NDA (II) 2024 General Ability Test · Question 40 of 141

Correct — A, Noun. In 'ready for take-off', the word 'take-off' comes after the preposition 'for' and names a thing — the act or event of the plane leaving the ground — so it is the object of the preposition and therefore a noun. It derives from the phrasal verb 'take off', but here it is a fixed, hyphenated compound noun, not a verb: the only finite verb in the sentence is 'is'. It is not a gerund either, because a gerund is an -ing verb form used as a noun (e.g. 'ready for leaving'), and 'take-off' has no -ing ending.

• (b)Conjunction — A conjunction joins words or clauses (and, but, because); 'take-off' joins nothing — it is the thing the plane is ready for.
• (c)Verb — The action word (finite verb) of the sentence is 'is'; 'take-off' names an event and performs no action here.
• (d)Gerund — A gerund is an -ing verb form acting as a noun; 'take-off' is a compound noun with no -ing form, so it is a plain noun, not a gerund.

Part-of-speech identification: a word that follows a preposition and names a thing is a noun (object of the preposition); distinguish compound nouns formed from phrasal verbs (take-off, breakup, takeover) from gerunds, which always end in -ing.

No directly related past PYQ was found.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Identify the part of speech of the underlined word: There was a sudden breakdown of the machine.

  • (a)Verb
  • (b)Noun
  • (c)Adjective
  • (d)Gerund

  Answer(b) Noun — 'breakdown' follows the article 'a' and names an event; it is a compound noun, not the verb 'break down'.

• practice — not a real PYQ

  Identify the part of speech of the underlined word: Swimming is good exercise.

  • (a)Noun
  • (b)Verb
  • (c)Gerund
  • (d)Adjective

  Answer(c) Gerund — 'Swimming' is an -ing verb form used as the subject (a noun-like role), i.e. a gerund.