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When you see a Word Knowledge question that asks you to define a word in a sentence, you might be able to weed out one or two incorrect choices by knowing the parts of speech. Table 4-6 lists the eight parts of speech, notes what roles they play in sentences, and gives you some examples.

TABLE 4-6 Parts of Speech

Part	Role	Examples
Noun	Names a person, place, thing, or idea	Mr. Hall, lawyer, United States, suffix
Verb	Expresses an action or state of being	to write, to read, to eat, to play, to be
Adjective	Describes a noun	green, sleepy, hungry, fast, beautiful
Adverb	Modifies a verb, adjective, or another adverb	tremendously, very, cautiously, dangerously, sneakily
Pronoun	Replaces a noun	he, she, they, it, this, I, you
Preposition	Relates a noun or pronoun to another word	in, on, around, after, under
Conjunction	Connects clauses to sentences	and, but, if
Interjection	Expresses emotions or feelings	cool, awesome, holy cow, uh-oh, eek

A suffix can tell you what part of speech a word is, so when you encounter a word you don’t know, you’ll be able to eliminate possible answer choices that you do know by looking at the suffixes.

Suffixes are usually only part of nouns, verbs, and adjectives. If the ASVAB asks you to define analogous, but you don’t know what it means, you can use your knowledge of the suffix to help you rule out answers that don’t make any sense. Because the suffix -ous typically modifies nouns and turns words into adjectives, you know that the correct answer probably won’t be a noun.

Analogous most nearly means

(A) inclusive.

(B) danger.

(C) write.

(D) comparable.

Of those answer choices, inclusive and comparable are the only adjectives. Danger is a noun, and write is a verb. You can rule out Choices (B) and (C) to make a more educated choice — and improve your chances of answering the question correctly — if you know that the suffix -ous usually refers to adjectives. Choice (D) is correct here; analogous means comparable in certain respects, especially when it clarifies the relationship between two things that are being compared (“The relationship between a drill sergeant and a new recruit is analogous to the relationship between a hungry fish and a worm on a hook”).

Cameron knew that the only viable option was to invest 10 percent of his savings.

(A) succeed

(B) glowing

(C) reasonable

(D) life

The underlined word, viable, describes Cameron’s option; option is a noun in this sentence, so that makes viable an adjective. Look through the answer choices and figure out what part of speech each word is. Choice (A), succeed, is a verb because it describes an action (the action of succeeding). Choice (B), glowing, is an adjective because it modifies a noun (for example, “the glowing candle”), so that’s a possible answer. Choice (C), reasonable, is also an adjective because it modifies nouns (as in, “That’s a reasonable alternative”), so that’s another option. Choice (D), life, is a noun (and it wouldn’t make any sense in this sentence), so it’s off the table.

Choices (B) and (C) are the most likely of the four to be correct. If you haven’t tried it yet, replace viable with each choice. You’ll see that Choice (C), reasonable, makes the most sense in the sentence.