SUFFIXES (59) ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR ELEMENTARY

ENGLISH VOCABULARY FOR ELEMENTARY

SUFFIXES (59)

A

Suffixes come at the end of words. They help you to understand the meaning of a new word. Here are some common suffixes. suffix meaning examples er, or (noun) person worker, swimmer, instructor er, or (noun) machine, thing cooker, calculator ful (adjective) full of useful, beautiful less (adjective) without useless, endless ly makes an adverb from an adjective quickly, happily ness makes an abstract noun from an adjective happiness, sadness y makes an adjective from a noun sandy, sunny ·         He’s a hard worker. He works 12 hours a day. ·         She’s a very good swimmer. She was in the Olympic team. ·         Her tennis is much better now that she has a new instructor. ·         We’ve got a new gas cooker so the food should be delicious! ·         Can we use our calculators in the maths test? Thanks for the information. It was very useful. What a beautiful photo. I think it will win the competition. This book is no help at all - it’s useless. I can’t finish this book - it’s endless. He was late for work so he went quickly to the station. They are happily married with two young children. The mother was smiling with happiness as she held her baby in her arms. They said goodbye with great sadness because they knew they would probably never meet again. That beach is very popular with tourists because it is long and sandy. It’s a lovely sunny day - let’s go to the beach.

Exercises

59.1	Which of the example words from the opposite page do these pictures illustrate?
59.2	Find the adjectives and match them with the nouns they go with in the box. Some adjectives can go with more than one noun. electric worker fast beautiful cooker sandy weather sunny car hard idea useful book endless swimmer beach guitar smile picture fun useless 1 _____electric cooker / guitar_______ 6 ________________________________ 2 ________________________________ 7 ________________________________ 3 ________________________________ 8 ________________________________ 4 ________________________________ 9 ________________________________ 5 ________________________________
59.3	Complete the sentences using the word in brackets and a suffix. 1 Can I use your bottle _______opener______ , please? (open) 2 I’m tired because I slept very __________ last night. (bad) 3 The waiter was very __________  and explained everything on the menu. (help) 4 Thank you very much for all your __________. (kind) 5 It’s important not to make __________ mistakes in your writing. (care) 6 It was wet and __________ most of last week. (wind) 7 I did the homework very __________. (easy) 8 Do you know a good __________ who could do some work on our house? (build)
59.4	What do you think these words and phrases mean? Use the information about suffixes from the opposite page to help you. 1 a hair dryer a thing that you use to dry your hair 2 a traveller ____________________________________ 3 slowly ____________________________________ 4 hopeful ____________________________________ 5 rainy ____________________________________ 6 painless ____________________________________ 7 badly ____________________________________ 8 a tin opener ____________________________________ 9 a footballer ____________________________________ 10 snowy ____________________________________

ANSWER KEY

59.1	2	instructor
	3	swimmer
	4	happily
	5	calculator
	6	useful

59.2	Possible answers You may be able to think of some other possible combinations.
	2	fast worker / car / swimmer
	3	beautiful beach / weather / car / book / smile / picture
	4	sandy beach
	5	sunny weather / smile
	6	hard worker
	7	useful idea / book
	8	endless fun
	9	useless idea / book (Note: You can also say ‘I’m a useless swimmer’. It is typical of spoken rather than written English and means ‘I am no good at swimming’.)

59.3	2	badly
	3	helpful
	4	kindness
	5	careless
	6	windy
	7	easily
	8	builder

59.4	2	a person who travels
	3	the opposite of fast
	4	with lots of hope
	5	weather when it is raining
	6	it doesn’t hurt
	7	the opposite of doing something well
	8	a thing for opening tins
	9	a person who plays football
	10	weather when there is a lot of snow