Word classes · Grade 4
Every word in a sentence belongs to a word class, depending on the job it does. The eight main word classes are nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, conjunctions and determiners. The same word can be in different classes in different sentences, so always look at its job.
Key facts
- Nouns name people, places, things and ideas: teacher, Cairo, idea. Pronouns stand in for nouns: she, it, them.
- Verbs are actions or states: run, think, is. Adverbs tell us how, when, where or how often: quickly, yesterday, here, often.
- Adjectives describe nouns: a brave firefighter. Determiners come before nouns and say which or how many: the, this, my, some, every.
- Prepositions link a noun to the rest of the sentence, often showing place or time: under, across, during. Conjunctions join words and clauses: and, but, because.
- The job decides the class: I went for a run (noun), They run every day (verb); a fast car (adjective), She runs fast (adverb).