B2 First: use of English part 3 (word formation with irregular nouns and verbs)
There are lots of standard verb suffixes (see my verb word formation pages) or noun suffixes (e.g -ment, -ion). But many nouns and verbs have irregular suffixes which you'll need to know for the B2 First (FCE) exam.
Look at the information in the table for a few minutes and try to remember the words. Then click below to hide the information and try to answer the questions at the bottom.
| Noun | Verb | Adjective | Adverb |
|---|---|---|---|
| (dis)belief | (dis)believe | (un)believable | (un)believably |
| a choice | choose | chosen | - |
| a defence (British) a defense (US) |
defend | defensive | defensively |
| a death | die | dead/deadly | deadly |
| a gift | give | giving | - |
| a loss | lose | lost | - |
| a marriage | marry | (un)married | - |
| practice | practise (British) practice (US) |
practising (British) practicing (US) |
- |
| pretence (British) pretense (US) |
pretend | - | - |
| proof | (dis)prove | (un)proven | - |
| safety | save | (un)safe | safely |
| a sight | see | unseen | - |
| a speech | speak | (un)spoken | - |
| a success | succeed | (un)successful | (un)successfully |
| a thought | think | thoughtful/less | thoughtfully/lessly |
Note: there may be other forms of these words (for example, marriageable), but I have tried to give the most common/useful examples above ("a woman of marriageable age" sounds very old-fashioned nowadays).
Practice: word formation (use of English part 3)
Write the correct form of the word in brackets to complete these sentences.