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When learning a new language, like Spanish, it’s good to know the basic parts of speech that help you make sense of things like word order (syntax) and verb conjugations (morphology). Some grammar concepts, like parts of speech, can easily transfer over from other languages to Spanish. So, you don’t need to become a grammar expert to learn basic Spanish. But knowing these fundamental building blocks will prepare you to start reading and listening to Spanish with confidence.

What are the parts of speech in Spanish?

Think of Spanish language parts of speech like the blocks that kids use to build a house. They start with a foundation and then place block after block next to one another until they make a row. This is similar to how you construct a sentence with the different parts of speech. You have the first block (or part) of speech, the second, and so forth—but some of these parts of speech in Spanish are interchangeable and don’t follow the rules that the same parts of speech in English do.

Before we get into the nitty gritty of each part of speech in the Spanish language, we’ll give you an example that serves as an overview. Look at this sentence, which uses all of the Spanish parts of speech (the English translation is below it):

¡Ay! El perro negro come el pollo rápidamente y lo devora en la cocina.
Oh! The black dog quickly eats the chicken and devours it in the kitchen.

You’ll notice that the word order is slightly different from Spanish to English. Below is the first part of the sentence in building block form, with each Spanish part of speech in its own box.

perro

negro

come

pollo

rápidamente

See how the sentence is like a row of building blocks? Sometimes, these blocks can be more easily rearranged in Spanish than in English, and we’ll talk about that later.

Parts of speech in Spanish chart

Using the original example sentence above, here’s a handy chart that gives an overview of the parts of speech in Spanish.

Part of speech	English translation	Use	Spanish example	English translation
sustantivos	nouns	indicate a person, place, or thing	perro	dog
verbos	verbs	show the action of a sentence	come	eats
preposiciones	prepositions	indicate the location or duration of something or someone	en	on
adjetivos	adjectives	describe a noun	negro	black
adverbios	adverbs	describe a verb	rápidamente	quickly
pronombres	pronouns	stand in for a nouns	lo	it
conjunciones	conjunctions	join two phrases or items	y	and
artículos	articles	clarify the nature of a noun	ella	the (masculine)the (feminine)
interjecciones	interjections	expresses surprise	ay	oh

Sustantivos (nouns)

Many of us remember the “person, place, or thing” theme from elementary school, but nouns are a lot more than that.

They can function as the subject of a sentence—meaning the inanimate object or being doing the action:

La niña juega todo el día. = The girl plays all day long.

They can also act as the object of a verb, which means they are the one receiving the action. Here, the post receives the impact of the car:

El carro pegó al poste. = The car hit the post.

Similarly, they can be the object of a preposition:

El abuelo se sentó en su silla favorita. = The grandfather sat in his favorite chair.

Nouns can also be a lot more conceptual or abstract:

La belleza está en el ojo del observador. = Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

Note: Spanish is a gendered language, which means nouns are considered masculine or feminine. These Spanish gender rules are important because noun genders also need to match their accompanying adjectives.

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Verbos (verbs)

You probably already have an idea of how verbs commonly follow nouns from the examples above. However, talking about verbs being action words can be a little misleading.

Sometimes there is a very active verb:

El volcán explotó. = The volcano erupted.

Yet, sometimes the verb is more about existence:

Hay un volcán en Puebla, México. = There is a volcano in Puebla, Mexico.

A verb can also have a more submissive sense:

Paola recibió una llamada. = Paola got a phone call.

Here, Paola is not exactly doing the action. Rather, she is on the receiving end of an action initiated by someone else. Still, Paola is the subject of the verb.

Spanish is not as strict as English when it comes to where the verb goes, thus the sentence from above can also be expressed like this:

Recibió una llamada Paola. = Paola got a phone call.

Verbs get conjugated in unique ways in Spanish, with each verb form having a special ending depending on who is speaking or doing the action. A good place to start is by learning the most common Spanish verbs and their conjugations.

Preposiciones (prepositions)

Prepositions help us know where a noun is located, usually in a physical way, but they can also help us talk about the duration of things like historical periods. In other words, Spanish prepositions help us talk about space and time in reference to a noun. Here’s an example:

El conejo está dentro de la caja. = The rabbit is inside the box.

Prepositions can also be used metaphorically:

Su mente está en las nubes. = His head is in the clouds.

As we mentioned, prepositions can be used to talk about time:

Durante la guerra, muchas personas quedaron sin casa. = During the war, many people were left homeless.

Adjetivos (adjectives)

Adjectives describe or modify nouns by making their nature clearer. Most adjectives in Spanish are placed after the noun they describe, and they should match that noun in gender and number.

un libro aburrido = a boring book
unos libros aburridos = some boring books

See how the plural form of a masculine noun (usually ending in “o”) has the “s” added to the noun and the adjective?

With a few exceptions, such as colors, it’s possible to place adjectives before the noun for emphasis:

la bella casa = the beautiful house
las bellas casas = the beautiful houses

Our list of 100+ adjectives and how to use them gives you more details about adjectives.

Adverbios (adverbs)

Just as adjectives modify nouns, adverbs modify verbs. They tell the reader or listener more details about the action of the sentence.

La tortuga cruza la calle lentamente. = The turtle crosses the street slowly.

The most common adjectives in Spanish often end in “-mente,” the equivalent of “-ly” in English, but not all of them do! An example is adverbs of frequency like siempre (always) and nunca (never).