Strictly speaking, English nursery rhymes can be divided into hymns and songs. The former focuses on rhythm and lacks musical instruments and spoken language, such as Hong En's "Buddy Beat English", while the latter has corresponding musical scores that can be played with musical instruments, such as Hong En's "Buddy English Nursery Rhyme". But in practice, people often refer to English nursery rhymes or English nursery rhymes as children in general, without making any specific distinction.

Second, according to the publishing form.

At present, there are two main forms of English children's songs published in the market. One is songs published in the form of music albums, such as crying series; Second, teach children's songs that are compatible with children's English textbooks and children's books, such as ladder English children's songs. According to the characteristics that English nursery rhymes are especially suitable for language sense enlightenment, many children's English educators will combine nursery rhymes with spelling (natural spelling) and visual words (220 high-frequency words in children's early reading) to create more nursery rhymes and make teaching more vivid.

Third, by age.

With the rise of early education in recent years, early education institutions, such as Gymboree and Fisher, as well as suppliers of maternal and child products, will teach according to children's age, specially select some short and pithy nursery rhymes, and adapt or create some English nursery rhymes that are more suitable for younger age groups according to the themes of numbers, letters and animals, which is equivalent to refining traditional English nursery rhymes by age groups.