Introduction
There are eight generally recognized parts of speech in the English language. For the purposes of the CLT, we will focus on the four that are most commonly confused with each other: noun, verb, adjective, and adverb. The reason these three forms can be confused is that the same root can often be rendered as any of these four parts of speech. Consider the idea of direct. The word itself could be either an adjective or a verb, while directly constitutes an adverbial form of the same idea. Meanwhile, direction is a noun related to the verb form. This doesn’t even include other related forms like directive and directory. Because the same root idea can be associated with so many parts of speech, the CLT will test you to see if you can recognize the proper part of speech for a particular context.
Approach Question
Should you leave the sentence below as it is or opt for one of the three alternatives listed in the answer choices?
The boy, hoping to avoid detection and play a prank, crept silent into his sister’s room.
- NO CHANGE
- silently
- silence
- silencing
We know that the boy was all about silence in this situation, but what form fits the grammar of the sentence? We know that a sentence requires a main verb, but it has the main verb “crept” already. The only verb in the answer choices is “silencing”, which doesn’t belong right after the main verb “crept”. (That’s if we don’t consider the answer choice “silence” a verb, but if it were, there would be no place for it since the main verb is already present.)
We don’t need a noun after the verb “crept”; this verb is known as intransitive because it does not take an object. Unlike a verb like “love”, which normally needs an object to describe the person or thing that is loved, “crept” stands on its own. So the noun “silence” would not work right after “crept”.
That leaves the two most likely answers: the adjective and the adverb. The adjective “silent” could certainly describe the boy, but the sentence does not describe the boy as silent so much as his creeping. The way he creeps is silent, which means we need an adverb here since an adverb is used to modify a verb (it can also modify an adjective or an adverb). Adverbs (except for irregular forms like “well” in “she did well”) end in “-ly”. “Silently” is the best answer.
Part 1: General Strategy
- Know your parts of speech.
-
Nouns name a person, place, thing, or idea.
Nouns may be singular or plural.
- The park is a great place to play.
- Love is one of life’s great joys.
-
Verbs indicate action or state.
- She runs daily.
- Tulips are my favorite flower.
-
Adjectives describe nouns.
- He is my best friend.
- This view is sublime.
-
Adjectives modify verbs, adjectives, or other adverbs.
- I want to do better than I did last time.
- This book is vastly superior to the last one I read.
- I’m afraid you did extremely poorly on this assignment.
- Distinguish adjectives from adverbs.
- Incorrect Example: You did really good.
- Correct Example: You did really well.
- Incorrect Example: I’ve been sick for a week and still feel badly.
- Correct Example: I’ve been sick for a week and still feel bad.
- Look at the context to determine the function of the word in question.
- Ask what other words or phrases the word describes, modifies, or governs.
- Check endings to identify part of speech (e.g., “-ly for adverbs)._
Practice Passage
In this section, you’ll find an excerpt from Martin Luther’s On Christian Liberty: A Letter to Pope Leo X, published in the public domain by The Gutenberg Project. We have included five Part of Speech questions to go with the passage.
Among those monstrous evils of this age with which I have now for three years been waging war, I am sometimes compelled to look to you and to call you to mind, most blessed father Leo. In truth, since you alone are everywhere considered as being the cause of my [1] engaging in war, I cannot at any time fail to remember you; and although I have been compelled by the causeless raging of your impious flatterers against me to appeal from your seat to a future council—fearless of the futile decrees of your predecessors Pius and Julius, who in their foolish tyranny prohibited such an action—yet I have never been so alienated in feeling from your Blessedness as not to have sought with all my might, in diligent prayer and crying to God, all the best gifts for you and for your see. But those who have hitherto endeavored to terrify me with the majesty of your name and authority, I have begun quite to despise and triumph over. One thing I see remaining which I cannot despise, and this has been the reason of my writing anew to your Blessedness: namely, that I find that blame is cast on me, and that it is imputed to me as a great offense, that in my rashness I am judged to have spared not even your person.
Now, to confess the truth openly, I am conscious that, whenever I have had to mention your person, I have said nothing of you but what was [2] honor and good. If I had done otherwise, I could by no means have approved my own conduct, but should have supported with all my power the judgment of those men concerning me, nor would anything have pleased me better, than to recant such rashness and impiety. I have called you Daniel in Babylon; and every reader thoroughly knows with what distinguished zeal I defended your conspicuous innocence against Silvester, who tried to stain it. Indeed, the published opinion of so many great men and the repute of your blameless life are too widely famed and too much reverenced throughout the world to be assailable by any man, of however great name, or by any arts. I am not so foolish as to attack one whom everybody praises; nay, it has been and always will be my desire not to attack even those whom public repute disgraces. I am not delighted at the faults of any man, since I am very conscious myself of the great beam in my own eye, nor can I be the first to cast a stone at the adulteress.
