Affixes - Prefixes - Suffixes

• Afijos – prefijos y sufijos READING COMPREHENSION I. RECOGNIZING PARTS OF SPEECH When you try to figure out the meaning of a new vocabulary item from the context and to use the item correctly in speaking and writing, it helps to know what part of speech the word is. Sometimes, you can tell the part of speech from the suffix (the ending) on a word. Here are some common noun and adjective suffixes. NOUNS SUFFIXES - er, -or, -ist -sion, -tion -ment, -ness -ure, -ture -s, -es

ADJECTIVES EXAMPLES SUFFIXES Teacher, -ar Professor, Tourist Discussion, -ic, -al, -ical Action Enrollment, -ful, -less Happiness Pressure, -ive Temperature -ical States, quizzes -er (than) (plural forms)

EXAMPLES Similar Comic, legal, physical Healthful, Hopeless Expensive, Physical Higher (Comparative forms)

Exercise 1. Are the following words nouns or adjectives? On each line, write (noun) or adj (adjective). The first items are done as examples. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

n n adj

Speaker Education Harmful Management Practical Popular Technical Instructors Assignments

Exercise 2.

10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18

Individual Competitive Nutritionist Counselor Section Creative Powerful Forgetfulness Introduction

19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27

n

Equipment Wilderness Spectacular Expensive Temperature Travelers Beautiful National Recreation

Complete the following sentences with the noun or adjective from Exercise 1 that is related to each underlined word. The first one is done as an example.

1. Students study management to become managers. 2. A native of English speaks English as a native language. 3. To become a better reader, you have to practice reading; reading is a ___________ skill. 4. Do your instructors assign a lot of homework? So they give many reading ____________ ? 5. Educators try to improve the quality of ____________ in schools.

6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15.

Can smoking harm people? Is it a _____________ or a ___________ habit? Vegetarians are nor usually __________ people. They don’t like to compete. ___________ are experts in nutrition (the study of food and diet). A _______________ person likes to create. How can the weather have power over people? Weather can have a ____________ effect on people’s feelings. People are often ___________ against the forces of nature (such as earthquakes, storms, floods). I often forget things, and I worry about my _________________ . Chapter 3 introduces you to parts of speech. It is a short ________________ . _________________ are different from tourists; they travel for experience and knowledge more than to see things. My living expenses are high, so I can’t buy _______________ things. I love _______________ scenery: the beauty of nature relaxes me.

Exercise 3. Circle the correct word (noun or adjective) in parentheses. The first one is done as an example. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Words appear in a dictionary in (alphabet / alphabetical) order. If you study (grammar / grammatical), you learn about parts of speech. Travel is a time for (relaxation / relax) and (recreation / recreate). In Japan, people use landmarks such as buildings in their (directions / directs). The scenery in some areas is (spectacle / spectacular). In Yucatan, Mexico, the (temperature / temperate) is usually high. Do you know the (nation, national) parks of the western United States? In the United States, do you have to fill out a (registration / register) form at the post office if you move to a new community? Is it (legality / legal) in your community to smoke in restaurants? The main idea of a paragraph is more (generally / general) and less (specificity / specific) than details

II. RECOGNIZING PARTS OF SPEECH As you know, to figure out the meaning of a new word, it is useful to know what part of speech the word is. The following chart has more common suffixes that will help you recognize words by their parts of speech. NOUNS SUFFIXES EXAMPLES -ance Distance -ence Difference -ty Ability -ity availability

ADJECTIVES SUFFIXES EXAMPLES -ant Distant -ent Different -able Available -ible responsible

ADVERBS SUFFIXES EXAMPLES -ly Clearly -ally

Scientifically

Exercise 1. Are the following words nouns, adjectives or adverbs? On each line, write n (noun), adj (adjective) or adv (adverb). The first item is done as an example. 1 2 3

n

Intelligence importance Creativity

7 8 9

Available politely Personality

13 14 15

Community responsible Responsibility

4 5 6

Pleasant Magnificent magnificenc e

10 11 12

Directly Quickly Convenience

16 17 18

Identically Equivalent Truly

Exercise 2. Fill in the chart with the missing parts of speech.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

