Suffixes (Easy)

Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary. Im Finn...

Alice

And Im . Today were looking at a very important part of word building  � suffixes.

Suffixes. Well look at what they are, what they mean and how to use .

Alice

Therell be a quiz…

Finn

And well leave you with a tip for learning vocabulary.

Alice

So: to start off, were going to listen Andrea and Steve who work in a bank. They have just interviewed two people want to work there.

Finn

And heres a question to think about while listen: who did Andrea and Steve like best - the first person or the person?

Alice

Who did they like best? Lets find out.

INSERT

Andrea

What do you think then Steve?

Steve

Well, the first one was excitable: he kept laughing and speaking fast.

Andrea

Perhaps it was just nervousness, theres no room for that in this business.

Steve

No. Now I thought second interviewee seemed a bit more responsible.

Andrea

Yes, she did  � very when dealing with money. And she was polite.

Steve

Politeness is essential in job.

Andrea

Absolutely. Well, I think we both know which one is more .

Finn

So, thats Steve and Andrea. And we asked you: who did like best?

Alice

And the answer is: they definitely liked the second person . The second one was polite and responsible. The first one was a bit too .

Finn

Thats right, and excitable is a key word in the show today it ends in a suffix.

Alice

Now in the world of vocabulary, a is a group of letters that you can add to the end of a to change its form, or meaning, or both.

Finn

For example, word excitable has the suffix --able, spelt a-b-l-e---. --able makes verbs into adjectives, and use –able words to say that a subject can do something  � is able do something - or they behave in a particular way.

Alice

So if take the verb excite, add the suffix --able, we can say that the first was excitable, meaning: he can get very excited.

Finn

And the second one responsible, thats responsible with –ible��, spelt ‘---’i-b-l-e��---’. She can be trusted to do the thing. And thats why she was more employable, now that's --able with an a .

Now for another suffix. Andrea and Steve talked about two interviewees. The suffix – ��, spelt e-e-, makes a noun which means ‘the person who receives an action’.

For example, if you add –ee to interview, you get the person who receives interview, an interviewee.

IDENT

Youre listening to BBC Learning English dot com.

And were talking about suffixes. Our final suffix for today is –ness��, spelt n-e-s-s---. –ness to an adjective makes a noun.

Alice

Thats right, and interviewee number suffered from nervousness  � the noun form of nervous.

Finn

But number two the importance of politeness  � the noun form of polite. Is politeness important to Alice?

Alice

Oh yes Finn, politeness is very important to me.

Finn

think youre very polite. Now lets listen to todays suffixes and words again.

The first one was: --able with an a. a-b-l-e---.

Finn

excitable, employable

--ible withan i. i-b-l-e---.

Finn

responsible

Alice

--ee: e-e-

Finn

interviewee

Alice

--ness: n-e-s-s---

Finn

nervousness, politeness

Alice

And its time for a . Choose the correct suffix to complete the final words in these 2 sentences. Ready?

Number 1.The most important thing to me is my familys’… a) happy-ee b) happy-able-, ) happiness.

Finn

This one is the noun form of happy, so its c) .

Alice

Number 2. Im learning how to do this job. Im a a) b) trainable, c) train-ness-.

Finn

You are receiving training, so youre a trainee.

Alice

Well done if you got those right.

Finn

And that brings us to the end of todays programme.

Alice

But before we go, heres todays tip for learning vocabulary: if you use an online dictionary, type a hyphen or dash into the search box, and then type in any of todays suffixes. The will give you a list of words that end with your suffix.

Finn

know, thats a really good tip: I think I might try that. Theres more this at BBC learning English dot com. Join us again for more 6 Minute .

Both

Goodbye!