The words that children tend to say first are naming words (common nouns and proper nouns). Then action words (verbs) are the second earliest type of word. Other words which are learnt early on are a few examples of modifiers (for example ‘more’), and personal-social phrases (for example ‘please’, ‘no’). There are eight main types of words, conventionally called parts of speech. Each word type is learned at different stages and fulfill different roles when used in sentences. The speed and order that children learn word types is dependent on age, but also on their language-learning experiences. Children need to learn different word types so they can start building their own sentences.  These include: 

  • nouns (including proper nouns) – Mom, dog, idea, rainbow, question, Alex 
  • pronouns
    • personal pronouns – I, you, they, him, she, their, his
    • demonstrative pronouns – this, these, that 
    • reflexive pronouns – myself, herself, ourselves  
  • determiners – the,  a,  an,  many, some 
  • adjectives – long, pointy, childish, imaginary, sisterly 
  • verbs – run, play, decide, sort, think 
  • adverbs – slowly, foolishly, very, mostly 
  • prepositions – in, at, on, off, into, onto, towards, to, about, with 
  • conjunctions – and, or, but, because, whenever, after, before