<h3>The Eight Parts of Speech</h3><p>A <strong>part of speech</strong> (or word class) tells us the job a word does in a sentence. The eight main classes are:</p><ul><li><strong>Noun</strong> – names a person, place, animal, thing or idea (<em>Kisumu, farmer, courage</em>).</li><li><strong>Pronoun</strong> – replaces a noun (<em>he, she, it, they, we</em>).</li><li><strong>Verb</strong> – shows action or state of being (<em>plant, dance, is</em>).</li><li><strong>Adjective</strong> – describes a noun (<em>red, brave, ripe</em>).</li><li><strong>Adverb</strong> – describes a verb, adjective or adverb (<em>slowly, very, well</em>).</li><li><strong>Preposition</strong> – shows position or relationship (<em>on, in, between</em>).</li><li><strong>Conjunction</strong> – joins words or ideas (<em>and, but, because</em>).</li><li><strong>Interjection</strong> – shows sudden feeling (<em>Wow! Oh! Eish!</em>).</li></ul><div class="callout"><strong>Kenyan context:</strong> Look at the sentence: “<em>The</em> <strong>busy</strong> <strong>matatu</strong> <strong>raced</strong> <strong>quickly</strong> <strong>along</strong> the Thika road, <strong>and</strong> the conductor shouted, ‘<strong>Sonko!</strong>’” Here <em>matatu</em> is a noun, <em>busy</em> an adjective, <em>raced</em> a verb, <em>quickly</em> an adverb, <em>along</em> a preposition, <em>and</em> a conjunction, and <em>Sonko!</em> works like an interjection. Grammar is all around you on a Kenyan street.</div>