Last updated on March 11th, 2023 at 01:24 pm
I think “Parts of Speech” is the most basic lesson in English Grammar. Unless you practice with parts of speech exercises, you are perhaps not qualified enough to systematically advance to other aspects of grammar.
So, before the ocean of grammar starts intimidating you, take on learning swimming……err….I mean…. parts of speech.
Opening Photo by Max Fischer from Pexels
Understanding Parts of Speech
Look at the following sentence . Its constituents or the parts of speech are detailed below. Try to learn by observation:
Ah! Look how the naughty girl Sita, is playing merrily with her friend who is autistic.
Ah! – Interjection (words expressing strong feelings)
Look – Verb (words expressing action)
How – Pronoun (words that substitute nouns or noun phrases)
The – Article (a, an or the – used before nouns)
Girl – Noun (words indicating people, places or things)
Sita – Noun
Is – helping verb (Comes before the main verb ‘playing’)
Playing – principal verb (Main verb, words expressing action)
Naughty – Adjective (words that add attributes to nouns and pronouns)
Merrily – Adverb (a word that modifies a verb or adjective or another adverb)
With – Preposition (a word placed before a noun or pronoun to express its relation with another word)
Her – pronoun
Friend – noun
Who – Conjunction
Is – helping verb
Autistic – adjective
For further reading on the topic: Parts of Speech Definitions and Examples (With more exercises)
Parts of Speech Exercises
Following are some parts of speech exercises. The difficulty level is low to medium. It’s important for the beginners to first solve easy exercises and then move on to more cryptic ones.
Q1: Identify the parts of speech of the highlighted words/ phrases in the following sentences:
- Sobia has gone to a distant market. She will buy a bag from there.
- The three musketeers lived prosperously in a citadel.
- They will evacuate the house by half past four.
- A kangaroo jumped and an ostrich ran out of the zoo gate.
- Oh! How many times did I forbid you from going to that dangerous place alone?
- I studied in this school during my childhood.
Answers:
- Sobia – Noun/ gone – verb/ distant – adjective/ market – noun/ She – pronoun/ from – preposition
- Three – adjective/ musketeers – noun/ lived – verb/ prosperously – adverb
- They – pronoun/ evacuate – verb/ house – noun/ by – preposition
- Kangaroo – noun/ jumped – verb/ out – preposition
- Oh – Interjection/ I – pronoun/ forbid – verb/ dangerous – adjective/ place- noun
- I – pronoun/ this – pronoun/ during – preposition/ childhood – noun
Q2: Are following statements true or false?
- He tried to arrive quickly. In this sentence, the word “quickly” is adjective.
- The mentor belittled his achievement. In this sentence, the word “achievement” is a noun.
- A white paper will be presented in the parliament. The word “white” in this sentence is an adjective.
- He is singing a melodious song. In this sentence, “is” is a pronoun.
- Bravo! We have won. In this sentence, the word “Bravo” is an interjection.
Answers:
- FALSE – The word “quickly” is an adverb.
- TRUE
- TRUE
- FALSE – The word “is” is an auxiliary verb.
- TRUE
Q3: Match the following types of nouns with those highlighted in the sentences:
TYPE OF NOUN | SENTENCES WITH HIGHLIGHTED WORDS |
1. ABSTRACT NOUN | The Alps cover a total area of 77,000 sq. mi. |
2. COMMON NOUN | Our friendship is now forty years old. |
3. UNCOUNTABLE NOUN | The jury decided to postpone the contest. |
4. COLLECTIVE NOUN | He is the boy who will fetch us the trophy. |
5. PROPER NOUN | One kilo of sugar costs rupees fifty. |
Answers:
- Alps – proper
- Friendship – abstract
- Jury – collective
- Boy – common
- Sugar – uncountable
More Parts of Speech Exercises to Come
I will keep loading more parts of speech exercises on this page. If you visit this page from time to time, you’ll get more exercises which will be of higher difficulty level. What I suggest is, you should bookmark this page and make weekly visits.
Apart from this, if you want to practice more with different kind of tests, you may visit my Instagram link: https://www.instagram.com/rajeshcpandey