The Importance Of Mastering Word Forms in Advanced English (B2 to C2)

Words forms are the different ways a word can exist in the context of a language. Many words exist as nouns, verbs or adjectives and change when prefixes or suffixes are added.

For example, the words beautify, beautiful and beautifully are the verb, adjective and adverb forms of the noun beauty, but they are not interchangeable when used in a sentence.

The ‘Word Formation Process’ has a significant role in expanding the vocabulary that helps us communicate very smoothly. The main objectives of the word-formation process are to form new words with the same root by deploying different rules or processes.

In other words, we can say that the word-formation process is a process in which new words are formed by modifying the existing terms or completely changing those words.

There are four main kinds of word formation: prefixes, suffixes, conversion and compounds.

Prefixes

We add prefixes before the base or stem of a word.

examples	prefixes
monorail, monolingual	mono- means ‘one’
multipurpose, multicultural	multi- means ‘many’
post-war, postgraduate	post- means ‘after’
unusual, undemocratic	un- means ‘not’ or ‘opposite to’

The most common prefixes

prefix	meaning	examples
anti-	against/opposed to	anti-government, anti-racist, anti-war
auto-	self	autobiography, automobile
de-	reverse or change	de-classify, decontaminate, demotivate
dis-	reverse or remove	disagree, displeasure, disqualify
down-	reduce or lower	downgrade, downhearted
extra-	beyond	extraordinary, extraterrestrial
hyper-	extreme	hyperactive, hypertension
il-, im-, in-, ir-	not	illegal, impossible, insecure, irregular
inter-	between	interactive, international
mega-	very big, important	megabyte, mega-deal, megaton
mid-	middle	midday, midnight, mid-October
mis-	incorrectly, badly	misaligned, mislead, misspelt
non-	not	non-payment, non-smoking
over-	too much	overcook, overcharge, overrate
out-	go beyond	outdo, out-perform, outrun
post-	after	post-election, post-war
pre-	before	prehistoric, pre-war
pro-	in favour of	pro-communist, pro-democracy
re-	again	reconsider, redo, rewrite
semi-	half	semicircle, semi-retired
sub-	under, below	submarine, sub-Saharan
super-	above, beyond	super-hero, supermodel
tele-	at a distance	television, telepathic
trans-	across	transatlantic, transfer
ultra-	extremely	ultra-compact, ultrasound
un-	remove, reverse, not	undo, unpack, unhappy
under-	less than, beneath	undercook, underestimate
up-	make or move higher	upgrade, uphill

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Suffixes

We add suffixes after the base or stem of a word. The main purpose of a suffix is to show what class of word it is (e.g. noun or adjective).

examples	suffixes
terrorism, sexism	-ism and -dom are used to form nouns
employer, actor	-er and -or are used to form nouns to describe people who do things
widen, simplify	-en and -ify are used to form verbs
reasonable, unprofitable	-able is used to form adjectives
unhappily, naturally	-ly is a common suffix used to form adverbs

Suffixes: spelling

Often, the suffix causes a spelling change to the original word. In the table above, the -e ending of complicate and create disappears when the -ion suffix is added. Other examples of spelling changes include:

beauty, duty + -ful → beautiful, dutiful (-y changes to i)

heavy, ready + -ness → heaviness, readiness (-y changes to i)

able, possible + -ity → ability, possibility (-le changes to il)

permit, omit + -ion → permission, omission (-t changes to ss)

Common suffixes and examples

Noun suffixes

suffix	examples of nouns
-age	baggage, village, postage
-al	arrival, burial, deferral
-ance/-ence	reliance, defence, insistence
-dom	boredom, freedom, kingdom
-ee	employee, payee, trainee
-er/-or	driver, writer, director
-hood	brotherhood, childhood, neighbourhood
-ism	capitalism, Marxism, socialism (philosophies)
-ist	capitalist, Marxist, socialist (followers of philosophies)
-ity/-ty	brutality, equality, cruelty
-ment	amazement, disappointment, parliament
-ness	happiness, kindness, usefulness
-ry	entry, ministry, robbery
-ship	friendship, membership, workmanship
-sion/-tion/-xion	expression, population, complexion

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Adjective suffixes

suffix	examples of adjectives
-able/-ible	drinkable, portable, flexible
-al	brutal, formal, postal
-en	broken, golden, wooden
-ese	Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese
-ful	forgetful, helpful, useful
-i	Iraqi, Pakistani, Yemeni
-ic	classic, Islamic, poetic
-ish	British, childish, Spanish
-ive	active, passive, productive
-ian	Canadian, Malaysian, Peruvian
-less	homeless, hopeless, useless
-ly	daily, monthly, yearly
-ous	cautious, famous, nervous
-y	cloudy, rainy, windy

Verb suffixes

suffix	examples of verbs
-ate	complicate, dominate, irritate
-en	harden, soften, shorten
-ify	beautify, clarify, identify
-ise/-ize	economise, realise, industrialize (-ise is most common in British English; -ize is most common in American English)

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Adverb suffixes

suffix	examples of adverbs
-ly	calmly, easily, quickly
-ward(s)	downwards, homeward(s), upwards
-wise	anti-clockwise, clockwise, edgewise

Conversion

Conversion involves the change of a word from one word class to another. For example, the verbs to email and to microwave are formed from the nouns email and microwave:

Can you text her? (verb from noun text, meaning to send a text-message)

They are always jetting somewhere. (verb from noun jet)

If you’re not careful, some downloads can damage your computer. (noun from verb download)

OK, so the meeting’s on Tuesday. That’s a definite. (noun from adjective)

It’s a very big if and I’m not at all sure we can afford it. (noun from conjunction, meaning ‘it’s not at all certain’)

All companies have their ups and downs. (nouns from prepositions)

We also use conversion when we change a proper noun into a common noun:

Has anybody seen my Dickens? (copy of a book by Dickens)

Compounding

When we use compounding, we link together two or more bases to create a new word. Normally, the first item identifies a key feature of the second word. For example, the two bases back and ache can combine to form the compound noun backache, and the two bases post and card combine to form the compound noun postcard.

Compounds are found in all word classes. The most common types of compounds are: Nouns: car park, rock band

Adjectives: heartbreaking, sugar-free, airsick

Verbs: oven-bake, baby-sit, chain-smoke

Adverbs: good-naturedly, nevertheless

It is sometimes difficult to know where to put hyphens in words that are compound ed. It is also difficult to know whether to separate words (e.g. post box) or to join the words (e.g. postbox). In such cases, it is best to check in a good learner’s dictionary.

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