Find the part of the sentence that contains an error: She spoke (1)/ concise during the press briefing (2)/ to ensure the journalists (3)/ captured the key points accurately. (4)/

Correct — B. The trigger is concise in part (2). It tells you how she spoke, so it modifies the verb spoke.

Speak is an action verb, not a linking verb like be or seem, so the word that modifies it must be an adverb.

Concise is the adjective; the adverb is concisely. She spoke concisely during the press briefing → option (b).

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  (1) — She spoke is a subject pronoun and a past-tense verb, in step with captured later on. The fault is the word that follows spoke, not these two.
• (c)
  (3) — to ensure is an infinitive of purpose, and ensure may drop that before its clause: to ensure (that) the journalists captured the points. The segment is sound.
• (d)
  (4) — accurately is already an adverb, modifying captured. It is the very shape part (2) needed: a verb followed by its -ly adverb.

Adjective or adverb depends on what the word describes. An adjective describes a noun: a concise answer. An adverb describes a verb: she answered concisely.

Ask what the word answers. Spoke how? That is a question about the verb, so the answer is an adverb.

Linking verbs such as be, become and seem work the other way. They take an adjective that describes the subject: she seemed calm, not she seemed calmly.

Key facts

• Concise is an adjective and concisely is its adverb.
• An action verb such as speak, run or perform is modified by an adverb: spoke concisely, ran quickly.
• A linking verb such as be, become or seem takes an adjective: The lions became violent.

Common traps

• Marking part (4) because it holds the -ly word, when accurately is the correct form there
• Hunting for a tense error in captured, when the past tense matches spoke

No directly related past PYQ was found.