VOCABULARY BUILDING – WORD FORMATION

Changing parts of speech

As mentioned above, a suffix usually changes its part of speech. List some examples of suffixes that can change:

1.     verbs into nouns: Invited – Invitation

2.     adjectives into nouns: Respectful – Respect

3.     nouns into adjectives: Achievement – Achievable

4.     verbs into adjectives: Fertilize – Fertiliable

5.     adjectives into adverbs: Quick - Quickly

6.     nouns and adjectives into verbs: Proposal - Proposed

Exercise 1

Identify the stem, prefix / suffix in each of the underlined word and explain its meaning.

1.     What does the conductor of an orchestra literally do?

Conductor : Conduce + -tor

The definition of conductor is a person who leads a musical group. While conductress is a woman conductor.

2.     No one dares to make a prediction of the likely outcome of the next general election in Indonesia.

Prediction : Predict + -ion, prediction have a basic word predict with a suffix –ion. (suffix)

The definition of prediction is a statement that make about the future, guessing what happen next, and also can refers to see the wheather.

3.     Andi bore his pain with commendable fortitude.

Fortitude : Forti + -tude (suffix)

The definition of fortitude is mental and emotional strength in facing difficulity, danger, or anger.

4.     What is the inductive reasoning?

Inductive : Induct + -ive (suffix)

The definition of inductive is a way to describe something that leads to something else, so when applied to reasoning it just means you collect information and draw conclusions from what you observe.

5.     Cereals are food which are fortified with iron and vitamins, so they are good for children.

Fortified : Forti + -fy / -fied (suffix)

The definition of fortified is means strengthened or protected or have something added to increase strength.

Exercise 2

Complete each of the following sentences with another form of the underlined word.

1.     Although the critics often said unkind things about the writer’s work, he refused to be discouraged by their critism.

2.     They told me to practice economy but I’m not sure how to economize.

3.     You need to determine the benefits of each plan before you can decide which is most beneficial.

4.     Synthetic rubber was not widely available before World War II. It took time to learn how to

synthetical.

5.     Sally appealed for help with her heavy load, but no one listened to her appeal.