ENGLISH VOCABULARY IN USE PRE INTERMEDIATE
UNIT 72 SUFFIXES: FORMING ADJECTIVES
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Common suffixes that form adjectives
include: -able (comfortable), -al (musical), -y (cloudy), -ous
(famous) and -ive (attractive).
A
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-al
Adjectives ending -al are usually formed from nouns, and often
mean ‘relating to the noun’, e.g. a musical instrument (from music),
a political issue (from politics), an electrical fault (related
to electricity), a personal opinion (the opinion of one person).
SHICHI-GO-SAN
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Shichi-Go-San (meaning 7, 5, 3) is an annual ceremony in
Japan for three-and seven-year-old girls, and three-and five-year-old boys.
It is on November 15, but it is not a national1 holiday,
so people often have it on the nearest weekend. Seven, five and three are
seen as important years in the growth of a child, and the numbers also
have cultural significance2 because odd numbers (1, 3,
5, 7, 9, etc.) are lucky in Japan. This is one of the special days when
the older boys and girls are allowed to wear traditional3
clothes: a kimono for girls and hakama trousers for boys. Now it is quite
normal4 for children to wear western-style clothes at
this ceremony. The children visit a shrine and are then given special
sweets called Chitose-Ame by their parents.
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B
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-able /əbl/
This suffix
forms adjectives from nouns and verbs, and the prefix un- often forms the opposite:
an enjoyable party [something that you
enjoyed]
a comfortable chair (opp uncomfortable)
a suitable word or phrase
[right/correct for a particular situation; opp unsuitable]
a reliable service; reliable
information [able to be trusted or believed; opp unreliable]
fashionable clothes
[popular now with many people; opp
unfashionable]
a reasonable decision or price [fair;
not a bad decision or price; opp unreasonable]
a sociable person [enjoys being with
people; opp unsociable]
Sometimes the
opposite form is the more common adjective:
an unforgettable experience [something
that cannot be forgotten]
an unbelievable story [something that
is very surprising and very difficult to believe]
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C
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-ful and
-less
The suffix -ful often means ‘full of’ or
‘having the quality of the noun’, e.g. a colourful room
has a lot of
colour in it; a helpful person
gives a lot of help; a peaceful
place is calm and quiet.
The opposite
meaning is sometimes formed by adding the suffix -less to the noun.
a useful machine [having a lot of
uses; opp a useless machine]
a painful injection [giving pain and
being unpleasant; opp a painless injection]
a careful driver [drives with care
and attention; opp a careless driver]
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Common
mistakes
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The suffix is -ful (NOT full), so useful and careful (NOT usefull or carefull).
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EXERCISES
72.1
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Correct the spelling mistakes. Be careful: one word is correct.
1 enjoiable _____enjoyable_____
2 carful ________________
3 relyable ________________
4 peacefull ________________
5 confortable
________________
6 anual ________________
7 unforgetable
________________
8 reasonable
________________
9 unbeleivable
________________
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72.2
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Match the
words on the left with the words on the right.
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72.3
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Write an adjective formed from
these nouns or verbs. 11–15 are not on the opposite page, but you can find
them in the index if you don’t know them.
1 tradition ________traditional__________
2 attract
____________________________
3 person
____________________________
4 cloud
____________________________
5 colour
____________________________
6 fame
____________________________
7 electricity
____________________________
8 politics
____________________________
9 enjoy
____________________________
10 nation
____________________________
11 wind
____________________________
12 danger
____________________________
13 create
____________________________
14 emotion
____________________________
15 fog
____________________________
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72.4
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Tick (✓)
the words which form opposites with the suffix -less.
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72.5
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Complete the sentences.
1 You must be very ______ careful _______when you drive in
wet weather.
2 She told us an ____________
story about a dog that could speak.
3 The tourist information
office was very ____________, and told us everything we needed to know.
4 The festival is an ____________
event, held on the first Monday in September.
5 It was very ____________ when
I hit my leg against the corner of that table.
6 This bag is ____________;
it’s too small for me to put anything in it.
7 We’ve never had any
problems with our TV in ten years; it’s been very ____________.
8 Most people agreed with
it, so I think it was a ____________ decision.
9 This is just my ____________
opinion; others may not agree.
10 Travelling round China
and the Far East was an ____________ experience.
11 Children perform ____________
dances at the ceremony, as they have done for hundreds of years.
12 Do you think this dress
is ____________ for a wedding?
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72.6
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Choose three
adjectives from the opposite page which could describe these people or
things.
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ANSWER KEY
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