TOEIC Link Part 5: born versus borne
Born and borne are both past participles of the verb bear, which is why they trip people up — they come from one root but are not interchangeable. English split the forms by meaning centuries ago and never merged them back. Born is reserved for the single sense of being brought into the world by birth, while borne carries every other meaning of bear: carried, supported, endured, produced, and transmitted. The blank is not asking which sounds right; it is asking whether the sentence is about birth or about bearing something. For the wider set of look-alike traps, start with the commonly confused word pairs master index.
The core rule: brought into the world versus carried or endured
- born = brought into existence by birth (past participle, birth sense only). She was born in Osaka and raised in Kyoto. It answers came into the world how? Link born to birth and note it appears almost always in the passive (was / were born) and in figurative birth (an idea born of necessity).
- borne = carried, supported, endured, produced, or transmitted (past participle, all other senses). The cost of the delay was borne by the supplier. It answers carried or endured how? Link borne to carried and shouldered, and note it pairs with have / has / had and often with by (borne by the company).
The key difference: born is locked to the idea of birth, while borne covers carrying, bearing, and enduring. If the blank is about being brought into the world, choose born; if it is about carrying, shouldering, or enduring something, choose borne.
Why Part 5 likes this pair
Because both forms trace back to bear, Part 5 can build a sentence where a hurried reader assumes born is always the answer, then rewards the reader who notices the sense is about cost, responsibility, or burden rather than birth. The strongest signal is the auxiliary verb and the meaning: was born (birth) versus has borne / was borne by (carried, endured).
The additional freight charges were __ entirely by the buyer.
A sense of "carried" or "shouldered" needs borne.
The company's founder was __ into a family of engineers.
A sense of "brought into the world" needs born.
Spotting the clue
Decide first whether the sentence is about birth, then confirm the form:
- Is the blank about being brought into the world, literally or figuratively? → choose born (born in 1990, a movement born from frustration, born leaders).
- Is the blank about carrying, supporting, enduring, or producing? → choose borne (costs borne by the client, has borne the responsibility, a burden borne alone, fruit borne by the tree).
A quick test: can you replace the blank with given birth to in the passive? Then it is born. Can you replace it with carried or endured? Then it is borne. Because the split is by meaning, this pair sits alongside other bear-alike traps such as council versus counsel and complement versus compliment.
Common Part 5 patterns
- Anything about birth wants born: born and raised, a natural-born negotiator, newly born subsidiary, an idea born of experience.
- Anything about carrying or enduring wants borne: expenses borne by the department, risk borne by investors, has borne the brunt, losses borne over the quarter, water-borne and air-borne (as in transmitted).
Note the useful line: if you can put by after the blank and it still makes sense (borne by the company), the answer is almost always borne. Birth almost never takes by in that pattern, so was born by is a red flag. On the page, spelling is the only clue that matters, so read the meaning rather than the shared root.
Quick reference
- born = brought into the world (birth sense) → think birth, usually was born.
- borne = carried, endured, produced (all other senses) → think shouldered, often borne by.
If the blank is about being brought into the world, it is born; if it is about carrying, enduring, or bearing something, it is borne. Read whether the sentence is about birth and this pair stops being a guess.