Lesson 5 · Lesson guide
Word Families: Noun, Verb, Adjective, Adverb
Hello, my dear student!
Hello! In Lesson 1 you learned the jobs words do: noun, verb, adjective, adverb. Today we use that to multiply your vocabulary.
Most English words belong to a family: develop, development, developing, developed. If you know one member and the endings, you can build the others. One new word can become four.
This matters in every part of IELTS. In Listening and Reading, an answer in the wrong form is marked wrong. In Writing and Speaking, the right form helps your score for vocabulary. You will practise building families, choosing the right member for a gap, and turning “rose sharply” into “a sharp rise”.
See you in the exercises,Your teacher
Your browser has no English voice, so the listen buttons are hidden. Everything is written on the page.
Endings tell you the job
Learn these endings. They are the building blocks of word families.
Nouns
-tion, -ment, -ness, -ity, -ance, -er
Things, ideas and people.
- education, development, happiness, popularity, importance, teacher
Adjectives
-al, -ful, -ous, -ive, -able, -less
They describe nouns.
- educational, useful, dangerous, creative, comfortable, careless
Verbs
-ise / -ize, -en, -ify, -ate
Actions. British English often uses -ise: modernise.
- modernise, widen, simplify, educate
Adverbs
adjective + -ly
They describe verbs: how something happens. -y becomes -ily, -le becomes -ly.
- careful → carefully, easy → easily, steady → steadily, gentle → gently
Remember!
Before you write a word in a gap, ask: does the gap need a noun, a verb, an adjective or an adverb?
Opposites with prefixes
A prefix at the start can make the opposite. Learn which one goes with which word.
un-
the most common
unhappy, unemployed, unusual, unhealthy
- Many young people are unemployed.
im- / in-
im- before p and m
impossible, impatient, immature; incorrect, independent, informal
- It is impossible to finish today.
dis-
with some verbs and adjectives
disagree, dislike, dishonest, disappear
- I disagree with this opinion.
Families to learn today
Tap to hear them: noun, verb, adjective, adverb. Watch the stress move in some words.
education – educate – educational – educationally
development – develop – developing – developed
environment – environmental – environmentally
no verb in this family
danger – endanger – dangerous – dangerously
improvement – improve – improved
popularity – popular – popularly
significance – significant – significantly
very useful for Task 1
Mistakes I correct every day
Not: The government should solve the pollute.Say: The government should solve the pollution.
After the → a noun: pollution.
Not: She speaks very fluent.Say: She speaks very fluently.
It describes the verb speaks → adverb.
Not: It is a very use book.Say: It is a very useful book.
Before a noun → adjective: useful.
Not: The number of tourists increased significant.Say: The number of tourists increased significantly.
How did it increase? → adverb.
Check yourself
Noun from “improve”?
Opposite of “possible”?
Change “The number rose sharply” to use a noun.
Now it’s your turn!
8 short parts, each a little harder than the one before. Take your time: mistakes are how we learn.
— Your teacher