4 Unbelievable Tricks to Identify Parts of Speech of a Word (Even Unknown)

This blog post will show you how to identify parts of speech of any word—even an unknown one—using simple clues and patterns. You’ll learn practical tips that make it easier to eliminate wrong options in exams and choose the right answers with confidence.

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If you are preparing for exams like the GRE, GMAT, SAT, or ACT, you already know how often you run into “fill-in-the-blank” questions.

Different exams may label them differently—on the GRE they’re called Text Completion and Sentence Equivalence questions, while on the SAT they often appear as vocabulary-in-context questions—but the challenge is essentially the same: you are given a sentence with a missing word and asked to choose the option that fits best.

Now here’s the tricky part: what if you don’t know the meaning of any of the words in the answer choices? At first glance, it feels like a dead end. But there’s a surprisingly powerful strategy you can use—figure out the part of speech of each option. 

Even if the vocabulary is unfamiliar, knowing whether a word functions as a noun, verb, adjective, or adverb can immediately eliminate wrong answers and give you valuable clues about which options could actually fit.

Is knowing parts of speech helpful in exam?

First, let’s consider whether it’s actually useful to rely on the parts-of-speech hint during the exam. The best way to understand this is through an example, so I’ll show you a simple, fill-in-the-blank question to illustrate how it works.

Example [one blank, one answer]:

While most people believe consumers make careful and logical purchasing decisions, recent studies show that buying behavior is often _______ rather than planned and thoughtful.

(A) premeditation
(B) impulsive
(C) spontaneity
(D) systematic
(E) organized

Explanation:

Notice how the sentence sets up a contrast. The first half talks about decisions that are described as “careful and logical.” Both of these are adjectives. The second half, after the blank, also describes the decisions—but in an opposite way. This creates a kind of mirror structure:

careful and logical ⟶ planned and thoughtful
vs.
___________ ⟶ [another adjective that contrasts with these qualities]

So the blank is clearly calling for an adjective.

Now look at the answer choices. Suppose you do not know the meanings of premeditation (option A) and spontaneity (option C). They may look difficult, but one quick check shows that they are both nouns. How do we know? Because words ending in -tion (like premeditation) or -eity (like spontaneity) are almost always nouns. Since the sentence requires an adjective, these two can be eliminated immediately.

That means you can immediately rule out (A) and (C)—without even knowing their meanings. Suddenly, you’ve narrowed your choices just by recognizing the parts of speech.

Looking at the options, we already ruled out (A) premeditation and (C) spontaneity because they are nouns, while the blank needs an adjective. (D) systematic and (E) organized are both adjectives, but notice that they mean almost the same thing as “planned and thoughtful,” so they cannot provide the contrast the sentence requires. 

That leaves (B) impulsive, which is an adjective and also directly contrasts with “planned and thoughtful.” Therefore, the correct answer is impulsive.

This is the real advantage: even when you do not know the meaning of a word, grammar can still guide you. By identifying the part of speech, you can eliminate options that simply cannot fit the blank and focus only on the ones that can. 

In fact, elimination is the most effective strategy for answering multiple-choice questions in exams like the GRE, GMAT, SAT, or ACT. 

The good news is that there are reliable clues you can use to tell whether an unfamiliar word is a noun, adjective, verb, or adverb.

These clues usually come from the way words are built—their endings or suffixes. And because most of the difficult vocabulary tested in these exams follows certain predictable patterns, learning these markers gives you a dependable way to recognise the part of speech of many unfamiliar words.

Some helpful tips to Identify the parts of speech of words

The tips you are about to see are just that—tips, not hard rules. English is full of exceptions, and words do not always behave the way you expect them to. 

Still, these markers are very useful. They work often enough to give you strong hints, as we saw in the earlier example with premeditation and spontaneity. 

Below, you will find the most common suffix clues for the word types that exams like the GRE, GMAT, SAT, and ACT test most frequently.

Clues to Identify Nouns

Nouns often end with:

• -tion / -sion (creation, decision, admission, conclusion, suggestion)
• -ity / -eity (simplicity, spontaneity, clarity, necessity, reality)
• -ment (enjoyment, development, movement, treatment, argument)
• -ness (happiness, darkness, kindness, sadness, awareness)
• -ance / -ence (resistance, persistence, performance, difference, confidence)

These endings usually signal a noun. While some of these words can appear in phrases that make them feel descriptive (e.g., necessity is urgent), their core role is still noun.

Clues to Identify Adjectives

Adjectives often end with:

• -ive (impulsive, creative, passive, active, assertive)
• -ous (curious, dangerous, generous, adventurous, famous)
• -al (logical, practical, cultural, natural, critical)
• -ic (systematic, poetic, dramatic, energetic, historic)
• -able / -ible (capable, flexible, visible, reliable, terrible)

Almost all words with these endings are adjectives. A few look similar but are not—for example, arrival ends in -al but is a noun. Still, on exams, these suffixes are dependable signals for adjectives.

Clues to Identify Verbs

Common verb endings include:

• -ate (generate, regulate, separate, estimate, associate)
• -ify (clarify, simplify, justify, beautify, identify)
• -ise / -ize (realise/realize, criticise/criticize, organize, maximize, energize)

These usually indicate a verb, though remember that some of these words can also act as nouns (estimate, regulate as in “a regulate” is rare but possible). The sentence structure will tell you which use is correct.

Clues to Identify Adverbs

Most adverbs end in -ly: quickly, logically, thoughtfully, beautifully, carefully

This is the easiest clue, but there is a trap. Not all -ly words are adverbs. Some, like friendly, lonely, elderly, costly, are actually adjectives. So you should not blindly assume every -ly word is an adverb. 

If the word is describing a noun (a friendly dog), it is an adjective. If it is describing a verb, adjective, or another adverb (she spoke quickly), then it is an adverb.

One last thing to keep in mind: some words can belong to more than one part of speech. For example, work can be both a noun (hard work) and a verb (they work late), while light can function as a noun, verb, or adjective. In such cases, the sentence grammar will always guide you toward the intended role.

Here’s a neat little picture you can save for later use:

Conclusion

When you face a blank with unfamiliar answer choices, remember that meaning is not your only guide. Grammar can be just as powerful. 

By learning to recognise the common markers of nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs, you can often eliminate wrong answers and zero in on the ones that fit the sentence. These tips are not perfect rules (English has plenty of exceptions) but they work often enough to give you a real edge on test day. 

Combine this strategy with steady vocabulary practice, and you’ll be prepared to handle even the toughest fill-in-the-blank questions with confidence.