·Building meaning
Word formation and false friends. Many new words are not really new: they are a word you already know with a prefix or a suffix. And many words that look familiar because they resemble Spanish mean something else. In this video we look at the suffixes that form nouns, adjectives and adverbs, negative prefixes, word families and false friends. A warning: word formation is not a task of its own in the Core, but it helps you work out meaning from context and widen your Writing. The rules are AptisBot's own criterion.
1/4Noun, adjective and adverb suffixes
Suffixes tell you what kind of word you have. Nouns: tion, as in decision and information; ment, as in achievement; ness, as in happiness; ity, as in possibility; er or or, as in teacher and director. Adjectives: ful, as in useful; less, as in careless; able, as in comfortable; ous, as in dangerous; and ive, as in creative. Adverbs: ly, as in quickly. And verbs: ise or ize, as in organise; and en, as in widen. When you see a new word, look at the ending: it tells you whether it is a noun, an adjective, an adverb or a verb, and that helps you choose the right option in a gap.
2/4Negative prefixes
Negative prefixes turn the meaning into its opposite. Un: unhappy, unusual, unable. In: incorrect, inactive, incomplete. But before p or m it is im: impossible, impatient, immature; before l, il: illegal, illogical; and before r, ir: irregular, irresponsible. Dis: disagree, dislike, disappear. And mis, which indicates a mistake: misunderstand, misspell. There is no rule for which prefix goes with which word, so you learn it with the word. And notice that not every word with in- is negative: invaluable means very valuable, not without value.
3/4Word families
A word family brings together a verb, a noun, an adjective and an adverb with the same root. Decide, decision, decisive, decisively. Succeed, success, successful, successfully. Create, creation, creative, creatively. Beauty, beautiful, beautifully, beautify. Learning the whole family multiplies your vocabulary by three or four. And it helps in the Core, because sometimes the gap needs a noun and the other options are the adjective and the verb from the same family. Ask yourself what the sentence is missing: a subject, a description, an action, a manner? That decides the kind of word.
4/4False friends
False friends look Spanish and are not. Actually means en realidad, not actualmente: actualmente is currently. Eventually means finalmente, not eventualmente. Sensible means sensato; sensible in Spanish is sensitive. Library means biblioteca; librería is bookshop. Embarrassed means avergonzado; embarazada is pregnant. Sympathetic means comprensivo; simpático is nice or friendly. Assist means ayudar; asistir a una clase is attend. Realize means darse cuenta; realizar is carry out or make. Carpet means alfombra; carpeta is folder. Exit means salida; éxito is success. And argument means discusión; argumento is plot or reason. Learn the ten you get wrong most often, and note the correct equivalent beside each one.
·Time to practise
To practise, choose five words and write out their full family: verb, noun, adjective and adverb. Then write five sentences with false friends, without confusing their meaning. And the next time you read a new word in English, look at its ending and its beginning first: you probably already know the root.