<p>I was writing an essay using vocab words where we had to label parts of speech. So, the word is "extolled." The sentence is, "He wants to be highly extolled." In that context, is extolled a verb or an adverb (modifying "be")? Thanks!</p>
<p>Extolled is an adjective, it's a subject complement modifying he.</p>
<p>It's part of the present passive infinitive "to be extolled." I recommend putting "highly" after "extolled" to keep the infinitive in one piece.</p>
<p>To bypass this altogether, consider "to be highly extolled" as an infinitive phrase acting as a direct object.</p>
<p>Highly should be after extolled because it's an adverb and extol is actually a verb. So the adverb is modifying the verb so it should go after. Extol already means highly praise ,but you could add highly for emphasis.</p>
<p>The thing is, in formal writing, "to be" doesn't take direct objects. You say it is he not it is him, etc.</p>
<p>Also, split infinitives as a grammatical mistake are a common misconception, a hyper-correction.</p>
<p>il bandito: I know that "to be" doesn't take objects--Latin grinds grammatical case into one's head quite well. "To be" is not taking an object when it's part of an infinitive, however, because an infinitive is simply a verb form (those three words function as one unit). As for splitting infinitives, opinions differ on the subject; some teachers may not mind it, but other teachers may object. However, I recommend erring on the side of caution--it won't hurt.</p>
<p>Wow, okay, thanks guys. You all are...geniuses.</p>