Identify the grammatical function of one highlighted word in its sentence.
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Practise it now
Only one of these words belongs in the gap. Keep it, and throw the rest away.
This exercise practises classify a word in context alongside its own main skill, Cloze Sentences.
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A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
Working out what the gap has to do
Worked example: read what the gap has to do, then see why only one form of the word can do it.
Every choice comes from one word family. Decide what job the gap does before you choose.
A … plank is exactly what the job needed.
Choices for the gap: roughly, roughness, rough.
Answer: rough
How you get there
The gap describes the kind of plank the job needed, and "rough" is the only form of this word that can do that job. "roughness" names the quality itself, which is not what this gap needs; "roughly" tells you how something is done, which is not what this gap needs.
Why the other answers tempt
Every option is a real word and every option belongs to the same family, so none of them looks wrong on its own. Only one of them can do the job this gap does.
If they are stuck, say this
Decide what job the gap has before you look at the words on offer: is it describing something, telling you how something was done, or naming the quality itself?
Only one of these words belongs in the gap. Keep it, and throw the rest away.
This engine’s own main skill is Cloze Sentences. It practises classify a word in context alongside it.
Cloze questions are marked on two things at once, and you have to check both. First comes word class: after "was so" the sentence needs an adjective, a word that describes the path, which is why steeply (an adverb, describing how something happens) and steepness (a noun, the name of a quality) cannot go in however sensible they sound. Second comes meaning, and that is what separates the adjectives that are left: gentle is the right class but the wrong sense, because a gentle path would not force you to rest twice, and mountainous describes a whole region rather than one path. Steep passes both tests, so it is the answer. Read the finished sentence back to yourself every time, because your ear will catch an error your eye slides over.
What to say if they get stuck
Read the whole sentence out loud with the word dropped in. If it sounds wrong, it is wrong.
The word comes straight after "so", which means it has to describe the path itself, not how something was done.
Two of the cards are the right kind of word. Pick the one whose meaning explains why you had to stop and rest.
Lift the extra phrase out of the sentence, then fit the right verb into the gap.
This engine’s own main skill is Subject-Verb Agreement. It practises classify a word in context alongside it.
The subject of this sentence is "box", not "pencils". "Of coloured pencils" is a prepositional phrase that only describes the box, and a subject never lives inside one. One box is singular, so it takes the singular verb "was". Lift the phrase out and the sentence tells you the answer itself.
What to say if they get stuck
Grab the little handle on "of coloured pencils" and drag the whole phrase upwards.
Read what is left behind: "The box ___ on the art room shelf." What is the sentence actually about?
The subject can never hide inside a phrase beginning with "of". One box, so: "was".
The 11+ does not test these skills in isolation, and practising one in the wrong order wastes the practice. These are the skills the curriculum map connects this one to.
Agreement requires locating the grammatical subject.
How classify a word in context differs from the skills beside it
The same exercise practises several skills, and telling them apart is often the difficulty rather than the exercise itself. On this page the skill is: identify the grammatical function of one highlighted word in its sentence, and it stops where classify contextual function, not a word in isolation.
Questions parents ask about classify a word in context
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Identify the grammatical function of one highlighted word in its sentence. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the grammar strand, and this page carries 2 interactive exercises that practise it.
Every option is a real word and every option belongs to the same family, so none of them looks wrong on its own. Only one of them can do the job this gap does. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Decide what job the gap has before you look at the words on offer: is it describing something, telling you how something was done, or naming the quality itself?
Once it is secure, the skill map opens match subject and verb. Agreement requires locating the grammatical subject.
The skill map draws the line here: Classify contextual function, not a word in isolation. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The grammar strand holds 9 skills that are tested together, and the pages next to classify a word in context are complete a finite clause, distinguish contraction and possession and distinguish a phrase and clause. Each has its own exercise and its own link, and none of them needs an account.
Use Mind the Gap and Sentence Surgery, embedded on this page. They are the exercises the skill map attaches to classify a word in context, they run in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. Each also has its own link, so you can send one to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
Classify a word in context is the step before match subject and verb
A free diagnostic maps the whole run of skills either side of this one, so practice follows the order the paper actually needs.
