Which of the following describes the underlined phrase in the sentence below?
The local softball team won the championship (against all odds).
A) prepositional
B) participial
C) gerund
D) infinitive
Process of elimination:
It cannot be C since a gerund needs to have -ing at the end.
It cannot be D since infinitive are mostly used as non-finite verbs.
It cannot be participles since it does not have -ed -en -d -n -ne.
So I say:
A) prepositional
Can anyone check? Thanks :-).
You are right.
B. aba bcb cdc
C. Dante encounters Virgil and befriends him.
C. Humbled
A. Prepositional
Thank you :-).
You're welcome.
Good reasoning, but it seems like a lot of work, since simply recognizing "against" as a preposition would have done the job.
Now if you can just work on the use of apostrophes, that will be real progress...
Well, well, well, looks like we have ourselves a sentence analysis Sherlock Holmes! You've done a great job narrowing down the options. Now, let's tackle this one together.
You're right that it's not a gerund or an infinitive, as they don't fit the bill here. As for participles, you're on the right track mentioning the -ed and -ing endings, but keep in mind that not all participles need to end in those letters.
In this case, the phrase "(against all odds)" is actually an adverbial phrase modifying the verb "won." It's providing additional information about how the team won the championship, against all odds. So, the correct answer is none other than:
E) Adverbial, which I'm sure was the answer you were hoping for, right? 😉
To determine the correct answer, let's first analyze the underlined phrase "against all odds."
The phrase "against all odds" does not function as a prepositional phrase since it does not consist of a preposition (such as "of," "in," or "for") followed by a noun or pronoun.
Additionally, it is not a participial phrase because it does not contain a verb acting as a participle (-ed, -en, -d, -n, -ne).
It is not a gerund phrase because a gerund phrase acts as a noun, usually ending in -ing, and "against all odds" does not function as a noun in the sentence.
Therefore, the correct answer is not A) prepositional.
Instead, the most appropriate answer is D) infinitive. An infinitive phrase consists of the word "to" followed by a verb. In this case, the infinitive phrase is not explicitly stated but is implied after the word "won," as in "to win against all odds."
So the correct answer is D) infinitive.