What is this skill?
Every word in a sentence does a job, and the four big jobs for third graders are naming, acting, describing a thing and describing an action. A noun names a person, place or thing: teacher, park, library. A verb is an action or a state of being: jumped, whispered, borrow. An adjective describes a noun: fluffy, tiny, delicious. An adverb describes how, when or how often something happens: quickly, peacefully, always.
In this practice a sentence is shown with one word in capital letters, such as JUMPED in "The frog JUMPED into the pond," and the child picks its part of speech from four choices. The easy questions use clear words like teacher, park, fluffy and quickly. The harder ones use whispered, peacefully, always and kindness, a noun that names a feeling and not a thing you can touch. There are also sorting games: nouns and verbs, adjectives and nouns, verbs and adverbs, and three-way sorts of ocean words (ocean, float, salty, boat, dive, enormous) and library words (library, read, quietly, book, borrow, carefully).
Why it matters
Knowing the parts of speech gives a child a vocabulary for talking about writing. A teacher who says "use a stronger verb" or "add an adverb" is using these words, and a child who knows them can follow the advice and apply it.
It is also the base for nearly every grammar skill that comes next. Subject and verb agreement, prepositions and verb tenses in 4th and 5th grade all assume the child can tell a noun from a verb in a sentence.
Sorting words by job is a good habit because the same word can do different jobs. Look at a sentence, not a list, and ask what the word is doing in it. That habit helps in reading, too.
Common mistakes
- Calling an adverb an adjective. Both describe, but an adjective describes a thing (bright, quiet, soft) and an adverb describes an action (brightly, quietly, softly). A good test is to ask "describes what?" If the answer is a thing, it is an adjective.
- Assuming an -ly word is always an adverb or that adverbs always end in -ly. Words like always do not, and the practice includes always so children learn to ask what the word does, not how it ends.
- Thinking nouns must be things you can touch. Kindness names an idea, and it still gets the noun label.
- Marking an adjective after the verb as a verb, as in "The soup smells DELICIOUS." The word describes the soup, so it is an adjective, even though it sits in the part of the sentence where the action usually is.
How to help at home
- Play "swap the word." Take a sentence from a book and change one word to a different one that does the same job, such as dog to teacher or jumped to whispered. If the sentence still works, the job matches.
- Go on a noun, verb, adjective and adverb hunt. Give each family member a color and have them underline a different job in a page of their book.
- Ask for a stronger verb or a more exact adjective when a child writes a flat sentence. "Walked" can turn into "tiptoed," and the child is using the idea without worksheets.
- Print the free worksheet from this page for a quiet-time practice, and check it together using the answer key.
Worked examples
These are real questions from the Tutorsaurus parts of speech practice, with the answers worked out.
Example 1
What part of speech is the word FLUFFY?
Priya has a FLUFFY kitten.
Choices: Verb, Noun, Adjective, Adverb
Answer: Adjective. Fluffy is an adjective. It describes the kitten.
Example 2
Sort the ocean words into nouns, verbs, and adjectives.
To sort: ocean, float, salty, boat, dive, enormous
Answer: Nouns: ocean, boat · Verbs: float, dive · Adjectives: salty, enormous. Ocean and boat are nouns. Float and dive are verbs. Salty and enormous are adjectives that describe.
Example 3
What part of speech is the word KINDNESS?
Noah showed great KINDNESS.
Choices: Adjective, Adverb, Noun, Verb
Answer: Noun. Kindness is a noun. It names an idea or feeling, which is still a thing.
Printable worksheet (PDF) — one page of questions from this practice that work on paper, easier ones first, with an answer key on page 2. Free to print, no sign-up.