95 Forming nouns

1 Using suffi xes

Suffixes are short add itio ns to the end of
words, to make new words:
bunk - ballker, govern - govem m en t
Sometimes the spelling of the original
word changes whe n a suffix is added:
cycle + ist - cyclist, argue - argument

2 Jobs, beliefs and languages

_ . . .IORNOUH + SUfRX .. PERSON/JOB
ver bs build drive teach wait ~er builder driver teacher waiter
employ interview pay train -ee employee interviewee payee trainee
act educate instruct visit -0' actor educator instructor visitor
apply assist consult study -ant/ent applicant assistant consultant student
nouns art cycle guitar journal -ist artist cyclist guitarist journalist

A Not all nouns that end in -er or -or describe people or jobs:
a cooker (= a mach ine that cooks th ings) a ca/CIIlatar (= a mach ine that can add, etc.)
Nouns that end in -er often have an active meaning and nouns that end in -ee have
a passive mea ning. I:or exa mple, a payee is the person who is paid, not the person
who pays.
We often add -ism to nouns and adjectives to describe a belief or a set o f Ideas:
social - socialism, lIatiOIl - IIatiollalism, impression - impressioll ism
COUNTRY + SUFRX = NATIONAlITY MItective)lLANGUAGE
China Malta Portugal Vietnam -ese Chinese Maltese Portuguese Vietnamese
Italy Hungary Russia Slovakia -(iaJn Italian" Hungarian-- Russian" Slovakian
Finland Poland Spain Turkey -ish Finnish Polish Spanish Turkish
... These can also be used as nouns describing nationality: Italian .... an Italian

A The names of some languages do not follow these patterns: Tile Netllerlands - Dlltch, Greece
- Greek, France - French

3 Nouns f rom ve rbs and adjectives

argue govern move treat

communicate educate produce -(t)ion communication education production
examine explain inform invite -ation examination explanation information invitation
decide discuss -(s)ion decision discussion

I + SUFRX = NOUN
blind dark happy i/l -ness blindness darkness happiness illness
able active equal national -ity ability activity equality nationality
distant ignorant important -ance distance ignorance importance
different independent silent -ence difference independence silence

Cl Pronunciation"" 1.32

290
 Practice
1 Complete each sentence with nouns formed from words in Box A and suffixes in Box B.
CIISII Listen and check.
A assist bR+Ra ill independent inform Ita ly journal national tra in t reat wa it

13 -ant -ation -et" -ence -er -ese -ia n -ist -ity -ment -ncss

o My best friend is studying .y.I1-~.~.~.. " ....... ... at university.

1 Dcbbie's working as a ........ ........ for the local newspaper.
2 Mexico gained its .......................... from Spain in 1821.
3 Chickenpox is an ........................... which often affects young children.
4 Mrs Green berg isn't here today. Would you li ke to spea k to her ......... ............ ...... ?
5 Don't let Carla cut your hair - she's on ly a H ..
•••••••so she's not very experienced.
6 Excuse me. Do you have any .......... ... .... on computer courses?
7 I don 't know jf you need a visa. It depends o n your ...... .......... .
B My sister married an ......................... ... ; they live in Mi lan now.
9 Shal l I ask the .... ...... .................. fo r the bill now?
10 She's had a lot of therapy at the hospital, but the ...... wasn't very successful.

2 Read the clues and complete the crossword .

CLUES ACROSS
7 The opposite of
similarity.
8 When you decide
something.
11 A test where you
are examined on
something.
14 Someone who applies
for something,
e.g. a job.
15 The language spoken
in Poland.
16 It governs a country.
17 A person who you
pay money to.

CLUES OQINN
1 Someone who studies
at college.
2 A person who rides
a bicycle.
3 A noun from silent.
4 A style of painting
used by artists like 9 The opposite of knowledge.
Cezanne and Mane!. 10 When several people talk about
5 The language spoken in Russia. something together.
6 Most people who live in Athens speak 12 The language spoken in Portugal.
this language. 13 A noun from blind.
8 The language spoken in the Netherlands.

291
96 Forming adjectives
TIle govern me nt has set tip these courses to solvc the growi ng .
problc m o f iII iter.lte adul ts. TIle courses are inex.~n5 i ve and sunable
for all adults who Stru ggled wi th reading and wntm g at ~hool.

