Part of speech The eight parts of speech in English are: 1. Noun: A word that represents a person, place, thing, or idea. Example: cat, happiness, school 2. Pronoun: A word that takes the place of a noun. Example: he, she, it, they 3. Verb: A word that expresses action or a state of being. Example: run, jump, is, are 4. Adjective: A word that describes or modifies a noun or pronoun. Example: happy, tall, blue 5. Adverb: A word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb. Example: quickly,