Parts of Speech — Noun Types, Pronoun Case, and the Adjective–Adverb Line

English has eight parts of speech — noun, pronoun, adjective, verb, adverb, preposition, conjunction, interjection — and the single most useful fact about them is this: a word does not own one. It borrows one from the job it is doing in the sentence in front of you.

Look at 'round'. The wheel is round — adjective. He bought a round of tea — noun. The earth rounds the sun — verb. He walked round the field — preposition. Come round this evening — adverb. Five parts of speech, one spelling, and no dictionary can settle it. Only the sentence can.

That is why 'identify the part of speech' questions are answered by asking what the word is doing, never by asking what the word usually is. This card set builds that habit through the three classes papers test hardest: nouns, pronouns, and the adjective–adverb line.

1. Choose the correct pair to complete the sentence: "The jury ______ divided in ______ opinion."

2. Which of the following is an abstract noun?

3. Fill in the blank: "Between you and ______, this plan will fail."

4. In formal usage, which completes the sentence correctly? "No one in our class sings better than ______."

5. In the sentence "She herself cooked the whole meal", the word 'herself' is:

6. Complete the sentence: "The soup tastes ______."

7. Which sentence means that he works with great effort?

8. Fill in the blank: "The candidate ______ the committee selected has resigned."