Word Formation
Cours · anglais (2 Bac, Maroc), chapitre 14 · Maroc, 2e année du Bac · le début du chapitre, la suite sur Adloun
At the National Exam you are often asked to put the word between brackets in the correct form. To do this well you need two skills: knowing the suffixes and prefixes that build new words, and reading the sentence to decide which part of speech is needed — a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb.
14.1 The four parts of speech you must recognise
- A noun names a thing, person or idea (decision, kindness, teacher). It often follows a / the / this / his or an adjective.
- A verb expresses an action or state (decide, modernise, widen). It often follows a subject (they ___ the plan).
- An adjective describes a noun (useful, helpless, creative). It often comes before a noun or after be / seem / look.
- An adverb describes a verb, an adjective or another adverb (quickly, carefully). It often answers how? and usually ends in -ly.
The same root can give all four forms. From care: the noun care, the verb care, the adjective careful, the adverb carefully. Your job is to pick the one the sentence needs.
14.2 Suffixes that form NOUNS
Propriété : Common noun suffixes
- -tion / -sion: educate → education, decide → decision, discuss → discussion.
- -ment: develop → development, agree → agreement, employ → employment.
- -ness: kind → kindness, happy → happiness, dark → darkness.
- -ity: able → ability, active → activity, real → reality.
- -er / -or (the person who does something): teach → teacher, act → actor, visit → visitor.
- The government invested in education (educate). — education is a noun after the.
- Their agreement (agree) ended the conflict.
- We admire her kindness (kind) towards others.
- He is a famous actor (act).
14.3 Suffixes that form ADJECTIVES
Propriété : Common adjective suffixes
- -ful (full of): use → useful, care → careful, hope → hopeful.
- -less (without): use → useless, care → careless, home → homeless.
- -ive: create → creative, act → active, attract → attractive.
- -al: nature → natural, education → educational, culture → cultural.
- -ous: danger → dangerous, fame → famous, ambition → ambitious.
- -able / -ible: rely → reliable, comfort → comfortable, sense → sensible.
La suite du cours est sur Adloun
Le chapitre en entier, formules et figures comprises, avec le tuteur, les fiches, les QCM et les exercices.
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