Vocabulary and Word Formation
This section tests word families, affixation, collocation, confusables and idioms in context. The gap in the sentence tells you the word class you need, and the word class tells you the suffix - that single chain solves most word-formation items.
Affixation decides the word class
- Noun suffixes: -ness, -ity, -tion/-sion, -ment, -ance/-ence, -age, -ship.
- Adjective suffixes: -ive, -ous, -al, -able/-ible, -ful, -less, -ic.
- Verb suffixes: -ise/-ize, -ify, -en; adverb marker: -ly.
- Spelling shifts to memorise: satisfy → satisfaction, pronounce → pronunciation, maintain → maintenance, argue → argument, happy → happiness.
- Negative prefixes: un-, in-/im-/il-/ir-, dis-, mis-, non-.
Collocation
- make a mistake, make progress, make a decision; do homework, do damage, do one's best.
- heavy rain, strong tea, key role, deeply regret, highly successful.
Confusables and phrasal verbs
- childish (negative) versus childlike (positive); invaluable means priceless, not worthless.
- Phrasal verbs carry a new meaning: give in = surrender, put off = postpone, break out = begin suddenly.
Worked example
'The jury's verdict was ______ (unanimity / unanimous).' Reasoning: the gap follows the linking verb 'was', so a subject complement is required, and here that is an adjective describing the verdict. The noun 'unanimity' would need a different construction. Answer: unanimous. Second item: the noun from 'persevere' is 'perseverance', keeping the -ance ending - a common misspelling trap.
Traps that cost marks
- Reading 'invaluable' as 'not valuable'.
- Using 'friendly' as an adverb; it is an adjective.
- Redundant collocations such as 'discuss about' and 'return back'.
- Adding -ly to a word that is already an adverb or an adjective.