In the previous lesson, you learned about parts of speech, different uses of languages, and idioms. In this lesson we will continue practicing with parts of speech. This lesson will give you additional practice at identifying the part of speech that is needed in a sentence. During this lesson you will need to decide what part of speech is missing in the text.
- A sentence will be provided and you will need to read it carefully.
- One word will be missing from the sentence.
- You will then decide from the options provided what part of speech should be in the blank.
A quick review of the parts of speech:
- Noun – person, place, thing, or idea
- Pronoun – replaces a noun
- Verb – action word
- Adjective – describes a noun
- Adverb – describes a verb
- Preposition – links words of the sentence (ex. above, following, except, despite)
- Conjunction – links phrases in a sentence (ex. for, and, nor, but)
- Interjection – a word adding emotion to a sentence
Example 1
Summer days on the farm, sun high in the languid sky, air so still a body could almost hear the corn growing, the two girls ________ beneath the fence, scrambled down the slope through tall grass till they reached the place where mosquitoes hummed and cowslip grew along the creek. –
(“Geographies of Light” by Lisa Suhair Majaj)
What part of speech goes in the blank?
A) Noun
B) Verb
C) Adjective
D) Pronoun
E) Adverb
Explanation – The correct answer to this question is B. The sentence is missing the action. The part of speech that gives us action is the verb. A word that would fit in this spot is crawled.
Example 2
In the center of these developments stood the question whether that nation could continue to grow with the system of slavery or not. Inherently linked to an issue that _____________ dissolved the nation was the problem of racism and the future of race relations after emancipation.
(“Abraham Lincoln’s Attitudes on Slavery and Race” by Jörg Nagler)
What part of speech goes in the blank?
A) Noun
B) Pronoun
C) Adjective
D) Adverb
E) Verb
Explanation – The correct answer is D. The word that is missing is describing a verb. The part of speech that describes verbs is an adverb. A word that would fit well here would be almost.
Example 3
________ and film, movies and books, compare like apples and giraffes, said contemporary American writer Dennis Lehane.
(“Adapting History and Literature into Movies” by John Dean)
What part of speech goes in the blank?
A) Conjunction
B) Interjection
C) Noun
D) Verb
E) Adverb
Explanation – The correct answer to this question is C. The word missing seems to be part of the subject. The word and implies that it works with the word film to form the subject. A word that would fit in the sentence is literature.
Example 4
Tales evolve and ________ generation adjusts the stories of the past to the present time and to its modern needs and ways of story telling.
(“Adapting History and Literature into Movies” by John Dean)
What part of speech goes in the blank?
A) Adjective
B) Adverb
C) Conjunction
D) Noun
E) Verb
Explanation – The correct answer to this question is A. The word that is missing is describing the noun generation. The part of speech that describes a noun is an adjective. A word that would fit here would be one.