Hinjax wrote:
Hi. In the following sentence can someone please highlight what part of speech each word is? I've got this particular sentence from
MGMAT Foundation Verbal, pg 124 and I am a little unsure with what's been highlighted in the book.
I understand "its tail" to be [subject pronoun] [noun] but
MGMAT book has highlighted "its" as adjective referring back to "dog".
Thanks.
Dear
Hinjax,
I'm happy to respond.
I totally agree with you. The word "
its" is a pronoun, a possessive pronoun. It's true that a possessive pronoun modifies a noun as a adjective would. On pp. 30-31 they call the pronouns "
my, your, her, his, its, our, their" function
possessive adjectives, which, according to them, kinda count as both an adjective and a pronoun. I don't know whether this classification sits well with me; I have not come across it in other grammar sources. This is an extremely subtle point, and to some extent a matter of taste. For the purposes of solving GMAT SC problems, you needn't worry about matters of taste in the subtleties of grammatical classification.
Does all this make sense?
Mike
_________________
Mike McGarry
Magoosh Test PrepEducation is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire. — William Butler Yeats (1865 – 1939)