Every word in a statement may contribute value to a conceptual model. Therefore, none of the words in a statement should be eliminated arbitrarily. Every word should be at least considered (rather than merely discarded).

• Nouns, verbs and descriptive adjectives contribute concepts.
• Predicative prepositions contribute arguments to verbs.
• Genitive prepositions contribute relations to nouns.
• Limiting adjectives contribute cardinality information.
• Articles can also indicate cardinality.
• Descriptive adverbs are often merely dressed up adjectives.
• Conjunctions can link clauses to build rules.
• Interjections can guide users toward correct system usage.

The following figure shows a simplified model of the relationships between the word classes, indicating how they function with respect to each other in phrases and sentences.

A more detailed analysis of English language and grammar examines each word class and the role it can play in conceptual modeling and software design.