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10 printable sets · answer key on every set

Parts of Speech Worksheets

  • CCSS L.3.1.a
  • 15 items per set
  • Answer key included

What this skill is

Identifying whether a word in a sentence is a noun, verb, or adjective, based on its job in that sentence.

When it comes up: Third grade.

The mistake to watch for

Classifying a word by what it usually is rather than what it's doing in this specific sentence — "run" is usually a verb, but in "she went for a run" it's a noun.

How to help

Ask what job the word is doing in that exact sentence, not what job it does most often. The sentence decides, not the word in isolation.

Next: Multisyllabic words, a decoding skill for the longer vocabulary third grade introduces.

A worked example

In 'The quick fox jumped', 'quick' describes the fox, so it is an adjective; 'fox' is a noun; 'jumped' is a verb. The part of speech depends on the job a word does in the sentence.

Words to know

noun
A word for a person, place or thing, like girl, school or ball.
verb
A word that tells an action or a state, like run, is or sing.
adjective
A word that describes a noun, like big, red or soft.
adverb
A word that tells how, when or where something happens, like quickly, soon or here.
sentence
A group of words that tells a whole thought. It starts with a capital letter and ends with punctuation.

Practice

Name the part of speech of the bracketed word.

Showing Set 1 · 15 items

  1. What part of speech is the word in brackets? He [jumped] over the fence.
  2. What part of speech is the word in brackets? A [bird] flew past the window.
  3. What part of speech is the word in brackets? It was a [tall] building.
  4. What part of speech is the word in brackets? The soup was [hot].
  5. What part of speech is the word in brackets? That was a [funny] story.
  6. What part of speech is the word in brackets? The [teacher] wrote on the board.
  7. What part of speech is the word in brackets? He [whispered] the answer.
  8. What part of speech is the word in brackets? The [river] flowed past the town.
  9. What part of speech is the word in brackets? We [climbed] the mountain.
  10. What part of speech is the word in brackets? The [dog] barked loudly.
  11. What part of speech is the word in brackets? It was a [cold] winter.
  12. What part of speech is the word in brackets? She [runs] every morning.
  13. What part of speech is the word in brackets? They [laughed] at the joke.
  14. What part of speech is the word in brackets? She wore a [bright] jacket.
  15. What part of speech is the word in brackets? The [engine] made a loud noise.

Download this set15 items · answer key included PDF

Answer key
  1. verb
  2. noun
  3. adjective
  4. adjective
  5. adjective
  6. noun
  7. verb
  8. noun
  9. verb
  10. noun
  11. adjective
  12. verb
  13. verb
  14. adjective
  15. noun

All 10 sets

Each set is a different list of 15 items with its own answer key. Use the buttons above to look at one on this page, or download any of them as a PDF.

How these sheets were made
  • Problems are generated for each set and checked against L.3.1.a before the sheet is built — no duplicates, and every problem falls inside the standard's number range.

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