Parts of Speech: quali sono le parti del discorso inglesi

Parts of speech are the basic elements for building a sentence. In all languages, parts of speech are “ types of words” distinguished by their function in speech: for example, nouns, verbs, conjunctions. In English as in Italian there are nine parts of speech called parts of speech or word classes.

Knowing the parts of speech is useful because it helps you understand how the language works, form correct sentences and communicate clearly.

Let’s see immediately what the 9 parts of speech are in English:

1. Name
2. Verb
3. Adjective
4. Determine
5. Adverb
6. Pronoun
7. Preposition
8. Conjunction
9. Interjection

Some sentences contain only two parts of speech, while others may contain many more. Look at the following examples:

The nine English parts of speech are divided into two groups, depending on whether their form changes or not. :

• The variable parts of speech : these are words that take a different form depending on whether they are singular or plural (one dog, two dog s ) or whether we are talking about the present, the past, or the future (I go – present, I went – ​​past).
• The invariable parts of speech : these words never change, they always remain the same in any context you use them.

In English, the variable parts of speech are as follows.

Name / Name

This variable part of speech identifies people, places, objects, concepts, animals. In practice any word that identifies something or someone is a noun: coffee, sister, cat, love, river, New York are all nouns.

Plural nouns change form , which is why it is a variable part of speech:

• One cat , two cats .
• One child , two children .

There are many categories to classify names. The first distinguishes between:

• Proper nouns: names that identify a specific person, animal, or place: Dudi, San Francisco, Beethoven.
• Common nouns : these are the general names of things that identify entire “families”: dog , city , composer .

The names are also distinguished in:

• Countable nouns : names of things that can be counted ( pen/pens )
• Uncountable nouns : things that are impossible to count with numbers ( water ).

Verb / Verb

Verbs are the variable parts of speech that tell us what the noun/subject does, what action it performs :

Mary is working ; John goes to school; We met in college.

To work, to go, to meet are all verbs that express an action: this is why they are action verbs .

But there are also different verbs:

We love ; She is ; Marble weighs a lot.

To love, to be, to weigh express a feeling, a condition, a measure, not an action: for this reason they are called non action-verbs .

As you may have already noticed, the verb is a variable part of speech because its conjugation changes:

• Depending on the person subject (I go / she goes ).
• Of the time in which the action or condition takes place (I am / I was ).
• Of the grammatical function it has ( working present participle / worked past participle).

Now let’s look at those words that never change, always remaining the same regardless of their function, number or gender. As you will see, this is where the biggest differences are with Italian, where we have many more variable parts of speech than in English.

Adjective / Adjective

The adjective is that invariable part of speech that tells us something about the noun, that qualifies it:

My boyfriend is handsome , intelligent , sensitive , generous and… Italian !

All these words tell us what the boy is like, what characteristics he has.

Did you notice? In Italian the adjective is a variable term and agrees with the noun it refers to in gender and number; in English it doesn’t (Una bel la giornat a / Due bei bambini vs A beautiful day / Two beautiful children).

In English, adjectives usually precede nouns ( a red apple ) but they can also follow them if combined with the verb to be , to look etc. ( the apple is red ). Read our article on English adjectives.

Determine

And here we have the major difference between the English categories and the parts of speech in Italian grammar.

English grammar calls determiners those invariable parts of speech that are added to the noun to better specify it . They are different from adjectives, while the latter express a characteristic of the noun, the determiners tell us if the noun is close or far, what its relationship is with another noun, what its quantity is, if it is one of many or a specific element. Words like the, an, your, that, some, ten, every, any are determiners . In Italian, determiners would be classified among articles, adjectives, and pronouns.

This invariable part of speech is placed before the noun to which it refers:

The book, that story, your friend, ten dollars.

The determinants are:

• Articles : a/an, the.
• Demonstratives : this, that, these, those.
• Possessives : my, your, his, her, its, our, their.
• Quantifiers : (a) few, (a) little, many, much, more, most, some etc.
• Numbers : one, two, three, last, first etc.

Adverb / Adverb

Adverbs specify the meaning of verbs, adjectives or other adverbs. Let’s see some examples of adverbs. There are different types of adverbs (of manner, of time, of place, of quantity), depending on the question they answer:

• Come : She sings well .
• When : Paul arrived yesterday .
• Where : Jane stays here .
• How much : Laura is very intelligent.

Pronoun / Pronoun

As studied in middle school English programs , the pronoun is the part of speech that replaces a noun. Very often in sentences, if we have previously named someone or something, we can later replace it with a pronoun. Look at the example:

Tom is a dear friend, actually he is my best friend.

There are many types of pronouns. The most important are:

• Subject pronouns : I, you, he/she/it, we, you they.
• Object pronouns : me, you, him/her/it, us, you, them.

Preposition / Preposition

What are prepositions? Prepositions are that invariable part of speech that tells us how words in a sentence relate to other words in the sentence. Prepositions establish relationships:

• Spaziali: The book is on the table.
• Thunderstorms: The train leaves at 9 am
• On the move: I travelled across Europe.
• Of possession, agency and other logics: A novel by Paul Auster; the boy with blond hair.

Conjunction / Conjunction

Conjunctions are that invariable part of speech that connects one sentence to another sentence. Conjunctions allow you to create complex statements that express multiple ideas connected to each other in an elegant and non-repetitive way, as in the example below:

I like skiing and swimming, while I find cycling very boring.

In English there are two types of conjunctions:

• Coordinating conjunctions : They connect two words or phrases that have the same grammatical value. They are coordinating conjunctions for, and, nor, but, or, yet , and so .
• Subordinating conjunctions : they connect a main clause to a subordinate clause, creating a causal, purposeful, or temporal link between the two parts. The most common subordinating conjunctions are b ecause, since, as, although, though, while , and whereas . Also read our article on English conjunctions.
  

Interjection / Interjection

Interjections – also called exclamations – are invariable parts that we use to express emotions such as surprise, excitement, relief, disappointment, etc. Let’s look at some examples of interjections: wow, ouch, hooray, oh. Exclamations are followed by a comma, usually at the beginning of the sentence.

Be careful: Italian and English interjections are different: for example, we don’t say ouch but ahi, not oops but ops. In short, don’t consider them wild cards in all languages!

Do the variable and invariable parts of speech sound more familiar to you now? If you want to discover our fun and interactive method for boys and girls, book a free online English lesson with Novakid. 

And now take the online test on the parts of speech. Below are the first 4 lines of the song “Hey Jude” by The Beatles. We have highlighted 10 words. Identify which part of speech it is, choosing it from those suggested:

Hey Jude , don’t make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better. Remember to let her into your heart , Then you can start to make it better.