# Commands That Explain Themselves

Verb-noun names, parameters, short names, and finding and reading help for any command.

Updated: November 10, 2026

## [Names](https://www.ask-codey.com/courses/powershell-in-depth/topics/powershell-names)

1. [Verb-Noun: Names That Explain Themselves](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-verb-noun-names) (Novice): Every PowerShell command is named with a verb, a dash and a noun, such as Get-Process, so once you know the pattern you can guess a command's name before you look it up, and Get-Verb lists the verbs.
2. [Parameters, Values and Switches](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-parameters) (Novice): A parameter tells a command more about what you want, written as a dash and a name with a value after it, or as a switch with no value, and Tab and Ctrl+Space show you every parameter a command has.
3. [Short Names: Aliases](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-aliases) (Novice): An alias is a short second name for a command, such as ls or dir for Get-ChildItem, and Get-Alias shows what an alias really runs, so you can use short names at the prompt and full names in scripts.

## [Help](https://www.ask-codey.com/courses/powershell-in-depth/topics/powershell-help)

1. [Finding a Command: Get-Command](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-get-command) (Apprentice): Get-Command searches every command PowerShell knows, by its exact name, by its verb or noun, or by part of a name with the \* wildcard, and shows what kind of command each one is and which module it comes from, without running it.
2. [Reading Help: Get-Help](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/powershell-get-help) (Apprentice): Get-Help shows a command's help page once Update-Help has downloaded it, and its examples, its syntax lines and the about\_ topics let you work out a command you've never seen before you run it.

## [Exercise: Guess the Command](https://www.ask-codey.com/courses/powershell-in-depth/topics/exercise-powershell-guess-the-command)

1. [Exercise: Guess the Command](https://www.ask-codey.com/lessons/exercise-powershell-guess-the-command) (Apprentice): Answer eight questions from a bike shop's owner by guessing verb-noun commands and checking them with Get-Command, Get-Alias and Get-Help, write the answers in answers.txt, and let a Pester check tell you which are right.

Source: https://www.ask-codey.com/courses/powershell-in-depth/chapters/powershell-commands-that-explain-themselves