A verb is a doing or action word, and can include passive verbs and active verbs. With an active verb, the subject does the action. For example, the word,’knitted,’ in ‘Erma’s grandmother knitted the shawl.’ With a passive verb the subject receives the action, for example, the word, ‘built,’ in,’The stairs were built by the craftsman.’ There are also past, present and future verbs.

An adjective describes a noun or pronoun. For example, ‘red,’ in, ‘a red apple.’ Or, ‘large,’ in, ‘a large bus.’ Or, ’round,’ in, ‘a round table.’

Nouns are things and can be either concrete, like tables, or abstract, like ideas. Proper nouns are names like places, which have a capital, like Australia, or people’s names, like Emily.

Determiners modify or tell us something else about the noun. These types of words can be elaborating on which it is or the numbers or amounts of the thing, but are not regular descriptive words such as an adjective. An example is the word, ‘four,’ in, ‘four red shoes.’ ‘An’ in, ‘an orange cat,’ is a determiner which is called an article. ‘These,’ in ‘These wild brumbies,’ is a demonstrative determiner.

Interjections are words and sentences which have exclamation marks and involve an exclamation extraneous to the regular text of a sentence. ‘Surprise!’ and ‘Ouch!’ are two examples of interjections.

Pronouns are words which take the place of nouns. Using them avoids having to repeat those nouns. For instance, ‘they’ instead of ‘thorns’ in, ‘they made it more difficult to pick the fruit.’ A personal pronoun takes the place of a person or thing, like the words, ‘he,’ and ‘she,’ and even ‘it,’ when used to replace something like a chair or bicycle.

An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb. An example is, ‘really,’ in, ‘She was really happy.’ Another example is, ‘very,’ in, ‘They were very late.’

A conjunction is a word which is placed between words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and so on. For instance, coordinating conjunctions are used where the things are similar, like, ‘and’ in, ‘hat and gloves.’ ‘Or’ and ‘but’ used in between like forms are also examples of coordinating conjunctions. A subordinating conjunction is a word which links a subordinate clause and a main clause. For example, ‘when,’ in, ‘Ask her when she has finished the test.’ Another example is ‘if,’ in, ‘the train will leave, if you do not make it to the platform on time.’ ‘Because’ and ‘as’ can also be subordinating conjunctions.

A preposition is a linking word which defines the relationship between a noun (or pronoun) and some other word or words in a sentence. There are hundreds of words that are prepositions. ‘In,’ ‘on,’ ‘at,’ ‘under,’ ‘between,’ and ‘behind,’ are all examples of prepositions. An example of the use of a preposition is ‘in’ in, ‘Tina lived in a four bedroom house.’ Another example is ‘on’ and ‘in’ in, ‘The cat usually slept on the fur rug in the lounge room.’