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TOEIC Link Part 5: canvass versus canvas

Canvass is a verb meaning to survey opinions or solicit votes and orders. Canvas is a noun, the heavy cloth used for paintings, bags, and tents. One letter and a part-of-speech difference separate them, and Part 5 tests whether the slot needs an action or a thing.

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TOEIC Link Part 5: canvass versus canvas

Canvass and canvas differ by a single s, but they are not even the same part of speech. Canvass is a verb — to go around gathering opinions, votes, or sales orders. Canvas is a noun — the sturdy woven cloth used for paintings, sails, and bags. In Part 5 the grammar usually settles it before the meaning does: does the slot need an action or a material? For another pair where one extra letter changes everything, see access versus excess.

The core rule: gather opinions versus heavy cloth

  • canvass (verb) = to survey people for opinions, votes, or orders: The team canvassed local businesses about the new policy. / Volunteers canvassed the neighborhood before the election.
  • canvas (noun) = the strong cloth used for art, tents, sails, and bags: The artist stretched a fresh canvas. / The tote bag is made of durable canvas.

A memory hook: canvass has two s's — picture two people you ss-urvey when you go door to door. Canvas has one s, like one flat sheet of cloth.

How to read the slot

The grammar gives it away.

  • canvass behaves like a verb: it follows a subject and often takes an object — customers, voters, the area, opinions: the firm canvassed clients, they will canvass the district. If the slot is an action of gathering views or orders, choose canvass.
  • canvas behaves like a noun: it follows a, the, of, or sits as a material: a blank canvas, made of canvas, the painter's canvas. If the slot is a thing or a material, choose canvas.

So the fastest test: is the slot an action of surveying, or a type of cloth? Surveying is canvass; cloth is canvas.

Common Part 5 traps

  • "(blank) customers / voters / opinions" is canvass. A verb taking people or views as its object signals canvass: the agency canvassed households.
  • "made of / a piece of (blank)" is canvas. A material after of takes the noun canvas.
  • Beware the business meaning of canvass. In sales, to canvass means to seek out new orders or clients — common in TOEIC business passages: Reps canvass the territory for leads. It is still the two-s verb.
  • "a blank (blank)" is canvas. The fixed phrase a blank canvas (a fresh start, an empty surface) always uses the one-s noun.

Quick check

Decide whether the slot is an action of surveying (canvass) or a type of cloth / a thing (canvas), then choose.

  1. Before launching, the startup (blank) early users about which features mattered most.
  2. The exhibition featured a three-meter (blank) painted entirely in blue.
  3. Sales staff spent the week (blank) the industrial district for new accounts.
  4. The director gave each designer a blank (blank) and full creative freedom.

Answers: 1. canvassed (surveying users) 2. canvas (the cloth / painting) 3. canvassing (seeking orders) 4. canvas (a thing — the phrase "blank canvas").

The takeaway

Let part of speech do the work: if the slot is an action of gathering opinions, votes, or sales orders, write the verb canvass with its two s's; if the slot is a thing — the heavy cloth or a surface to work on, write the noun canvas with one. Survey people versus stretch cloth. For more pairs where one letter or part of speech decides the answer, see later versus latter and passed versus past.