2023 · Q6
Each of the following sentences has word/words underlined. Read the sentence carefully and find which word class the underlined word/words belongs/belong to. Indicate your response on the Answer Sheet accordingly.
**Owing** to his ill health, he retired from business.
EnglishWord Classes
- AConjunction
- BPreposition
- CParticiple
- DDeterminer
Explanation
'Owing to' forms a phrase of reason equivalent to 'because of'; it introduces the noun phrase 'his ill health', which is the work of a preposition. A conjunction must join clauses, and there is no clause here, so (A) is impossible. Wren & Martin lists 'owing to' among phrase prepositions. Despite its -ing form, its function here is prepositional, not participial. Hence (B).