WORD FORMATION

Identifying Parts of Speech:

A. NOUNS

• A noun is a word that identifies a person, an animal, a place, a

thing, or an idea.
• Nouns can be subjects. Every sentence has a subject, which is a noun that tells us what
that sentence is about. (e.g. The toy fell down.) The subject is often at the beginning of a
sentence.
• Nouns can be objects. These nouns receive action from verbs. (e.g. She opened the
window)
• Nouns are used as explanations/definitions (after verb ‘be’). (e.g. John is a footballer).
• Articles (a/an/the) are used before singular count nouns. Article (the) can be used before
plural nouns.

These are the common suffixes that are added to adjectives to make nouns:

-th width, warmth -ty safety, certainty

-ity necessity, ability -ism humanism, imperialism
-ness kindness, laziness -ance/ence confidence, importance
-cy urgency, frequency -ery/-ry bravery, secondary
-y difficulty, jealousy

These are the common suffixes that are added to verbs to make nouns:

-tion intention, solution -sion impression, admission

-ment development, punishment -ure departure, failure
-al denial, proposal -ance/ence confidence, acceptance
-age marriage, package -ery/-ry bribery, robbery

These are the common suffixes that are added to nouns to make nouns:

-ism (state/belief) Marxism, Thatcherism

-ship (state/condition) friendship, citizenship
- hood (state/collective) childhood, brotherhood

These are the common suffixes that can be used to turn verbs/nouns/adjectives into ‘personal
nouns’:
-er/ar advertiser, driver (added to verbs)
-ant/ent assistant, president (added to verbs)
-ee employee, trainee (added to verbs/nouns)
-an, -ian American, Indian (added to nouns)
-ist scientist, realist (added to nouns/adjectives)

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These are the common prefixes that are added to nouns to make nouns:

mono (one) monogamy, monologue

post- (after) post-modernism, post-war
bi- (two) bilingualism, biculturalism
co- (together) co-founder, co-owner
ex- (former) ex-footballer, ex-boyfriend
maxi (big) maxi-dress, maxi-budget
re- (again) re-organisation, re-examination
pre- (before) pre-test, pre-school
semi- (half) semicircle, semi-darkness
inter- (between) interaction, interference
sub- (under) subway, subdivision
trans- (across) transatlantic, transformation
tri- (three) tricycle, triangle
super- (more than/above) superstore, superhuman
mini- (small) mini-bus, mini-bar
fore- (before) foreground, forehead
under- (not enough) under-development, undergraduate
over- (too much) overtime, overpopulation

These are the common NEGATIVE prefixes that are added to nouns to make nouns:

anti- anticlimax, antithesis non- nonsense, nonfiction

a- /an- anarchy, atheist dis- dishonesty, disability
il/im/in/ir- imbalance, inability mis- misfortune, mismanagement

EXERCISE 1. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the words in the brackets. Add
(negative) prefixes or suffixes if necessary.

1. _____________ is very important for me. (friend)

2. The _____________ made a significant discovery. (science)
3. _____________ is not acceptable in a relationship. (honest)
4. You should be calm and confident to make a good _____________ at work. (impress)
5. I spent my _____________ playing outside with my friends. (child)

EXERCISE 2. Complete the text with the correct form of the words in the brackets.

Choosing the right career to suit your (1)___________(personal) and one that lives up to your
expectation can be difficult. You must take certain factors into (2)___________ (consider)
when making such an important (3)___________(decide). First of all, you should think of the
requirements of the job. You need to find out what qualities are necessary before you fill in ad
give your (4)___________ (apply) form. Then, you should think of your career prospects and
you should consider whether there are (5)___________ (opportune) for promotion. Finally, it
is necessary to decide on the level of (6)___________ (responsible) you will be happy with.

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B. VERBS

The verb signals an action, an occurrence, or a state of being. Remember that verbs often
come after the subject, and there should always be a verb in the sentence.