1 Adjectives from nouns and verbs

We can add suffixes to some nouns and
verbs to make ad jectives:

Iij~K
N ~VfR
~.~:;::::~~~~I~.~s~u~""~X~ ~.~AD
~J.~cnv
~~':':;:::::::::::::::::~:J
centre music nation -al central musical national
beauty care help pain use -(ul beautiful careful helpful painful useful
care help pain use -less careless helpless painless useless
comfort drink fashion suit -able comfortable drinkable fashionable suitable
dirt health rain sun thirst wind -y dirty healthy rainy sunny thirsty windy
continue danger fame -ous continuous dangerous famous
depend differ excel insist -ent dependent different excellent insistent
act attract expense relate -ive active attractive expensive relative

Note the suffi x -less means 'without/ not', -ful ca n mean 'displaying/contain ing' and
-able after a verb often has the meani ng of 'it is possible to'.
NATURAL ENGLISH In informal spoken English we can add the suffix -ish to some sho rt
adjectives to make the mean ing weaker or less exact:
He's got dark ish f/a ir. (da rk but not very dark)
I'm flOt Sllre how old slle ;s - she's youug isll. (fairly young but not very young)
Adjectives, e.g. interestinglinterested .. Unit 19.3

2 Changing the meaning of adjectives

We can use prefixes (short additio ns to the begi nni ng of wo rds) to change the meanjng
of some ad jecti ves. These prefixes usually mea n 'not', e.g. displeased =not pleased .
PREAX + ADJECTIVE • ADJECTIVE WITH NEGATNE MEANING
dis- honest loyal pleased dishonest disloyal displeased
un- happy tidy usual unhappy unridy unusual
in- complete correct formal incomplete incorrect informal
im- pa tient polire possible impatient impolite impossible
ir- replaceable responsible irreplaceable irresponsible
if- legal literate logical illegal illiterate illogical

• Wc can add a prefi x 10 an ad jective t hat already contains a surfix:

Ilnmistakeable, u"helpfu l, irreplacellble, inexpetlsive, i " dependent
• If the adjective begins with the sound Ipl we often use ;m-, nOI in-, to make the
negative fo rm :
polite "'" ,/ impolite X jflfJ6Jjf:e perfect ..... ./ imperfect X itlpt'r{efl
• Wc use ir· before the sou nd Irl and i/- before the sound 11/:
respomible - ./ i" espollsible X imesp911Sihle logical - ,/ illogical X inl6giroi
A With nouns and verbs, the prefix es ;1I-/ im- do not always mean /Jot, th ey can mean ' in la'
or 'inside':
to import (= bring th ings in to a country) illcome (= money you receive)
to illP llt (= put in fo rmation into a compu ter)

292
 Practice
1 Complete the letter with suitable adjectives. made from the words in
brackets. . . listen and check.

Summerdean School Wellsby Northants NP23 5GS

Dear Mrs Smithers.

I am wri ting to you abou t your son. Matthew. In the Jast few weeks we have become
more and more (0) A4p.~~.f.~ .......... (not pleased) with his alt itude. On several
occasions he has been ( I) .... .............. .. ...... (nOl polite) to me or other members of staff
at the school. This (2) ........... .................. (not usual) bad behaviour has come as a shock
to us as Matthew had previously been an (3) . . ....... (excel) student.
In recent weeks I have also noticed that his clothes are (4) .. __ .. ......... ... .. ...... (not tidy)
and he seems (5) ... _ (not happy). He used to be very neat and
(6) ..... ......... ............ .. .. (care) when doing his ass ignments, but now he seems to have
developed an (7) ............ ..... ............ (not responsible) and (8) .... ............. ............ (not care)
atti tude to his work..
I think it would be (9) . .......... .. .......... ...... . (help) if we could discuss the situation.
If you phone me. we can arnmge a (10) _ (sui t) time to meet.

Yours sincerely,
H~&t:I-
Form Tutor

2 Find six more mistakes and correct them. Tick (.I) the correct sentences.
o I'm sorry but t hi s answer is completely ~'iff6r~~t .
Mafia's a model so sh e always wears fashionful clothes.
2 What an unusual jacket! I've never seen anyth ing like it before.
3 W hen babies are born they are totally helpful.
4 Her children are so unpolite. They never n ever say 'please' or ' thank you'.
S Is t here anything to drink? I' m terribly thirstful.
6 I'm very patient. I h ate waiting for things!
7 Although she's got blond hair, her skin is quite darkish.
8 There's not hing to worry about; th e operation is completely painful.

3 Complete the second sentence 50 it means the same as the first. Use one word only and
choose a word from the box to help you, SIB Listen and check.

continue drink expense legal literate possible rel3iaee

o Nothing could take the place of our cat. Our cat is .. ~t:To/.~~.~p'!~
I I'm afraid her son ca n 't read or write. Her son is ........ ..... ... ........ ..... .
2 Dan's car cost a lot of money. Dan's car was
3 The rain didn 't stop for two weeks. The rai n was ... ............. ... . for two weeks .
4 You can 't live without water. It's ... ........................... to live wit hout water.
S Don't do t hat, it's against the law. Do n't do t hat, it's .
6 The water is salty, but you can drin k it. The water is ... .... ... ........ .... , although it's salty.

293
97 Forming verbs

is the British Library. outgrew

its old home in the British Museum and has
now been rehoused in a modern building. The
catalogue has been computerised and can be
searched on the Internet.

