Parts of Speech — Answer Key
Part A: Multiple Choice
Circle the best answer for each question.
1. Which word in this sentence is an interjection? "Well, I think we should start now."
A) think
B) should
C) well
D) now
"Well" at the beginning of this sentence expresses a pause or mild feeling before the main idea, which is the behavior of an interjection.
2. In "Neither the cat nor the dog wanted to go outside," what part of speech is nor?
A) adverb
B) preposition
C) conjunction
D) pronoun
"Nor" works with "neither" to join two nouns (cat and dog) as a pair, and words that connect ideas or items are conjunctions.
3. In "The warm soup tasted delicious," which word is an adjective that describes soup?
A) tasted
B) warm
C) delicious
D) soup
"Warm" tells the reader the temperature of the soup, and since it describes the noun "soup," it is an adjective.
4. Which sentence uses a pronoun as the subject?
A) The teacher read aloud.
B) Books filled the shelf.
C) They arrived early.
D) Music played softly.
"They" is a pronoun that serves as the subject of the sentence -- it performs the action of arriving, replacing a group of people's names.
Part B: Fill in the Blank
Write the correct answer on each line.
1. In "Bravo, you did an excellent job!" the word bravo is an interjection.
"Bravo" is shouted to express praise or admiration, and words that burst out to show strong feeling are interjections.
2. In "The boat sailed along the coast," the word along is a preposition.
"Along" shows the path the boat followed relative to the coast, and expressing direction or position is the function of a preposition.
3. In "She spoke clearly during the presentation," the adverb is clearly.
"Clearly" tells how she spoke -- it modifies the verb "spoke" by describing the manner of speaking, making it an adverb.
4. In "The students studied for the test, but some still felt nervous," the conjunction is but.
"But" connects two contrasting ideas -- the students studied, yet some still felt nervous -- which is the job of a conjunction.
5. In "Someone left a package at the door," the word someone is a pronoun.
"Someone" refers to an unknown person without naming them, which makes it an indefinite pronoun.