The following sentences illustrate the six parts of speech:
fahrenheit=. 50
(fahrenheit-32)*5%9
10
prices=. 3 1 4 2
orders=. 2 0 2 1
orders * prices
6 0 8 2
+/orders*prices
16
+/\1 2 3 4 5
1 3 6 10 15
bump=. +&1
bump prices
4 2 5 3
PARTS of SPEECH
50 fahrenheit Nouns/Pronouns
+ ΓÇô * % bump Verbs/Proverbs
/ \ Adverbs
& Conjunction
( ) Punctuation
=. Copula
Verbs act upon nouns to produce noun results; the nouns to which a particular verb applies are called its arguments. A verb may have two distinct (but usually related) meanings according to whether it is applied to one argument (to its right), or to two arguments (left and right). For example, 2%5 yields 0.4, and %5 yields 0.2.
An adverb acts upon a single noun or verb to its left. For example, +/ is a (derived) verb (which might be called plus over) that sums an argument list to which it is applied, and */ yields the product of a list. A conjunction applies to two arguments, which may be either nouns or verbs.
Punctuation is provided by paired parentheses that specify the sequence of execution as in elementary algebra.
The word =. behaves like the copulas "is" and "are" and is read as such, as in "area is 3 times 4" for area=. 3*4. The name area thus assigned is a pronoun and, as in English, it plays the role of a noun. Similar remarks apply to names assigned to verbs, adverbs, and conjunctions. Entry of any name alone displays its value.