Vocabulary and Word Formation

• How prefixes and suffixes attach to root words to build new words
• How one root word can generate a noun, a verb, an adjective, and an adverb
• How to distinguish synonyms and antonyms and choose the precise word for a context
• How to correctly use commonly confused word pairs: affect/effect, its/it's, than/then
• How to recognise common idioms and use them appropriately

1. Root words: A root word carries the core meaning of a word family. For example, the root "act" gives us act, action, active, actor, and reaction. Recognising the root helps you guess the meaning of unfamiliar words.
2. Prefixes: A prefix is added to the front of a word to change its meaning. Examples: un- (not) as in unhappy, re- (again) as in rewrite, anti- (against) as in antisocial, mis- (wrongly) as in misunderstand.
3. Suffixes and word class: A suffix changes a word's grammatical category (part of speech).
   • Noun-forming suffixes: -tion, -ment, -ness, -ity (act → action, happy → happiness)
   • Verb-forming suffixes: -ify, -ise/-ize, -en (beauty → beautify, wide → widen)
   • Adjective-forming suffixes: -ful, -ous, -able, -ive (beauty → beautiful, act → active)
   • Adverb-forming suffix: -ly, usually added to the adjective form (beautiful → beautifully)
4. Word family chains: A single root can move through all four word classes. Example: beauty (noun) → beautify (verb) → beautiful (adjective) → beautifully (adverb). Practise building similar chains: care → careful → carefully; act → active → actively.
5. Synonyms and antonyms: Synonyms are words with similar meaning (huge/enormous); antonyms are words with opposite meaning (brave/cowardly). Choosing the right synonym depends on tone and formality — "huge" is informal, "enormous" and "colossal" are more formal.
6. Commonly confused pairs:
   • affect (verb, to influence) vs effect (usually a noun, the result): "The rain will affect the match." / "The rain had a bad effect on the match."
   • its (possessive: belonging to it) vs it's (contraction of "it is/it has"): "The dog wagged its tail." / "It's raining."
   • than (used in comparisons) vs then (relating to time or sequence): "She is taller than her brother." / "First we ate, then we left."
7. Idioms: An idiom is a fixed expression whose meaning cannot be worked out from the individual words. Examples: break the ice (start a conversation to ease tension), once in a blue moon (very rarely), burn the midnight oil (work late into the night).

Base word: care

• Noun: care
• Verb: care (for)
• Adjective: careful
• Adverb: carefully

Sentence check:
Correct:   "Please cross the road carefully." (adverb modifies the verb)
Incorrect: "Please cross the road careful."

• Confusing affect (verb) with effect (noun) — remember: Affect = Action (verb), Effect = End result (noun)
• Writing "its" when the contraction "it's" (it is) is meant, and vice versa
• Using "then" in a comparison instead of "than"
• Adding "-ly" to a word that is already an adverb (e.g., writing "quickly-ly")
• Using an idiom literally instead of understanding its figurative meaning

• What is the adjective form of the noun "beauty"?
• Correct the sentence: "The medicine had a bad affect on him."

Open the Practice tab for graded questions on Vocabulary and Word Formation.