NOUNS Intelligence Responsibility _______________ _______________ _______________ Happiness _______________ Perfection Typicalness _______________

ADJECTIVES Intelligent _______________ Active Traditional _______________ _______________ Pleasant _______________ _______________ _______________

ADVERBS ________________ ________________ ________________ ________________ Importantly ________________ ________________ ________________ ________________ Recreationally

Exercise 3. Read the following sentences. Most of the sentences have at least one incorrect word. Write the part that is missing. IF you think a word is complete and doesn’t need anything, put an X in the blank. 1. People from differ_____ cultural backgrounds may think different____ about family life. For instance, there may be a big differ____ in their ideas about the import_____ of marriage and children_____ . 2. Family members today may not share many family activit____ because they probably lead very act____ lives outside the home. For example, a woman may active_____ run her own business. In this case, she probably expects her family to take more responsabil____ for housework and shopping. 3. Nobody in our family likes to clean up the kitchen after dinner. I guess we’re a typical_____ American family. My brother and I had a terrible argu____ last night about the dish____. Final____, after about ten minutes of screaming, we decided to do them together. Unfortunate____, my brother and I are both care____ people. We broke three glass____ and a very expens_____ plate. III. LEARNING WORD FAMILIES When you understand the meanings and uses of suffixes (word endings), you can better learn vocabulary systematically. In other words, you can study word families – groups of related words with the same stem, or main part, but different suffixes. In some dictionaries, these related words appear in the same word entry; in other dictionaries, related words appear in separate entries. Here are examples of word families. NOUNS Murder (thing) Murderer (person) Mystery

VERBS Murder Mystify

ADJECTIVES ADVERBS Murderous Murderously Mysterious Mysteriously

Mystification mysteriousness Exercise 1. Complete the following story with words from the displayed words. For some blanks, more than one answer may be correct. The first few are done for you. murder mystery

murderer mystify

murderous mysteriously

In my favorite story, someone murdered a hotel manager. No one seemed to have a motive, so this murderous act mystified everyone except the detective. _____________, she figured out the answer to the ______________ quickly. The _______________ was the chef. nerve nervous nervously perfection perfectionist perfect The chef was a ___________ - he insisted on _________ in the kitchen. Every meal had to be _____________. Because of the cook’s perfectionism, the kitchen workers were always feeling _______________ . One day the hotel manager had the ___________________ to talk to the cook about the problem. _______________, he went into the kitchen. surprise surprised surprisingly critic criticism criticize The manager’s ______________ was a complete _____________ to the chef. After all, no one ever __________d the cook because all the meals from the kitchen were perfect. Also, the manager was not a well–known food _____________. But ______________, the chef didn’t get angry at the manager. Then the manager was ________________ and worried. Possibility fortune

possible fortunate

possibly fortunately

The next evening, the manager got a strange fortune cookie with his Chinese dinner. His _______________ said, “You are ____________ to get this warning about your ___________ death, _____________, you will die tonight. But _________, now you know about the ______________. stranger strange strangely silencer silence silent When a ______________ came into the dining room, no one said anything; everyone was ______________ _____________. Suddenly, a __________________ thing happened. A shout broke the _______________. A kitchen helper yelled, “Help! The chef is shot!” IV. LEARNING TO USE WORDS WITH PREFIXES A prefix is a word element placed at the beginning of a root. Prefixes are like suffixes in that they change the meaning of the root and form a new word; however, prefixes do not change the word’s part of speech.

Knowing the meaning of a prefix will give a clue to the meaning of the word. The following prefixes mean “no” or “not” and add negative meanings to words; that is, these prefixes create antonyms, or words with opposite meanings. dis-

il-

im-

in-

non-

un-

Exercise 1. Which of these words contains a prefix with a negative meaning? Underline these prefixes. Put an X on the lines next to the words without negative prefix. The first two are done as examples. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8.

