Parts of Speech for Kids

On this page, you will find out all kids need to know about adjectives, adverbs, nouns, antonyms, homonyms, and synonyms. 

The English language can be tricky; that why we at Kids Play and Create decided to make a page dedicated to parts of speech.

Check out our easy-to-understand definitions and examples.

What is an Adjective?

An adjective is a word that describes a noun.  Words that describe sounds, shapes, sizes, times, numbers/quantity, textures/touch, weather are all examples of adjectives.

Common Adjectives

First Grade

Colors:

blue, green, purple, orange, black, white, pink, red etc…

Size:

big, small, short, tall, fat, thin

Sounds:

loud, quiet

Shapes:

round, square, oval, triangular

Numbers:

one, two, many, few

Touch/Texture

rough, smooth, soft, hard

Weather

sunny, rainy, windy, dark, light, cloudy

2nd-3rd grade

letters A-C

angry
busy
brave
bumpy
cheerful
chilly
crispy
cruel

Letters D-H
dangerous
fat
fluffy
freezing
funny
furry
fuzzy
huge

Letters I-N
juicy
kind
lazy
long
lumpy
mean
messy
naughty
new
nice

Letters O-R
plump
pretty
proud
quick

Letters S-Z
short
simple
slimy
sloppy
slow
spiky
spoiled
sticky
stiff
still
stinky
strong
swollen
thin
tiny
tricky
weak
wise

Grades 4th-6th

Letters A-C

adventurous
absurd
alert
amusing
ancient
annoyed
anxious
apologetic
bashful
beautiful
bitter
brilliant
bulky
capable
cautious
challenging
charming
clever
compassionate
cozy
cranky
creative
creepy
cruel
curly

Letters D-H
damp
daring
delicate
delicious
disrespectful
dreadful
dull
ecstatic
endless
enormous
entertaining
exhausted
fantastic
foolish
frightened
furious
fussy
gentle
gigantic
gorgeous
graceful

Letters I-N
lousy
loyal
marvelous
naive
nervous
nimble

Letters  O-S
optimistic
petite
pleasant
polite
precise
prickly
salty
shocking
slick
slippery
sour
sparkling
straight
stubborn
stunning

Letters T-Z

temporary
terrified
timid
tricky
truthful
whimsical

What is an Adverb?

An adverb is a word that modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb.  What does that mean?  An adverb describes actions and other descriptive words.  You might be thinking isn’t that what an adjective does?  The English language can be confusing.  An adjective only describes a noun or pronoun, an adverb describes everything else.  An adverb also answers a question where, when, how, and how often.

Here is an example:

The curious toddler quietly opened the front door.

Curious is an adjective because it is describing the toddler (the noun).

Quietly is the adverb because it is describing how the toddler opened the door.

Example 2

The nervous girl waited anxiously to get on the school bus.

Nervous is an adjective because it is describing the girl (the noun)

Anxiously is an adverb because it is describing how the girl waited for the bus.

How do you find an adverb in a sentence?

There are a couple of ways to find an adverb in the sentence.  One trick to finding an adverb in the sentence is to look for the word with an ly at the end. Most adjectives turn into adverbs by adding an ly at the end of the word.

Another trick to finding an adverb in the sentence is to look for the interrogative adverb.  These are adverbs that begin with a question.

example

Where are you going?

Where is the adverb

How did you do that?

How is the adverb

When will you be back?

When is the adverb.

 List of Adverbs for Kids

How                      Where                   When                How Often

Accidentally           Anywhere               After                    Always

Angrily                    Away                     Already               Never

Awkwardly              Down                    Before                 Once

Bitterly                    Downstairs            Early                   Rarely

Boldly                      Everywhere          Finally                 Seldom

Carelessly               Far                        Last                    Sometimes

Charmingly              Here                    Late                     Twice

Cleverly                   Inside                  Later                     Yearly

Dangerously            Near                   Now

Eagerly                    Nearby               Recently

Effortlessly               Nowhere            Soon

Excitedly                  Outside               Yesterday

Forcefully                 There

Gracefully               Underground

Happily

Jokingly

Kindly

Lazily

Loudly

Nervously

Nosily

Quietly

Rudely

Sadly

Silently

Sharply

Silently

Skillfully

Slowly

Surely

Tastefully

Thankfully

Violently

Visually

Warmly

Wisely

Youthfully

Zig Zag

 Nouns

Noun- A word that identifies a person, place or thing

Proper Nouns A name used for an individual or place.  Proper nouns are spelled with capital letters