These are the common suffixes to make verbs with the meaning "cause to be":

-ise/ize memorize, stabilise -fy beautify, simplify

-ate differentiate, fabricate -en sadden, fasten

These are the common prefixes that are added to verbs:

over- (too much) oversleep, overwork
un- (reverse) unbend, unfasten
co- (together) co-exist, co-operate
mis- (wrong) mislead, misinform
sub- (under) subcontract, subdivide
under- (not enough) undervalue, underdevelop
de- (remove/reverse) devalue, deselect
dis- (not/opposite of) disappear, disconnect
fore- (before) foreclose, foresee
re- (again) revisit, reappear
inter- (between) interact, interface
out- (more/better than) outperform, outbid
pre- (before) pre-expose, prejudge
trans- (across) transform, transplant
post- (after) postpone, postdate

EXERCISE 3. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the words in the brackets. Add
prefixes or suffixes if necessary.

1. The minister wants to _____________ the capital city. (beauty)

2. You don’t have to _____________ the meanings of words. (memory)
3. If you _____________, you will be late to work. (sleep)
4. I don’t think it is possible to _____________ the future. (see)
5. It is necessary to_____________ between the good and the bad. (difference)

EXERCISE 4. Complete the text with the correct form of the words in the brackets.

A really good teacher is born as such. An ideal teacher will influence and shape the character
of succeeding generations of students. An ideal teacher should teach well and
(1)_____________ (simple) the difficult topics. He should not (2) _____________ (inform) his
students. He should be a person who teaches both by his spoken words as also by his manners,
gestures and personal contact with the students. He should never (3)_____________ (lead) the
students or lie to them. He should (4) _____________ (act) with the students in the class and
also at other times. A good teacher doesn’t have to (5) _____________ (work), but he should
be an example in many ways.

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C. ADJECTIVES

• Adjectives describe nouns and are the same in singular and plural. They can be factual
(small, round, yellow etc) or opinion (awful, ugly etc).
• Note that after appear, be, become, get, feel, look, seem, smell, sound, stay, and taste
we use adjectives, not adverb: e.g. It tastes bad. (not badly)
• A large number of very common adjectives do not have a suffix or a prefix. They do not
have typical adjectival form (e.g. bad, good, honest, real, young, clever, elementary etc.)
• If there is a noun in the sentence, adjective should come before the noun. (e.g. He is a
hard-working student). In sentences with be and with verbs such as ‘feel’, ‘look’, the
adjective comes after the verb. (e.g. I am tired, You look sad).
• Remember the –ed/ -ing adjectives. (e.g. I was very bored in the maths lesson. I almost
fell asleep. The movie was very boring, I left before it finished.)

These are the common adjective suffixes which are formed from nouns and verbs:

-able/-ible achievable, readable -al biographical, logical

-ful beautiful, careful -ive attractive, persuasive
-less thoughtless, endless (negative) -ous generous, dangerous
-ent different, excellent

These are the common NEGATIVE prefixes of adjectives:

un- untidy, uncomfortable im- imperfect, impolite

in- inconvenient, inexpensive ir- irrational, irresponsible
il- illiterate, illegal non- non-fiction, non-political
dis- disloyal, dishonest

These are the common adjective prefixes that are added to adjectives:

under- (not enough) under-developed, understaffed

over- (too much) overweight, over-crowded
inter- (between) international, intercontinental
semi- (half) semi-circular, semi-automatic
mono- (one) monolingual, monocentric
bi- (two) bilingual, bicentric
tri- (three) trilingual, tricentric

We can also use both suffixes and prefixes in some words (e.g. disrespectful,
uncomfortable, unavoidable, unimaginative, inactive, semi-circular)

EXERCISE 5. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the words in the brackets. Add
prefixes or suffixes if necessary.

1. You should be _____________ when you are driving. (care)

2. In _____________ countries, life is more difficult. (develop)
3. If you are _____________, you should exercise. (weight)

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4. He is an _____________ person. He keeps shouting at his girlfriend. (polite)
5. It is _____________ to drive after drinking. (danger)

EXERCISE 6. Complete the text with the correct form of the words in the brackets.

For an (1) ___________ (excite) holiday destination, few cities can compare to New York. New
York is a city of contrasts. You should wander the streets on your own to get a feeling of the
city. In Manhattan, you can see avenues and streets such as the (2) ___________ (fashion) Fifth
Avenue and (3) ___________ (luxury) apartment buildings and skyscrapers. On the other hand,
in Bronx, you can see the ghettos. In the ghettos, people are poor, but they are also very creative.
Bronx is the birth place of Hip Hop and there are many (4) ___________ (success) Graffiti
artists. Of course, it is advised to use your common sense while you are walking at the streets
of New York. You should be (5)___________(caution) when strangers approach you, because
you should remember crime rates are high in the city.