X

incomplete include important uncommon illegal inherited distance disagree

9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16.

nonstop impolite imply unfortunately impossible inhabitants illness uncomfortable

Exercise 2. From your own knowledge, write the missing negative (dis-, il-, im-, non-, un-)in each blank. Then check your answers in the dictionary. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

similar appear balance perfectly active ability native

8 9 10 11 12 13 14

sense surprising natural popular mature personal literate

15 16 17 18 19 20 21

in-,

correct complete honest polite existent successful ease

Exercise 3. Look at the words in exercise 2. Complete the following sentences about negative prefixes. Circle the correct answer. 3.1. Use _______ with most words that start with b, m, or p. a. in-

b. im-

c. il-

3.2. Use _______ with most words that start with l. a. il-

a.

b. inc.un3.3.. The most common negative prefix is _____ . a. in-

b. im-

c. un-

V. READING EXERCISE Read the following questions and the text, and then mark the correct answers with a circle. 1.Do we know how human beings learn a language?

a. Yes

b. No

2. What was Skinner’s definition of learning? a. Thinking b. Acquiring new habits. 3. Who uses Skinner’s ideas? a. Teachers b. Scientists 4. Who disagreed with Skinner? a. Everyone b.Chomsky 5. What did Chomsky say all human beings have? a. A habit b.A special mechanism in their brain. Language Learning No one knows how human beings learn a language. In the 1950’s a famous psychologist, E.F. Skinner, said that learning was simply the acquisition of new habits. He taught animals to perform actions by rewarding them when they performed well and punishing them when they performed badly. His ideas were widely used in language teaching. Noam Chomsky disagreed with Skinner, and in 1959 he proposed what became the basis for a new theory of language learning. Chomsky said all humans beings have a special mechanism in their brains which is the basis of speech. This mechanism decays as we grow older, which may explain why children frequently have fewer problems when learning a language than adults do. Since 1959 psychologists and teachers have produced variations on Skinner’s and Chomsky’s ideas but there is still no general agreement on how we learn language.

SUMMARY ON AFFIXES (PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES) a. Prefixes Prefixes come before a root word and have an adverbial effect. modify the meaning of the root word. Time

Place

Mediated Pre View

done Un

duct

natal Post

Negation

sent Ab

Mortem

vade

replaceable

agreed Dis

jacent In

responsible Ir

well

Here Ad

That is, they

pleased In

vert

perfect Im pede

complete correct

a. Suffixes. They have two functions: 1)

They show grammatical inflexion. This mechanism decays ______________________ 3rd person singular.

Chomsky’s ideas ___________________________ genitive They performed well ________________________ simple past.

2)

They denote parts of speech VERB

NOUN

ADJECTIVE

ADVERB

-pose

propose

-ion

action

-ial

special

-ly

badly

-duce

produce

-is

basis

-al

general

-ally

diametrically

-ate

create

-ism

mechanism

-able capable

-ward

backward

-ize

recognize

-ment

agreement

-ive

-wise

likewise

secretive

Guessing Words Reading text in a foreign language is not easy. The reader has to recognize the structures which appear in the text, and a good number of the words too. Very often we do not need to know the exact meaning of all the words, if we can understand the ideas they contain. Nevertheless, a specific word can be essential for our understanding of an idea. Therefore, if that word is not already apart of our vocabulary, we have to guess its meaning. There are various ways of guessing the meaning of words, but understanding affixes (prefixes and Suffixes) is one of the most useful. They are particles or words joined to a root or base word to create a new word. Prefixes go before the root word, and suffixes follow it. For example, take a root word like APPEAR. We can add a suffix, ANCE, to make another new word – DISAPPEARANCE. Now, how does this help us guessing the meaning of words? Well, f we know that the root word, APPEAR, means to become visible, when we see it with the negative prefix DIS it must mean the opposite of the root suffix, ANCE, which makes words into nouns (the names of things), we know that the new word must mean THE NAME OF THE OPPOSITE OF TO BECOME VISIBLE. If we understand the function of a number of common affixes, this will help us to guess the meaning of words. Understanding the function of a word in a sentence helps us arrive at a synonym for it (a word with the same or a similar meaning). For example, read the following sentence: He saw the fire and ran away RASSLY. RASSLY is a nonsense word. It has no meaning in English; however, from its function in the sentence, and its context we can guess a meaning for it. LY is a suffix which denotes an adverb and an adverb describes a verb, so RASSLY must describe ran. The person is running away from a fire, so we imagine that RASSLY must mean quickly, or its synonym rapidly. In this way we can use affixes to guess the meaning of words in text. Exercise 1. Choose the best answer. Put a circle around it. 1. When reading a text we must understand ... a. structures

b.words

c. structures and words.

