Question

Name the part of speech of the underlined word in the following sentence:

I will watch while you sleep.

• A. Adverb
• B. Noun
• C. Preposition
• D. Conjunction

Answer 1

Answer: (D)

Conjunction

'While' has multiple parts of speech, depending on the context of the sentence. 'While' as an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb, it means 'during which'. As 'while' does not modify any of these in the given sentence, option A is incorrect. 'While' as a noun does not modify pronouns, and 'you' is a pronoun, also, 'while' (noun) refers to 'a period of time', as it doesn't refer to any period of time here, it is not a noun and option B is incorrect. Prepositions and conjunctions may have the same words, but they are distinguished depending on their function. A preposition links the noun or pronoun to the rest of the sentence, without which the sentence would not be complete in its meaning, like 'on' in 'on the table' or 'into' in 'into the street', whereas a conjunction links a clause or a sentence to another clause or sentence, "you sleep" is a clause, hence 'while' is a conjunction and not a preposition. Hence, option C is incorrect and Option D is correct.