Lexical competence in context: vocabulary, collocation and word formation
This domain covers the gap-fill and vocabulary items: choosing the word that fits the slot, deriving the right form of a given root, and selecting a collocate rather than a mere synonym. Three things decide the answer - word class, meaning, and the words that usually keep company with it.
Word formation
First identify the slot, then the form:
- after an article or possessive → noun;
- after be, seem, look, become → adjective;
- between adjective and noun, or modifying a verb/adjective → adverb;
- after a modal or to → base verb.
Suffix banks: nouns in -tion/-sion, -ment, -ness, -ity, -ance/-ence, -ship, -hood; adjectives in -ive, -ous, -al, -able/-ible, -ful, -less, -ic; verbs in -ise/-ize, -ify, -en; adverbs in -ly.
Negative prefixes: un-, in-, im- before m, p, b, il- before l, ir- before r, dis-, mis-, non-.
Spelling shifts to expect: happy → happily, receive → reception, maintain → maintenance, succeed → success, argue → argument, develop → development.
Collocation and dependent prepositions
- Make a decision/mistake/progress; do research/damage/harm.
- Rise is intransitive, raise takes an object.
- Affect is the verb, effect the noun.
- Economic relates to the economy; economical means money-saving. Sensible means reasonable; sensitive means easily hurt.
- Fixed partners: depend on, consist of, insist on, succeed in, prevent somebody from, accuse somebody of, be aware of, in spite of + noun/-ing.
Context clues
Definitions after commas, examples after such as, contrasts after unlike or whereas, and cause-effect relations all reveal meaning without a dictionary.
Worked example
The council's decision was not only ______ (ECONOMY) but also fair.
The slot follows was and is coordinated with the adjective fair, so an adjective is required - this rules out economy and economics. Between economic and economical, the sentence praises the decision alongside fairness, so the sense is thrift, not economic policy. Answer: economical.
Traps that cost marks
- Correct root, wrong word class (the most common single error).
- Right class, wrong meaning (economic/economical, sensible/sensitive).
- Stacking two negative prefixes, or negating a word that is already negative.
- Wrong dependent preposition: depend of, married with, explain me.
- Choosing a synonym that cannot collocate: do a mistake, say an opinion.