Finn Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary. I’m Finn...
Alice And I’m Alice. Today we’re looking at a very important part of word building – suffixes.
Finn Suffixes. We’ll look at what they are, what they mean and how to use them.
Alice There’ll be a quiz…
Finn And we’ll leave you with a top tip for learning vocabulary.
Alice So: to start off, we’re going to listen to Andrea and Steve who work in a bank. They have just interviewed two people who want to work there.
Finn And here’s a question to think about while you listen: who did Andrea and Steve like best - the first person or the second person?
Alice Who did they like best? Let’s find out.
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Andrea What do you think then Steve?
Steve Well, the first one was very excitable: he kept laughing and speaking fast.
Andrea Perhaps it was just nervousness, but there’s no room for that in this business.
Steve No. Now I thought the second interviewee seemed a bit more responsible.
Andrea Yes, she did – very important when dealing with money. And she was polite.
Steve Politeness is essential in this job.
Andrea Absolutely. Well, I think we both know which one is more employable.
Finn So, that’s Steve and Andrea. And we asked you: who did they like best?
Alice And the answer is: they definitely liked the second person best. The second one was polite and responsible. The first one was a bit too excitable.
Finn That’s right, and excitable is a key word in the show today because it ends in a suffix.
Alice Now in the world of vocabulary, a suffix is a group of letters that you can add to the end of a word to change its form, or meaning, or both.
Finn For example, the word excitable has the suffix -able, spelt a-b-l-e. -able makes verbs into adjectives, and we use –able words to say that a subject can do something – is able to do something - or they behave in a particular way.
Alice So if we take the verb excite, add the suffix -able, we can say that the first interviewee was excitable, meaning: he can get very excited.
Finn And the second one was responsible, that’s responsible with –ible, spelt ‘i-b-l-e’. She can be trusted to do the right thing. And that’s why she was more employable, now that's -able with an a again.
Now for another suffix. Andrea and Steve talked about two interviewees. The suffix –ee, spelt e-e, makes a noun which means ‘the person who receives an action’.
Alice For example, if you add –ee to interview, you get the person who receives an interview, an interviewee.
IDENT You’re listening to BBC Learning English dot com.
Finn And we’re talking about suffixes. Our final suffix for today is –ness, spelt n-e-s-s. Adding –ness to an adjective makes a noun.
Alice That’s right, and interviewee number one suffered from nervousness – the noun form of nervous.
Finn But number two understood the importance of politeness – the noun form of polite. Is politeness important to you Alice?
Alice Oh yes Finn, politeness is very important to me.
Finn I think you’re very polite. Now let’s listen to today’s suffixes and words again.
Alice The first one was: -able with an a. a-b-l-e.
Finn excitable, employable
Alice -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 it’s time for a quiz. Choose the correct suffix to complete the final words in these 2 sentences. Ready?
Number 1.The most important thing to me is my family’s… a) happy-ee b) happy-able, c) happiness.
Finn This one is the noun form of happy, so it’s c) happiness.
Alice Number 2. I’m learning how to do this job. I’m a a) trainee b) trainable, c) train-ness.
Finn You are receiving training, so you’re a trainee.
Alice Well done if you got those right.
Finn And that brings us almost to the end of today’s programme.
Alice But before we go, here’s today’s top tip for learning vocabulary: if you use an online dictionary, type a hyphen or a dash into the search box, and then type in any of today’s suffixes. The dictionary will give you a list of words that end with your suffix.
Finn You know, that’s a really good tip: I think I might try that. There’s more about this at BBC learning English dot com. Join us again for more 6 Minute Vocabulary.