1 Verbs from nouns and adjectives

We can make some nouns and adjectives into verbs by adding suffixes:
+ SUFFIX '" VERB ...-;;;:;::;;;;;;;;;;;;;:1
commercial computer critic -ise/ize* commercialise computerise criticise
modern special summary modernise specialise summarise
awake flat length short -(e)n awaken flatten lengthen shorten
active different valid -(i)ate activate differentiate validate
example false note sign solid -(i)fy exemplify falsify notify signify solidify
• The spelling -Ize is more common in American English .

The meaning of the verb is related to the original adjective or noun:

This dress is tuo IOllg. Call yOIl shorte1l it? (= make it shorte r)
We had to su mmarise the c/wpter. (= make a summary)
The application forms have bee" computerised. (= changed to an electronic system)

2 Changing the meaning of verbs

We can use prefixes to change the meaning of some verbs:
PREFIX MEANING VERB EXAMPLES
re- do again reappear rebuild The painting has been rehoused in the neoN gallery
rehouse reorganise (= put into a new home)
repay reproduce I had to reorganise the files in alphabetical order.
rethink reunite (= organise them again)
dis- noVstop disagree dislike I dislike pasta. (= I don't like it.)
disconnect Our electricity has been disconnected (= stopped)
over- too much overeat overcharge They always overcharge in that shop. (= charge
overheat too much money)
The engine overheated and blew up.
un- opposite undress unfold I opened the envelope and unfolded the letter
or reverse unpack Have you unpacked your suitcase yet?
action
mis- badly/ misbehave misinform The children always misbehave when they are
wrongly misjudge rired. (= behave badly)
I'm afraid you've been misinformed. (= given
wrong information)
out- morel outdo outgrow The collection outgrew its old home. (= grew bigger
better/ outperform than the space it was in)
further Their team easily outperformed us. ('" performed
better than us)

The most common prefixes are shown in the chart. Other, less common prefixes incl ude:
ul/der- (= not enough) The workers ill that factory are underpaid.
il/ter- (= between) Members of tile ovo tribes rarely jn termarry.

294
 Practice
1 Complete the sentences with a suitable form of a verb. using the words in brackets.
Form the (orrect verb by using a prefix from Box A or a suffix from Box B.
a:ID Listen and check.
A elis- mi s- over- fE!- un- B -ate -en -Hy -ise
o After the hurricane the victims were .r.~~.~ .... in teml>orary homes. (house)
I .......... ....... ..... .. . people who shout at waiters. I think it 's very impolite. (like)
2 They've really ........ .................. th is place. it used to be free! (commercial)
3 These trousers are a little too sho rt. Can you ............................. them for me? (lenglh)
4 If you freeze water, it will ......................... and turn into ice. (sol id)
5 Welcome home. Put those heavy suitcases down - you can ............. ...... ...... them later. (pack)
6 I have to phone the bank in order to .......................... my new credit card. (active)
7 Chitdren who ... ... ..... ............... wilt be punished. (behave)
8 I'm sure they've ......................... me. My electricity bill is usuall y much lower. (charge)

2 Complete the sentences, using the prefix or suffix in brackets. Use the pictures to help you.

~ iffi m ~lI rn ~1 ~
o Ed's trying to .fl~~f:'.~ .. ... his stomach. (-en)
I After an hour in a traffic jam t he engine started .. .. ................ . (over-)
2 Our loca l delicatessen .......................... in cheese from all over the world. (-ise)
3 Roger ...... ..................... th e TV aerial before he took the TV to be repaired. (dis-)
4 Jack's growing SO fast now. He's ........................... everything I bought fo r him last winter. (out-)
5 Miranda is ........ ........ .......... her kitchen cupboards so that she can find things more easily. (re-)

3 GRAMMAR IN USE Find six more mist akes in the text and correct them. coma Listen and check.

HI/U!ff!l()\f/I\ /UlllJ\(I/(){)/ /'1/0\/\ \/\\\/11111<

rUl'3'",~il1.:9
• Nex t term we will be ~!tnising our modern languages department and introduci ng
two new languages. Mrs Birkin will be taking Spa nish and Mr Dawson will teach
Mandarin. Mr Dawson has recently joined us from Froblsher High School where he
specialated in ASian languages. If you wish your child to enrol in eit her of these classes,
please notificate the deputy head.
• As some of you may know, wc have overgrown our existing com puter room. We will be
dehousing the com puters in a new computer centre and work will begin on this in January.
While we are dOing this we will be modernifying our own com puter systems and maki ng
changes to the school's wcbsil'e.
• Onc last piece of good news. In this mon th 's exa m resul ts we have reperforme<l all other
schools in the area, achieving 65 grade A results! Congrat ulations to aU Year 8 students.

cb l10 Ol1ltrlP tOl more practICe 295