning!)
late (adverb) = not on time → He came late.
lately = recently → I haven't seen him lately.

📌 6. Preposition

A preposition shows the relationship between a noun/pronoun and other words. It indicates time, place, direction, or manner.

Type	Examples	Usage
Time	at, on, in, since, for, during	at 5 PM, on Monday, in January
Place	at, on, in, above, below, between	at school, on the table, in the room
Direction	to, into, towards, through, across	go to school, walk through the door
Agent/Instrument	by, with	written by him, cut with a knife

At / On / In — The Big Three

Preposition	Time	Place
At	Specific time: at 5 PM, at noon, at night	Specific point: at the door, at the station
On	Days/Dates: on Monday, on 15th August	Surface: on the table, on the wall
In	Months/Years/Seasons: in January, in 2026	Enclosed space: in the room, in Dhaka

💡 Common Exam Traps — Prepositions

Arrive at (a place) / Arrive in (a city/country) — ❌ arrive to
Consist of (not "consist in" for composition)
Depend on (not "depend upon" in formal usage)
Die of disease / Die from wounds
Good at (not "good in"): She is good at math.
Married to (not "married with"): She is married to him.

📌 7. Conjunction

A conjunction connects words, phrases, or clauses. Understanding conjunction types is essential for sentence correction questions.

Type	Examples	Usage
Coordinating	for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so (FANBOYS)	Joins equal elements
Subordinating	because, although, if, when, while, until, since, unless	Joins dependent + independent clause
Correlative	either...or, neither...nor, both...and, not only...but also	Work in pairs

🧠 Remember FANBOYS

For · And · Nor · But · Or · Yet · So — the 7 coordinating conjunctions!

💡 Exam Alert — Correlative Pairs

These MUST be used together — never mix them up:

✅ either...or — ❌ either...nor
✅ neither...nor — ❌ neither...or
✅ both...and — ❌ both...as well as
✅ not only...but also — ❌ not only...and also
✅ hardly/scarcely...when — ❌ hardly...than
✅ no sooner...than — ❌ no sooner...when

📌 8. Interjection

An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses a sudden feeling or emotion. It is grammatically independent from the rest of the sentence.

Emotion	Interjections	Example Sentence
Joy	Hurrah! Wow! Bravo!	Hurrah! We won the match!
Sorrow	Alas! Oh no!	Alas! He is no more.
Surprise	Oh! What! Really!	Oh! What a beautiful flower!
Approval	Well done! Bravo!	Bravo! You did a great job!
Attention	Look! Listen! Hush!	Listen! Someone is coming.
Disgust	Ugh! Yuck!	Ugh! This smells terrible.

📌 Same Word — Different Parts of Speech

This is one of the most frequently tested concepts in BCS and Bank exams. The same word can function as different parts of speech depending on its position and role in the sentence.

Word	As Noun	As Verb	As Adjective	As Adverb
run	a morning run	I run daily	—	—
light	the light is on	light the candle	a light bag	—
fast	a long fast	he fasts	a fast car	runs fast
round	the final round	round the corner	a round table	come round
early	—	—	an early bird	woke up early
hard	—	—	a hard question	works hard
well	a well of water	tears welled up	I feel well	sings well

📝 Exam-Style Examples

1. He took a walk. (noun) → He walks every day. (verb)
2. This is water. (noun) → Please water the plants. (verb)
3. She gave me a cold look. (adjective) → I have a cold. (noun)
4. He runs fast. (adverb) → He is a fast runner. (adjective)
5. I love you. (verb) → Love is blind. (noun)

📌 Common Exam Mistakes

⚠️ Avoid These Traps

❌ "He runs quick." → ✅ "He runs quickly." (adverb needed, not adjective)
❌ "She is more taller." → ✅ "She is taller." (don't mix -er with more)
❌ "I have informations." → ✅ "I have information." (uncountable noun)
❌ "Him and I went." → ✅ "He and I went." (subjective case for subject)
❌ "Between you and I." → ✅ "Between you and me." (objective case after preposition)
❌ "Each students have..." → ✅ "Each student has..." (each = singular)
❌ "He plays good." → ✅ "He plays well." (well = adverb of good)
❌ "Neither...or" → ✅ "Neither...nor" (correct correlative pair)