Question

Identify the object of the verb in the sentence:
Boarding a ship requires both dexterity and bravery.
a) dexterity, bravery
b) boarding a ship
c) requires
d) none of the above

Answer 1

Hint: The object of the verb is intrinsically connected to the verb in the sentence. It usually answers the questions ‘what’ or ‘who’.

Complete answer:
The object of a verb is the word-name for the thing which receives the verb's action. It is the word or phrase which is the recipient of the action of the transitive verb. It does not take the action. So, it answers the questions of ‘what’ and ‘who’.

Let’s deconstruct the given sentence:
“Boarding a ship” - Here, ‘boarding’ is a gerund. This is a noun phrase.
“requires both” - Here, the word ‘requires’ is a verb. The word ‘both’ is used as a determiner.
“dexterity and bravery” - These words are adjectives.

Now, we know the different parts of speech in the given sentence. Let’s look at the options:

a) dexterity, bravery - These are adjectives in the given sentence. These words answer the question - “Boarding a ship requires what?”. It is the required answer. So, the correct answer is “Option a”.
b) boarding a ship - The word ‘boarding is a gerund. This phrase makes for the subject of the sentence. This does not answer the question ‘what’. It is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
c) requires - This word is a verb in the Simple Present Tense. It aids to make the sentence universally relevant. However, it does not answer the question ‘what’. It is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
d) none of the above - This is an incorrect option, as we have already found the correct option in the above choices.

Note:
Try to understand the meaning and the context of the sentence and identify the different parts of the speech of the given sentence. Then, try to pick out the object of the given verbs.