A Guide to Parts of Speech.
The intent is to follow Oxford or Cambridge whenever possible, but to prefer modern pos tags (i.e. many is a det, not an adj) and to present the general case.
This is roughly in line with Google’s Trillion Word Corpus or COCA. So a word like ‘many’ will not be marked four times in the dictionary but maybe once or twice. We have it currently twice, as det and n-p. It came in from the Oxford 5000 as det. which I find odd since Oxford’s dictionary shows it as adj. So, we are not adverse to marking words our own way in order to show a general or streamlined case. This isn’t a Ph.D. grammar course, it’s ESL. It’s practical to a fault.
Optional extensions use slightly more descriptive tags to help the learners they are intended to serve.
| Tag | Full Form | Example | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| n | noun | dog, freedom | Includes both countable & uncountable nouns. |
| pn | pronoun | he, they, this, who | Personal, demonstrative, relative, etc. |
| adj | adjective | big, red, kind | Describes a noun. |
| adv | adverb | quickly, very, often | Modifies verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs. |
| v | verb (general) | run, be, have | You can subclassify (see below). |
| vt | transitive verb | see, make, eat | Takes a direct object. |
| vi | intransitive verb | sleep, go, arrive | No direct object. |
| aux | auxiliary / helping verb | be, do, have, will | Supports another verb. |
| prep | preposition | in, on, with | Shows relationship (place, time, etc.). |
| conj | conjunction | and, but, although | Connects words or clauses. |
| det | determiner | a, the, some, my | Introduces or limits a noun. |
| num | numeral | one, second, third | Can be cardinal or ordinal. |
| intj | interjection | oh!, wow! | Expresses emotion. |
| part | particle | to (infinitive), up (in look up) | Small words with grammatical roles. |
| modal | modal verb | can, should, must | Expresses ability, necessity, etc. |
| ger | gerund | running (is fun) | Verbal noun (-ing form used as noun). |
| inf | infinitive | to go, to see | Verb in base form preceded by to. |
| prep-phr | prepositional phrase | in front of, because of | Extension; Multiword prepositions. |
| adj-phr | adjective phrase | full of energy | Optional extension for learners. |
| adv-phr | adverb phrase | very quickly | Optional extension for learners. |