Word Formation
Word formation is worth 5 marks of the twenty in Language in Use, and it is the one task in the written paper where the word you need has already been handed to you: it is printed in brackets beside the gap. The mark is lost not on the word but on its form.
Every gap asks two questions, in this order. First: what kind of word has to stand here? The sentence around the gap answers that, not the brackets. Second: which ending does this root take for that kind of word? Only the root answers that, and it is learnt by families of endings rather than word by word.
The text and the gap that is already filled in
A teaching text, not an exam text. The exam text is several paragraphs long, with ten scored gaps spread through it; this one is short and its gaps sit close together.
The library that stays open at night
Every June the town library changes its (0) ___ (open) hours and works until two in the morning. The idea came from four students who were all (1) ___ (teach) by the same maths tutor and could not work at home. The plan needed the (2) ___ (approve) of the town council, and that took a whole spring. The first night was so (3) ___ (noise) that the caretaker nearly locked the room again, and the students answered his complaints (4) ___ (polite) and asked for one more week. By the end of June the room was so full that anyone arriving late found it (5) ___ (possible) to get a seat at all.
Gap 0 comes already filled in: it shows what is wanted and carries no marks. In
changes its (0) ___ hours the brackets give open, and opening goes in. The root stays the
same; what changes is the job the word does: it stands in front of the noun hours and describes
it. One word goes in the box, in the shape that fits the sentence.
That gap was about what you did not have to do. Here is how the sentence names the kind of word in all the others.
The rule and the table
The word in brackets supplies the root and nothing else. No word class, no number, no sign is in it: all of that is assigned by the sentence around the gap, so the first decision is read to the left and to the right of the box.
| What stands around the gap | What goes in the box |
|---|---|
the, a, its, their, a number or an adjective on the left; of or the verb on the right | a noun |
two, many, forty-one on the left | a noun with -s |
| an article on the left and a noun on the right | an adjective |
be, look, sound, seem, become on the left | an adjective, no -ly |
| the sentence is complete without the gap: cover it with a finger | an adverb |
was, were, had been on the left and the brackets give a verb (often by … follows) | the third form of the same verb |
is or are on the left, something happening now | the -ing form |
than or a comparative the beside it | -er or -est |
the neighbouring clause says the opposite: but, although, nobody, too … to | a negative prefix or -less |
The table names the kind of word, not the ending: arrive becomes arrival, achieve becomes
achievement, decide becomes decision, and no neighbour tells those apart. That is the second
question, and after the next four gaps it gets sections of its own.
Gaps 2–5
The article settled that one. The next gap has no article, and the verb in front of it decides.
was describes the subject. In the next gap the verb is an ordinary action, and the word says how it
was done.
So far two or three words beside the gap settled everything. In the last one the whole phrase does.
Nouns: which ending the root takes
Once the slot has said noun, the root decides the ending. There are only a handful of noun endings, and each attaches to a particular kind of root: learn them as families, with the spelling change each family brings.
The ending also settles a person or an activity. Reading is a noun too, but it names an activity
rather than a person. When the sentence counts the noun or goes on with who, the answer is the
person: readers, visitors.
Adjectives, adverbs, verbs: the other endings
Adjective endings come in families too, usually on a noun or a verb, and the rare new verb has a family of its own.
-ful and -less are opposites on one noun: harmful is with harm, harmless without it, so
-less carries a sign and comes back in the next section. -able is the living family and attaches
to almost any verb; -ible is a closed set of old words.
Spelling, which the next drill needs: a final -e drops before a vowel
(desire → desirable) and stays before a consonant (care → careful), and -y after a
consonant becomes -i (plenty → plentiful).
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| beauty | |
| expense | |
| afford | |
| fame | |
| energy | |
| nature |
The adverb is built on top of the adjective: adjective plus -ly. When the brackets give a noun or a
verb, go through the adjective first: effect → effective → effectively. The ending changes
shape three times: -y becomes -ily (noisily), -le becomes -ly (possibly), -ic takes
-ally (enthusiastically).
The sign: which negative prefix
The table at the top said when the sense turns round. Which prefix turns it is a separate question,
and it is answered in two steps. First the root decides between un- and in-. Only a root that
takes in- then lets its first letter decide the spelling.
| The root | Prefix | Examples |
|---|---|---|
most adjectives and -ed, -ing forms | un- | unhelpful, unknown |
| a Latin-looking adjective | in- | incomplete, insufficient |
an in- root starting with p, b or m | im- | immature, impolite |
an in- root starting with r | ir- | irregular, irrelevant |
an in- root starting with l | il- | illogical, illiterate |
| a verb, or the reverse of a quality | dis- | dislike, dishonest |
| a noun: without it | -less | pointless, endless |
But unpopular, unreliable, unlikely: these roots take un-, so the letter rule never applies.
un- is the default when you do not know the root takes in-. mis- means wrongly, not "not":
misunderstand is to understand wrongly, and it never answers a gap that only asks for the opposite.
| The opposite | |
|---|---|
| responsible | |
| legal | |
| patient | |
| active | |
| agree | |
| expected |
One last pass, a new text
Now the way the paper does it: a new text, four gaps in a row, both questions at every gap. This one is about a night bus that takes a hospital late shift home.
paid was the form of the same word that were asks for. The same rule has two more shapes: the
-ing form after is or are, and the comparative beside than, which has not come up yet.
Which word goes into the gap? The night bus is now ___ (busy) than the morning one.
Exam levelWhat to take away
| Marks for the task | 5, half a mark per gap; 10 scored gaps plus the filled-in example 0 |
| First question | what kind of word: read left and right of the gap, not the brackets |
| Second question | which ending: the family of the root |
| No new word | a verb in brackets after was, were, had been, is, or any word before than: a form of the same word |
| The sign | named by the neighbouring clause; the root picks un- or in-, then its first letter spells in- |
| The typical miss | your own word in the wrong form, which costs as much as a wrong word |
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