I have indeed inveighed [3] sharper against impious doctrines, and I have not been slack to censure my adversaries on account, not of their bad morals, but of their impiety. And for this I am so far from being sorry that I have brought my mind to despise the judgments of men and to persevere in this vehement zeal, according to the example of Christ, who, in His zeal, calls His adversaries a generation of vipers, blind, hypocrites, and children of the devil. Paul, too, charges the sorcerer with being a child of the devil, full of all subtlety and all [4] malicious; and defames certain persons as evil workers, dogs, and deceivers. In the opinion of those delicate-eared persons, nothing could be more bitter or intemperate than Paul’s language. What can be more bitter than the words of the prophets? The ears of our generation have been made so delicate by the senseless multitude of flatterers that, as soon as we perceive that anything of ours is not approved of, we cry out that we are being bitterly assailed; and when we can repel the truth by no other pretense, we escape by attributing bitterness, impatience, intemperance, to our adversaries. What would be the use of salt if it were not pungent, or of the edge of the sword if it did not slay? Accursed is the man who does the work of the Lord deceitfully.
Wherefore, most excellent Leo, I beseech you to accept my vindication, made in this letter, and to persuade yourself that I have never thought any evil concerning your person; further, that I am one who [5] desire that eternal blessing may fall to your lot, and that I have no dispute with any man concerning morals, but only concerning the word of truth. In all other things I will yield to anyone, but I neither can nor will forsake and deny the word. He who thinks otherwise of me, or has taken in my words in another sense, does not think rightly, and has not taken in the truth.
- engaging
A. NO CHANGE
B. engage
C. engagingly
D. engages
The answer is A. The word in question is immediately preceded by “my”, suggesting that it is something possessed by the author. But the root “engage” points not to a thing but to an idea; this makes our desired form a noun. “Engagement” would work well but is not presented as one of the options. We can rule out the two verbs and the one adverb in the answer choices, however. “Engaging” is the only one left, and the “-ing” form points to a gerund, which is a verbal form with “-ing” used grammatically as a noun.
- honor
A. NO CHANGE
B. honorably
C. honorable
D. honoring
The answer is C. We can be thankful for a significant hint whenever we see two words connected by “and”. This virtually always means they are the same part of speech. So if “good” is an adjective in this context, then our form of “honor” should be too. “Honorable” works best.
We can also look at the broader context: “I have said nothing of you but what was _____.” This sentence expects a form called the predicate adjective. It occurs in the predicate, that is, after the main verb and on the opposite side from the subject. But it is an adjective, not a noun, but it follows the verb “to be” and describes something in the subject-verb part of the sentence–in this case, what it was that Luther said about the pope. What he said was honorable. “Honoring” is close here, as it could possibly be functioning as an adjective, but “honorable” is much more clearly the adjective we are looking for.
- sharper
A. NO CHANGE
B. sharp
C. sharply
D. sharpness
The answer is C. Do you know what the word “inveighed” means? If not, do not despair. You can use the structure of the sentence to figure out that it must be a verb, not only because of the “-ed” ending but also because it follows “I have.” The author has done something even if we don’t know it is! (“Inveigh against” means to angrily criticize.) The question is, How has he done it? Do you see the call for the adverb here? That’s the only part of speech that makes sense because our subject, verb, and object are already in place. All that remains is to describe the manner in which he has angrily criticized impious doctrines. An “-ly” form works best; none of the answer choices offer adverbs.
- malicious
A. NO CHANGE
B. malice
C. maligning
D. maliciously
The answer is B. We again have two similar ideas connected by “and”; the fact that both “subtlety” and this form are both preceded by “all” doesn’t change that fact. But “all”, being an adjective, makes it all the clearer that we need a noun in this context, something that can work in parallel with “subtlety”. “Malicious” is an adjective, “maliciously” is an adverb, and “maligning” is a verbal form. “Malice” is the noun we want.
- desire
A. NO CHANGE
B. desires
C. desirous
D. desiring
The answer is B. This question is a bit tougher than some others because it offers us similar verb forms. But first, let’s rule out “desirous” because that is an adjective; it would need to describe a noun, but the context says, “I am one who ____”. “Who” is beginning a new clause that needs a verb. The other three forms are all verb forms, but since this clause needs a main verb after “who” an “-ing” form like “desiring” cannot work. This question actually comes down, at this point, to subject/verb agreement; we need to appropriately follow the relative pronoun “who” and its antecedent. “Who” points back to “I”, which refers to the author; this is a singular noun. So we need a verb in the singular; “desires” is our singular verb.
For Reflection
- Rate the difficulty of CLT Part of Speech questions for you from 1 (no problem) to 5 (problem!). This will help you decide how much time to spend preparing for this passage.
- Remind yourself of the differences between nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Can you quickly identify these parts of speech?
