KS2 English · Grammar · Year 3
Word classes
Nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs — what job is each word doing?
About 20 minutes
Step 1 · Wonder why it matters
Hook
Words have jobs
In a football team, every player has a job: a goalkeeper, defenders, midfielders and strikers.
Words in a sentence have jobs too. Knowing the job of each word helps you write better sentences and answer grammar questions in tests.
Step 2 · See it
Picture
See the team
Here is one sentence with each word labelled by its job.
| Word | Class | Its job |
|---|---|---|
| The | Determiner | Points to the noun |
| hungry | Adjective | Describes the noun |
| fox | Noun | Names a thing |
| ran | Verb | Says what happens |
| quickly | Adverb | Says how it happened |
Step 3 · Understand how it works
Logic
Testing each class
A noun names a person, place, thing or idea. Test: can you put “the” or “a” in front of it?
A verb is a doing or being word. Test: can you change its tense, like run → ran?
An adjective describes a noun. Test: does it fit in “the ___ dog”?
An adverb describes a verb — how, when, where or how often. Many end in “-ly”, but not all: soon, often and here are adverbs too.
- Noun
- A naming word: girl, London, table, happiness.
- Verb
- A doing or being word: jump, think, is.
- Adjective
- A describing word for a noun: tall, red, brave.
- Adverb
- A word that tells you more about a verb: slowly, yesterday.
Worked example
What class is “bravely” in “She bravely climbed the tree”?
- 1Which word does it describe? “climbed”.
- 2“Climbed” is a verb.
- 3A word describing a verb is an adverb.
Answer: “bravely” is an adverb.
Step 4 · Have a go
Do
Have a go
Use four colours of pencil or highlighter.
- 1Pick a page from a book you are reading.
- 2Choose one sentence and colour the nouns blue, verbs red, adjectives green and adverbs orange.
- 3Write your own sentence using at least one of each word class.
- 4Swap the adjective and adverb for different ones. How does the sentence change?
Step 5 · Remember it
Recall
Quick quiz
Use the tests from the Logic step.
0 of 4 answered
1.Which word is a noun? “The tiny kitten slept peacefully.”
2.Which word is a verb? “Our class visited the museum yesterday.”
3.In “She will arrive soon”, what class is “soon”?
4.Which sentence uses “fast” as an adjective?
Step 6 · Link it to your world
Reflect
Think about it
Good writers choose their words carefully.
Write a sentence about your favourite place using a powerful adjective and adverb.
Saved to your notebook on this device only.
Finished all six steps?
Mark it complete to collect 3 stars. Next up: Fronted adverbials.