Word Classes for KS2 — Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives & More

Word class questions come up on the GPS paper every single year. Children are asked to identify nouns, verbs, adjectives and more within sentences. Here's a clear guide to all eight word classes your child needs to know.

Nouns

A noun is a naming word — a person, place, thing or idea.

Common nouns: dog, school, happiness, team

Proper nouns: London, Tuesday, Sarah (always capitalised)

Test: can you put “the” or “a” in front of it? “The happiness”, “a dog” — yes, they’re nouns.

Verbs

A verb is a doing word or a being word. Every sentence needs at least one.

Action verbs: run, eat, calculate, whisper

Being verbs: is, was, were, am, are

Watch out for verbs in disguise: “The running water was cold.” Here, “running” is acting as an adjective (describing the water), not a verb.

Adjectives

An adjective describes a noun. It tells you what something is like.

The enormous, grey elephant trampled the tall grass.

Adjectives: enormous, grey, tall

Adverbs

An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Many (but not all) end in “-ly”.

She ran quickly. (modifies the verb “ran”)

It was extremely cold. (modifies the adjective “cold”)

He always arrives late. (adverb of frequency)

Not all adverbs end in “-ly”: “often”, “never”, “very”, “soon” and “well” are all adverbs.

Pronouns, Prepositions, Conjunctions & Determiners

Pronouns replace nouns to avoid repetition: he, she, it, they, them, we, who, which. “Sam ate his lunch” — “his” is a pronoun.
Prepositions show position or time: in, on, under, behind, before, after, during, between. “The cat hid under the table.”
Conjunctions join words, phrases or clauses: and, but, or, because, although, when, if, so. “I was tired but I kept going.”
Determiners come before a noun to specify it: the, a, an, this, that, some, every, my, your. “Every child received a medal.”

SATs-Style Example Question

“Circle the adverb in the sentence below: The children played happily in the park.”

Answer: happily

It tells us how the children played (modifies the verb “played”).

“What word class is ‘light’ in this sentence: She carried a light bag.”

Answer: adjective

Here “light” describes the bag (how heavy it is). But in “Turn on the light”, it would be a noun.

Common Mistakes to Watch For

Words that change class — “run” can be a verb (“I run fast”) or a noun (“a morning run”). Always look at how the word is used in that sentence.
Thinking all “-ly” words are adverbs — “friendly”, “lovely” and “lonely” are adjectives.
Confusing adjectives and adverbs — adjectives describe nouns; adverbs describe verbs (or adjectives/adverbs).
Forgetting determiners — “the”, “a” and “an” are determiners, not adjectives.

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