D. ADVERBS
Adverbs are words that modify
• a verb (He drove slowly. — How did he drive?)
• an adjective (He drove a very fast car. — How fast was his car?)
• another adverb (She moved quite slowly down the aisle. — How slowly did she
move?)

Adverbs often tell when, where, why, or under what conditions something happens or
happened. Adverbs frequently end in –ly (However, there are exceptions such as lovely,
lonely, friendly, and neighborly that are adjectives).

Frequency adverbs come between the subject and the main verb and after the verb ‘be’ (e.g. I
usually have tea before breakfast). Adverbs of manner usually go after the verb (e.g. He
drives very fast).

EXERCISE 7. Fill in the blanks with the correct form of the words in the brackets.
1. They were listening to the music ___________. So, the police came to warn them. (loud)
2. She dances very ___________. Everybody watches her with amazement. (good)
3. The man was driving very ___________ when the policeman stopped him. (fast)
4. He was talking ___________ because they were having an argument. (angry)
5. I want to speak English ___________ after finishing the Prep Class. (fluent)

HOW TO DO WORD FORMATION EXERCISES

To do word formation exercises, first of all you have to identify if a word is an adjective, an
adverb, a noun or a verb. First, look at the sentence and think of what is missing.

In the following sentence, the correct choice is the noun. (Remember that nouns can come
before or after the verb. Pay attention to the context.) If there is a sentence before or after the
sentence given, pay attention to the meaning in them as well.

The___________ broke down. (you can write a noun such as ‘heater’/ ‘television’/ ‘fridge’/
‘DVD player’, etc.)

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In this sentence, you know that the answer is a noun, but there can be many correct answers to
this question. Look at the sentence below, there are less correct answers.

It was freezing at work today. The ____________broke down and we were all working in our
sweaters and overcoats! (the correct answer should be ‘heater’, or a word with a similar meaning
such as the ‘air conditioning’)

In the following sentence, the verb is missing. (Remember that the verb should come after the
subject).

I __________ a lot of things because I read all the time. Correct answer: know

(Think of which verb can match ‘a lot of things’. ‘I have a lot of things’ is meaningful, but it
does not match the rest of the sentence. If a person reads all the time, he/she should ‘know’ a
lot.)

In the sentence below, the adverb is missing. Again look at the word order. (Remember that
adverbs come after the verbs.)

It is snowing. You need to ride your bike ___________. (you should write an adverb such as
‘carefully’ or ‘slowly’ to fill in the blank)

In the following multiple choice question, an adjective is needed. You can understand it by
looking at the word order. (Remember that if there is a noun in the sentence, the adjective often
comes before the noun. In sentences with ‘be’ and with verbs such as ‘feel’, ‘look’, the adjective
comes after the verb.)

He was ____________ in the previous term, but he is not studying enough in this term.
a) successful b) success c) successfully d) succeed

In multiple choice questions, look at the choices and think of their forms
(adjective/adverb/noun/verb) and their meanings.

Successful adjective
Unsuccessful adjective
Success verb
Successfully adverb
Succeed verb

e.g. People who drop litter are _____________.

a) think b) thought c) thoughtless d) thoughtful

Out of the options given, ‘think’ is a verb and cannot come next to ‘are’ as there is no such
tense structure. ‘thought’ is a noun or the past tense of the verb ‘think’. It is possible to use a
noun in this sentence structure but this noun (thought) does not complete the sentence meaning.
The past tense of the verb can be used with the auxiliary word ‘are’ as in the passive structure,
but once again it is not meaningful in this sentence. ‘thoughtless’ and ‘thoughtful’ are both
adjectives. However, the one with the negative meaning; ‘thoughtless’ matches the meaning of
the sentence.

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EXERCISE 8. Complete the text with the correct form of the
words in the brackets.

Indian Weddings

Indian weddings are large events where people that you haven’t
spoken to in 5 years are invited. You’ll see more than 300 people
at the wedding. Indian weddings are (1)___________(expense),
and you have to pay for each guest attending your wedding.

