noun substantive, noun adjective and noun numeral. Later the adjective became a separate class, as often did the numerals, and the English word noun came to be applied to substantives only. Classification Works of English grammar generally follow the pattern of the European tradition as described above, except that participles are now usually regarded as forms of verbs rather than as a separate part of speech, and numerals are often conflated with other parts of speech: nouns (cardinal numerals, e.g., "one", and collective numerals, e.g., "dozen"), adjectives (ordinal numerals, e.g., "first", and multiplier numerals, e.g., "single") and adverbs (multiplicative numerals, e.g., "once", and distributive numerals, e.g., "singly"). Eight or nine parts of speech are commonly listed: noun verb adjective adverb pronoun preposition conjunction interjection article* or (more recently) determiner Some traditional classifications consider articles to be adjectives, yielding eight parts of speech rather than nine. And some modern classifications define further classes in addition to these. For discussion see the sections below. The classification below, or slight expansions of it, is still followed in most dictionaries: Noun (names) a word or lexical item denoting any abstract (abstract noun: e.g. home) or concrete entity (concrete noun: e.g. house); a person (police officer, Michael), place (coastline, London), thing (necktie, television), idea (happiness), or quality (bravery). Nouns can also be classified as count nouns or non-count nouns; some can belong to either category. The most common part of speech; they are called naming words. Pronoun (replaces or places again) a substitute for a noun or noun phrase (them, he). Pronouns make sentences shorter and clearer since they replace nouns. Adjective (describes, limits) a modifier of a noun or pronoun (big, brave). Adjectives make the meaning of another word (noun) more precise. Verb (states action or being) a word denoting an action (walk), occurrence (happen), or state of being (be). Without a verb, a group of words cannot be a clause or sentence. Adverb (describes, limits) a modifier of an adjective, verb, or another adverb (very, quite). Adverbs make language more precise. Preposition (relates) a word that relates words to each other in a phrase or sentence and aids in syntactic context (in, of). Prepositions show the relationship between a noun or a pronoun with another word in the sentence. Conjunction (connects) a syntactic connector; links words, phrases, or clauses (and, but). Conjunctions connect words or group of words Interjection (expresses feelings and emotions)