Word Formation and Idiomatic Usage
Word formation: prefixes and suffixes
Items give a root word in brackets and ask for the correct form in the gap. Two decisions are needed: word class and meaning.
- Noun suffixes: -ness (happiness), -ity (reliability), -ment (agreement), -tion and -sion (decision, permission), -ance and -ence (performance, difference), -ist and -er (scientist, teacher).
- Adjective suffixes: -ful, -less, -ive, -able and -ible, -ous, -al, -ic.
- Verb suffixes: -ise and -ize, -ify, -en.
- Negative prefixes: un-, in- (assimilating to im-, il-, ir-), dis-, mis-, non-. Not every root takes the prefix you expect: impossible, illegal, irregular, but unhappy and disloyal.
- Spelling changes: happy becomes happiness (y to i); begin becomes beginning (double consonant); argue becomes argument (drop the e); succeed becomes success; maintain becomes maintenance.
Idiomatic usage
An idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning is not the sum of its parts: to bite the bullet means to endure something unpleasant; to be in two minds means to be undecided; a blessing in disguise is an apparent misfortune that turns out well. The wording is frozen: you cannot change the article, the preposition or the number (kick the bucket, not kick a bucket; on the spur of the moment, not at the spur).
Worked example
The instructions were so badly written that they were completely ______ (comprehend). Step 1: the gap follows were and an adverb, so an adjective is needed: comprehensible. Step 2: the meaning is negative because the writing is bad, so add in-: incomprehensible. Answer: incomprehensible.
Traps that cost marks
- Right meaning but wrong word class.
- Missing the negative prefix, or doubling it.
- Reading an idiom literally, or blending two idioms (make ends meet and make a living).
- Changing a preposition inside a fixed phrase: depend of, interested on, capable to.
- Misspelling the derived form even when the form is correct.