‘My vocabulary is not very good.’ ‘I don’t know many words in English.’ Does this sound familiar? Do you feel the same?
Would you like to expand your vocabulary? Did you know that words have families too? Words are related to other words – a bit like a cousin.
Listening Practice: Listen to Liz share how to learn one new word and ‘meet’ two more.
Let’s start with the word ‘communicate’ – this is a verb. Here it is in a sentence: It is difficult to communicate in a foreign language.
Now let’s start the sentence with the noun from the same family:
Communication in a foreign language is difficult.
The adjective is ‘communicative’; here’s the same sentence:
It is difficult to be communicative in a foreign language.
Top Tip!
When you learn a new word, check how to form the noun, verb and adjective if there is one. In this way, you’ll start to learn vocabulary not one word at a time, but in threes!
To make nouns, verbs and adjectives, you need to add ‘suffixes’ to the end of a word. A suffix is a letter, or group of letters, that can be added to the end of a word to form a new word.
Let’s look again at the words above.
Verb – communicate. We add the suffix ‘ate’ to make some verbs. Here are some examples: translate, create, celebrate, participate.
Noun – communication. We add the suffix ‘tion’ to make some nouns. Here are some examples: translation, creation, celebration and participation.
Adjective – communicative. We add the suffix ‘tive’ to make some adjectives. Here are some examples: informative, creative, attentive.
When you can make different forms of words then you can use them to express the same or similar ideas in different ways (as in the ‘communicate’ sentences above). Here are some more examples:
Example 1:
I am going to graduate next month.
My graduation is next month.
There is no adjective that can be made from ‘graduate.’
Example 2:
It is important to collaborate with your team.
Collaboration with your team is important.
It is important to be collaborative when you’re working in a team.
Expanding your vocabulary will help you in all parts of the IELTS test. Using different forms of words shows you have a range of vocabulary and grammar. It’s also a good way to avoid repeating the same words, especially in the Writing and Speaking tests.