Eight Parts of Speech

by Antoinette
(Henderson, NC, United States)

Why is it important to learn the eight parts of speech, and how will it help you in work, school, and your personal life?

Ola's answer:

That's a very good question, and one that is not asked often enough, at least in my opinion ;)

"Why do we study the things we actually study?" That's key!

Anyway, to your question.

When one knows and understands the parts of speech, he can use it to understand individual words, and so understand the message of the speaker or writer.

Here is an example:

"It all sounds too well. I know there must be a catch."

Let's say you are not sure what exactly the word "catch" means in this sentence.

You look it up in a dictionary. It has many different definitions. It has definitions as both a verb and a noun.

At this point, knowing the parts of speech can help you determine whether in this sentence the word "catch" is used as a verb or a noun. So now you can tell that in this case it’s indeed a noun.

You check the definitions of "catch" as a noun in the dictionary, and find out it actually means "a hidden difficulty."

Now you know what it means and can understand the entire sentence! Handy ;)

And that's just one example :)