Parts of Speech Highlighter

Type or paste any sentence and watch every word light up as a noun, verb, adjective, adverb and more — tap a word to learn why, fix it, or play “Tap all the nouns”.

Class 3–8 English Grammar 9 colour-coded classes Practice game

The eight parts of speech are noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. Newer CBSE grammar books add determiners (a, an, the, this, my) as a ninth class. In “Riya quickly read a new book”, Riya is a noun, quickly an adverb, read a verb, new an adjective and book a noun.

Your sentence

Type, paste a paragraph, or pick an example. Colours update as you type.

Colour-coded words

Hover or tap a word for its meaning. Click a colour below to spotlight one part of speech.

Automatic tagging can make mistakes. Many English words change their job with use — “light” can be a noun, verb or adjective. If a colour looks wrong, click the word and choose the right part of speech. Corrected words get a yellow dot.
Word-by-word table
#WordPart of speechTypeHow it was decided

Word count by part of speech

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Spot the pattern. Most sentences follow who/what (noun or pronoun) + does what (verb). Adjectives sit next to nouns; many adverbs end in -ly.
How it works

Every word has a job

The highlighter reads your sentence word by word, checks a built-in dictionary of common English words, looks at word endings and the words around it, then colours each word by the job it is doing.

Type a sentence

Or paste a paragraph from your English textbook, or tap an example.

Read the colours

Hover or tap any word to see its part of speech, its kind and why it was chosen.

Correct and count

Click a word to change its tag. The legend and the bar chart recount instantly.

Practise

Play “Tap all the nouns” with hand-checked sentences and try to beat your best score.

The eight classic parts of speech

Noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction and interjection. Newer CBSE grammar books add determiners — the articles a, an, the and words like this, my, some, every that come before a noun.

Older books call this book a demonstrative adjective and my book a possessive adjective — both names are fine.

Clues from word endings

  • Nouns: -ness, -tion, -ment, -ity, -ship, -hood (kindness, education, government)
  • Adjectives: -ful, -less, -ous, -able, -ive, -al (careful, famous, active)
  • Verbs: -ise/-ize, -ify, -ate (organise, simplify, create)
  • Adverbs: -ly (slowly, happily) — but friendly and lovely are adjectives!

Clues from position

  • After a / an / the comes a noun, often with adjectives in between: the tall tree.
  • After to, a base verb makes an infinitive: to play.
  • After can, will, must, should comes a verb: can swim.
  • A capital letter in the middle of a sentence usually means a proper noun: Ravi, Pune, Diwali.

Common mix-ups

  • fast — adjective in a fast train, adverb in she runs fast.
  • before — preposition in before lunch, conjunction in before you go.
  • that — determiner in that bag, pronoun in that is mine, conjunction in I know that you can.
  • swimming — verb in he is swimming, noun (gerund) in swimming is fun.
Teacher tip: turn on Show labels and switch to Classroom mode — the class can read the label under every word from the back of the room, then you can click words to discuss and correct them together.
Questions & answers

Parts of Speech Highlighter — your questions

What are the 8 parts of speech with examples?

Noun (Riya, school), pronoun (she, it), verb (runs, is), adjective (tall, blue), adverb (quickly, very), preposition (in, under), conjunction (and, because) and interjection (Oh!, Wow!). Each one names the job a word does in a sentence, not the word itself, so the same word can change its part of speech.

Is a determiner a part of speech?

In newer CBSE and NCERT grammar books, yes. Determiners are the words that come before a noun to point it out or count it: a, an, the, this, that, my, your, some, every, many. Older books call “this book” a demonstrative adjective and “my book” a possessive adjective. Both names are accepted in exams.

How do I find the part of speech of a word?

Look at the job it does in that sentence, not the word on its own. Ask: does it name something (noun), replace a name (pronoun), show an action or state (verb), describe a noun (adjective) or tell how, when or where (adverb)? In “she runs fast”, fast is an adverb; in “a fast train”, it is an adjective.

Can the same word be two parts of speech?

Yes, and this is the commonest exam trap. “Light” is a noun in “switch on the light”, a verb in “light the lamp” and an adjective in “a light bag”. “Before” is a preposition in “before lunch” and a conjunction in “before you go”. Always decide from the sentence.

Which word endings tell you the part of speech?

Nouns often end in -ness, -tion, -ment, -ity, -ship or -hood (kindness, education). Adjectives end in -ful, -less, -ous, -able, -ive or -al (careful, famous). Verbs end in -ise, -ify or -ate (organise, simplify). Adverbs usually end in -ly (slowly) — but friendly and lovely are adjectives.

Does this tool get every word right?

Not always. Automatic tagging uses a built-in dictionary, word endings and the surrounding words, and English words change their job with use. If a colour looks wrong, click the word and choose the correct part of speech — corrected words get a yellow dot and the counts and bar chart update straight away.