List of Nouns

Person

mom, dad, sister, brother, uncle, aunt, cousin, lady, woman, girl, boy, man, baby, teacher, lawyer, bus driver, dance teacher, coach, grandma, grandpa, doctor, dancer

Mrs. Jones, Janelle (proper nouns)

Place

mall, school, building, hall, backyard, office, store, car wash, locker, street, town, state, country, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room, dinning room, movie theater,  bus stop, supermarket, playground, field, train station, coliseum, stadium, ballpark

America, New York, England, Italy (proper nouns)

Thing

toys, books, crayons, pencils, dog, cats, cup, music, apple, stroller, bike, markers, bags, floor, cars, train, trucks, machine, money, cards, kitten, spider, oranges, pigs, horse, mouse, pizza, eggs, wheel, door, window, table, basketball hoop, dresser, picture, frame, socks, t.v, handle, crib, bed, mattress, pillow, grass, slide, hula hoop, basket

Antonyms, Synonyms, and Homonyms

Need help with the definitions for Antonyms, Synonyms, or Homonyms?  Need examples?  Look no further; kidsplayandcreate has got you covered!  Check out the definitions and list of examples below.

Antonyms are words that have opposite meanings.

Synonyms are words that have the same meaning or almost the same meaning.

Homonyms are words that sound the same or are spelled the same but have different meanings.

Common Antonyms

Add, Subtract
Agree, Disagree
Awake, Asleep
Bad, Good
Before, After
Best, Worse
Bottom, Top
Boy, Girl
Clean, Dirty
Closed, Open
Cold, Hot
Dangerous, Safe
Deep, Shallow
Dim, Bright
Down, Up
End, Start
Enter, Exit
Even, Odd
Fade, Brighten
False, True
Fat, Skinny
Give, Take
Good, Bad
Happy, Sad
Hard, Soft
Hero, Coward
High, Low
In, Out
Intelligent, Stupid
Join-Separate
Justice, Injustice
Kind, Mean
Left, Right
Lie, Truth
Light, Dark
Long, Short
Many, Few
Messy, Neat
Minor, Major
More, Less
Never, Always
Noisy, Quiet
Old, New
Open, Close
Outer, Inner
Past, Present
Poor, Rich
Powerful, Weak
Quick, Slow
Quiet, Loud
Real, Fake
Right, Wrong
Rich, Poor
Stop, Go
Sunny, Cloudy
Take, Give
Tame, Wild
Thick, Thin
Top, Bottom
True, False
Up, Down
Upstairs, Downstairs
Victory, Defeat
Villain, Hero
White, Black
Win, Loose
Yes, No
Young, Old
Zip, Unzip

Common Synonyms

Above, Over
Afraid, Frightened
Amazing, Fabulous
Bad, Wicked
Beautiful, Pretty
Begin, Start
Brave, Courageous
Center, Middle
Chef, Cook
Cool, Chilly
Decide, Choose
Difficulty, Hard
End, Terminate
Exit, Leave
Fall, Drop
Father, Dad
Get, Obtain
Glitter, Sparkle
Happy, Glad
Help, Assist
Home, House
Hurry, Rush
Idea, Thought
Infant, Baby
Ill, Sick
Joy, Delight
Little, Small
Loyal, Faithful
Mad, Angry
Make, Create
Mom, Mother
Neat, Clean
New, Original
Nice, Pleasant
Present, Gift
Polite, Courteous
Quick, Fast
Right, Correct
Scared, Afraid
Show, Display
Story, Tale
Stop, Pause
Strange, Weird
Talk, Speak
Tired, Sleep
True, Real
Ugly, Gross
Under, Beneath
Woman, Lady
Wrong, Mistake
Yell, Shout
Vacant, Empty

Common Homonyms

Aisle, I’ll, Isle
Ate, Eight
Base, Bass
By, Bye, Buy
Cell, Sell
Cereal, Serial
Close, Clothes
Chilly, Chile, Chili
Deer, Dear
Eye, I
Flour, Flower
For, Four, Fore
Grease, Greece
Hail, Hale
Hair, Hare
Hay, Hey,
Hail, Hale
Heard, Herd
Hole, Whole
Knead, Need
Knight, Night
Male, Mail
Meet, Meat
No, Know
Or, Ore
Plain, Plane
Poor, Pour
Rain, Rein
Right, Write
Rose, Rows
Sail, Sale
Tail, Tale
Their, There, They’re
To, Two, Too
Toe, Tow
Wail, Whale
Weather, Whether
Weight, Wait
Which, Witch
Who’s, Whose