A Word on the Words

THOSE of us who were taught English (instead of whatever it is that is taught now) will remember the eight parts of speech.

They are the building blocks that all sentences in the language are made from.

But modern grammar often insists there are nine – or possibly 10 – parts of speech. The eight parts are: Nouns: “things” like Argentina, antelopes and wishes.

Pronouns: Words that replace nouns such as these, them, it.

Verbs: An action, state or occurrence, such as drop, buy, do.

Adjectives: words that describe, such as big, beautiful and bright.

Adverbs: words that describe adjectives, verbs or other adverbs such as carefully, slowly, fiercely.

Prepositions: words that relate nouns and pronouns or phrases to each other, such as in, through and across.

Conjunctions: words that link words, phrases and clauses, such as for, because and neither.

Interjections: words, usually at the start of sentences, that convey emotion such as yikes, gosh or eek.

Some, and I am one, insist articles (a, an, the) deserve to be the ninth part – despite the fact that there are only three of them.

Yet others believe numerals are the 10th part of speech. But these people are (how can I put this nicely?) wrong!