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Part of speech
open-in-new
<p>In <a href="/facts/Grammar/vprQsHIR">grammar</a>, a part of speech or part-of-speech (<a href="/facts/Abbreviation/VxBQfhII">abbreviated</a> as POS or PoS, also known as word class or grammatical category) is a category of words (or, more generally, of <a href="/facts/Lexical_item/DgsJgmjB">lexical items</a>) that have similar <a href="/facts/Grammar/vprQsHIR">grammatical</a> properties. Words that are assigned to the same part of speech generally display similar <a href="/facts/Syntax/6PxSV98p">syntactic</a> behavior (they play similar roles within the grammatical structure of sentences), sometimes similar <a href="/facts/Morphology_(linguistics)/fWkzsYE8">morphological</a> behavior in that they undergo <a href="/facts/Inflection/mhXSXpmJ">inflection</a> for similar properties and even similar <a href="/facts/Semantic/1L4WwLAP">semantic</a> behavior. Commonly listed <a href="/facts/English_language/tpkxGt7b">English</a> parts of speech are <a href="/facts/Noun/SsnDNfkX">noun</a>, <a href="/facts/Verb/zp42buvn">verb</a>, <a href="/facts/Adjective/0ohBjtmT">adjective</a>, <a href="/facts/Adverb/gDhqt9np">adverb</a>, <a href="/facts/Pronoun/UsbSNRSl">pronoun</a>, <a href="/facts/Preposition/Bhz0tAMI">preposition</a>, <a href="/facts/Conjunction_(grammar)/bKVVIpob">conjunction</a>, <a href="/facts/Interjection/CdhKlzmB">interjection</a>, <a href="/facts/Numeral_(linguistics)/9Pzgh1Rp">numeral</a>, <a href="/facts/Article_(grammar)/dLXmIPh1">article</a>, and <a href="/facts/Determiner/PENQvAFs">determiner</a>. </p><p>Other terms than <i>part of speech</i>—particularly in modern <a href="/facts/Linguistics/oQuamvf2">linguistic</a> classifications, which often make more precise distinctions than the traditional scheme does—include word class, lexical class, and lexical category. Some authors restrict the term <i>lexical category</i> to refer only to a particular type of <a href="/facts/Syntactic_category/5KqpcMEk">syntactic category</a>; for them the term excludes those parts of speech that are considered to be <a href="/facts/Function_word/jPkUvM2l">function words</a>, such as pronouns. The term form class is also used, although this has various conflicting definitions. Word classes may be classified as open or closed: <i>open classes</i> (typically including nouns, verbs and adjectives) acquire new members constantly, while <i>closed classes</i> (such as pronouns and conjunctions) acquire new members infrequently, if at all. </p><p>Almost all languages have the word classes noun and verb, but beyond these two there are significant variations among different languages. For example: </p> <ul><li><a href="/facts/Japanese_language/EEv485a5">Japanese</a> has as many as <a href="/facts/Japanese_adjectives/A8X1qCj0">three classes of adjectives</a>, where <a href="/facts/English_language/tpkxGt7b">English</a> has one.</li> <li><a href="/facts/Chinese_language/771ruUY1">Chinese</a>, <a href="/facts/Korean_language/dmNnRxAA">Korean</a>, <a href="/facts/Japanese_language/EEv485a5">Japanese</a> and <a href="/facts/Vietnamese_language/J3Pbx58C">Vietnamese</a> have a class of <a href="/facts/Classifier_(linguistics)/nWVQKzbz">nominal classifiers</a>.</li> <li>Many languages do not distinguish between adjectives and adverbs, or between adjectives and verbs (see <a href="/facts/Stative_verb/8GglTfgx">stative verb</a>).</li></ul> <p>Because of such variation in the number of categories and their identifying properties, analysis of parts of speech must be done for each individual language. Nevertheless, the labels for each category are assigned on the basis of universal criteria. </p>