At Indian weddings, the gifts are usually (2)___________(luxury). Traditionally, the bride’s
family gives multiple sets of jewellery. In the past, girls were married off young to a man that
they hardly knew, in a society where women were considered (3)___________(power). The
jewellery was known to be a financial source of security during hard times. However, the most
essential present a parent can give in today’s society to their daughter would be the lessons of
love, (4)___________(depend) and value of life. When you receive such a priceless gift, the
amount of jewellery or that fancy car you receive on your wedding day becomes
(5)___________(meaning). Also, Indian weddings always have a gorgeous
(6)___________(decorate).

The wedding ceremony is almost 2 hours long. The ceremony is (7)___________(beauty).

However, it might be (8)___________(pain) to sit through because you might not know what
the Indian priest is saying. After 30 minutes, you will see guests starting to get up and walk
around.

One interesting tradition on the day of the wedding is that someone will steal the groom’s shoes.
Traditionally, the groom’s family tries to (9)___________(protection) the groom’s shoes, while
the bride’s side of the family tries to steal them. In some cases, this turns into a battlefield.

Indian weddings usually have (10)___________(end) amount of selections to choose from

when it comes to food. However, the line is always long because there are so many people
attending these weddings. Sometimes you feel like you’ve been waiting on the line forever, but
can’t figure out why the line isn’t moving forward.

Indian weddings have the best parties! A mix of Indian and American music is played. Everyone
dances at weddings — including the uncles and aunties! So, you can have the time of your life
at an Indian wedding.

EXERCISE 9. Choose the correct option for each blank.

No Ball Games Here

Psychologists say that playing outside is extremely important for the (1) _____________ of a
child. However, a report has shown that, (2) _____________, fewer children in the UK play in
the streets today than ever before. The report says that at least half of the country’s five to ten
year olds never play outside. Children seem to have lost their (3) _____________ of playing.
Fifty years ago, this situation was (4) _____________.

1. a) development b) develop c) developed d) developing

2. a) fortune b) fortunate c) unfortunate d) unfortunately

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3. a) enjoy b) enjoyment c) enjoyable d) unenjoyable
4. a) think b) thinkable c) unthinkable d) thought

Both parents and children are responsible for these (5) _____________ statistics. On the one
hand, (6) _____________ mums and dads believe that today’s streets are (7) _____________.
This is because there are more cars on the roads and, in many places, crime has got worse. On
the other hand, there are more activities to do inside these days, such as watching TV, playing
with games consoles and using computers. Many children (8) _____________ stay at home
doing these activities, instead of going outside to play. Experts say that parents should give
them more (9) _____________ to switch off their machines and go and call a friend.

5. a) surprise b) surprising c) surprised d) surprisingly

6. a) frighten b) frightened c) frighteningly d) frightening
7. a) unsafe b) safe c) safety d) safely
8. a) happy b) unhappy c) happiness d) happily
9. a) encourage b) encouraging c) encouragement d) encouragingly

To help find a solve to this problem, the government has decided to make the first Wednesday
and in August a (10) _____________ day of play in the UK. ‘Playday’ is part of a campaign to
highlight the importance of play in children’s lives. It is also a celebration of their right to play
outside.

10. a) national b) nation d) nationally d) international

EXERCISE 10. Choose the correct option for each question.

The Limbic System

Although most teenagers understand the dangers of risky behaviour, it

is (1) surprising/surprise how many of them (2) fail/failure to put this
knowledge to use. ‘One way to think about it is as a kind of competition
or balance between two different brain systems,’ says American
scientist Dr. Laurence Steinberg, who studies adolescent brain (3)
development/developed. The ‘emotional brain’, or the limbic system, develops faster than the
frontal cortex, which is responsible for logical thinking.

The limbic system is the area of the brain which helps us to make (4) decisive/decision about
when to eat or drink, but it also controls feelings of fear and (5) enjoyment/enjoyable. When
we feel (6) frightened/frighten, (7) excited/excite or happy, it is because of activity in the
limbic system, because of an accident or an illness, do not feel fear at all. They are not afraid
of snakes or spiders, for example, and they do not need (8) encouraging/encouragement to do
risky sports like bungee jumping or skydiving. Similarly, teenagers sometimes seem to go out
and do exactly what they (9) know/knowledge could be bad for them. However, they do it for
a completely different reason. The excitement/excited news today is that scientists might have
found a (10) solve/solution to the problem.

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