Question

in this sentence, the bold word or phrase below is...
surrounded by her friends, princess fiona blew out the candles on her birthday cake.
a verb not a verb

Explanation:

The word "Surrounded" here is a past participle functioning as an adjective (part of a participial phrase acting as an adverbial phrase to describe the situation of Princess Fiona). A verb typically shows an action or state that the subject performs or is in. Since "Surrounded" is not functioning as a main verb (the main verb is "blew") and is instead describing a state, it is not a verb in the traditional finite verb sense here.

Answer:

Not a Verb