Question

Identify the part of speech of the underlined word in the following sentence:
Sit down and rest a while.
a. Noun
b. Adjective
c. Adverb
d. Preposition

Answer 1

Hint: The underlined word modifies the verb and gives us more information about it.

Complete step-by-step answer:

Parts of speech are categories of English Grammar that give different components of a sentence certain specific functions. Parts of speech are of eight types: Noun, Pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, conjunction, and interjection.
A noun is the name of a person, place, animal or thing. Pronouns are a class of words that replace any given noun. Verbs signify actions. Adjectives describe a given noun. Prepositions show the relation between two nouns or pronouns. Conjunctions join two words or phrases. Interjections are used to express strong feelings
For the purpose of this question, we will solely look at adverbs. Adverbs are words whose function is to modify the meaning of a verb. Sometimes, adverbs also modify phrases or sentences. There are many types of adverbs. They are adverbs of time, adverbs of frequency, adverbs of manner, adverbs of place, etc.
Let us look at an example of an adverb.
Ambition urges me onward.
In the above sentence, onward is the adverb that gives us more information about the verb urges. Many adverbs take the suffix ‘ly’ at the end of their adjective forms. E.g. slow- slowly.
Let us consider the question given above- Sit down and rest awhile.
Here, the underlined word tells us more about the verb rest. This means that a while is an adverb. Hence, option ‘c’ is the correct option.

Note: By understanding the context of the underlined word, you can easily reach the right answer.