Language: grammar and vocabulary

Nouns, verbs and adjectives

Sort a word by the job it does in a sentence.

Every word in a sentence has a job to do. Three of the most common jobs are naming something, doing something, and describing something.

Noun — a naming word

A person, a place, an animal or a thing. Teacher, river, dog, table.

Verb — a doing word

An action, something that happens. Run, sing, read, build.

Adjective — a describing word

It tells you more about a noun. Tiny, bright, cold, happy.

Worked example

Let us take the sentence: The old dog barked loudly.

  1. "dog" is a noun.

    It names an animal.

A good test: if you can put "a" or "the" in front of it, it is probably a noun. If you can put "I can" in front of it, it is probably a verb.

Try it together

Let us find all three jobs in one short sentence.

The sentence is: The small bird sang.

    1.Which word names the animal? Write one word.

    Have a go

    Which word is the verb in "The happy dog barked"?

    Ready to practise?

    Eight questions on what you have just read. Nothing is timed, and you can play as many times as you like.

    Print a worksheet