naive

Used with adjective complement

• seem: Oh, she was willing enough, just seemed naive, not knowing what was what.
• appear: The images appear immediately naive, accessible, simple.

Infinitive complement

• believe: Most of them were naive enough to believe that the new system would be better than the old.
• assume: It would be naive to assume that archeology could provide physical evidence of Macbeth himself.
• suppose: It would be naive to suppose that Gurthiern had anything to do with the real Vortigern, other than perhaps sharing his name.
• think: Tolkien is naive to think he's escaping anything.
• expect: In retrospect it was perhaps naive to expect schools within the dual system to opt for change at least in the short term.
• suggest: However it would be naive to suggest that the only pressure to move was coming from the Bible itself.

Modifies a noun

• realism: For the sake of argument, let us adopt naive realism.
• optimism: All this must not, however, lead to a naive optimism.
• realist: I do not think many historians today are naive realists.
• idealism: Nevertheless, there is a strong streak of naive idealism in Bush's vision.
• fool: And like a naive fool, I accepted his appreciation and walked into them.
• assumption: Freud's theory largely undermines the naive assumption of symbolic equivalence.

Modifying Another Word

• hopelessly: But it is just hopelessly naive to expect the US to behave routinely like some sort of global philanthropist.
• charmingly: These songs are charmingly naive with some unintentionally funny lyrics ( I hope that's what they are!
• politically: To me this is politically naive in the extreme.
• incredibly: Furthermore, his suggestions for what might replace the UN are incredibly naive.
• somewhat: Don't worry, I would regard you as somewhat naive if you just accepted them without proof.

Preposition: in

extreme: Saying we should throw more public money at our problems is naive in the extreme.