2. Understanding prefixes and suffixes is .... a.the only way to guess the meaning of words. b. The most useful way of guessing the meaning of words. c. One way of guessing the meaning of words. 3. The suffix ANCE makes words into... a. negatives

b) adjectives

c) nouns

4. Suffixes come ... a. before a root word.

b. after a root word.

c. before and after a root word. 5. Ly is a ... a. prefix denoting an adverb. b. prefix denoting an adjective. c Suffix denoting an adverb. Exercise 2. Reference. 1. “Its” in line 6 refers to: a. A specific word.

b. Our understanding

c. Our vocabulary

b. one of the most useful.

c. affixes

2. “They” in line 8 refers to: a. various ways

3. “This” in line 17 refers to : a. he suffix ANCE. number.

b. Understanding the function.

c the

4. “It” in line 20 refers to: a. the function.

b. A sentence

c A word.

5. “It” in line 23 refers to: a nonsense word. Exercise 3.

b. English.

c Rassly.

Read the following sentences and complete them with the correct word or phrases.

3.1.The reader has to _____________ the structures which appear in the text. racognize

decognize

recognize

3.2. Nevertheless, a specific word can be _______________ for our understanding of an idea.

essentours

essentance

essential

3.4. __________, if that word is not already part of our vocabulary, we have to guess its meaning. Wherefore

Therefore

Theirfore

3.5. There are various ways of guessing the _______________ of words. mean

meaning

meaningful

3.6. Now, how does this help us ____________ the meaning of words? guess

guessing

guessed

3.7. Here is a list of a few common ____________ . offixes

affixes

effixes

3.8. Understanding the ________ of a word in a sentence helps us arrive at a synonym for it. functible

functly

function

3.9. For example, read the _____________ sentence: He saw the fire and ran away rassly. following

Followed

follows

3.10. The person is ____________ a way from the fire, so rassly must mean quickly. run

runner

Running

3.11. In this way we can _____________ affixes to guess the meaning of words. use

uses

used

Exercise 4. Put the following words in the correct order to make five sentences. 1.

is texts not a Reading language in foreign easy

2.

word Prefixes root it suffixes go follow before and the

3.

DISAPPEARANCE Then suffix, add we another, can a word make to ANCE new.

4.

become the original of antonym has It the

5.

can we in texts In this guess the use affixes way to meaning words of.

Exercise 5. Read the following beginnings and endings, and make five sentences for them. 1.

Nevertheless, a specific word can be essential.

2.

They are particles or words joined to a root or base word

3.

If we understand the function of a number of common affixes

4.

Understanding the function of a word in a sentence

5.

However, from its function in the sentence.

1.

a) we can imagine a meaning for it.

2.

b) this will help us guess the meaning of words.

3.

c) for our understanding of an idea.

4.

d) if we can understand the ideas they contain.

5.

e) to create a new word. f) helps us arrive at a synonym for it. g) it has no meaning in English.

Exercise 6. Read the following sentences and organize them to make a composition. The first sentence has been chosen for you. a) I can speak three languages: Spanish, French and German

1.

b) Then I went to Spain on Holiday

2.

c) But I do not use any of them now.

3.

d) Then my boss asks me to translate it.

4.

e) I do wish I could practice my languages

5.

f) That is because I am interested in Spain and its culture.

6.

g) I started to learn Spanish at school.

7.

h) Later I lived there for a short time

8.

i) But my favorite is Spanish

9.

a

j) Except when a letter from abroad arrive at the office

10.