Reading: Vocabulary in Context: B1 Lesson 3: Recognizing Word Families

Reading: Vocabulary in Context

B1 Lesson 3: Recognizing Word Families

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One Word, Many Possibilities

Have you noticed that some English words look similar, like happy, unhappy, and happiness? These words all belong to the same Word Family¹. They share the same base word², but have different parts added to them.

Learning to recognize word families is a powerful skill. If you know one word, you can often understand the whole family.

Part 1: How Word Families Work

Word families are created by adding parts to the beginning or end of a base word.

• A Prefix³ is added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. (e.g., the prefix `un-` means "not", so `unhappy` means "not happy").
• A Suffix⁴ is added to the end of a word. It often changes the word's type, or part of speech (e.g., adding `-ness` changes the adjective `happy` into the noun `happiness`).

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Part 2: Let's Look at Some Word Families

Here are two common word families. Notice how the meaning and word type change.

Word Family: 'happy'

Word	Part of Speech	Meaning	Example Sentence
happy	adjective	feeling good	I am happy to live in Kampot.
unhappy	adjective	sad; not happy	The rainy weather makes me feel unhappy.
happiness	noun	the feeling of being happy	He found great happiness living by the sea.
happily	adverb	in a happy way	The children played happily on the beach.

Word Family: 'use'

Word	Part of Speech	Meaning	Example Sentence
use	verb	to do something with an object	Can I use your phone?
useful	adjective	helpful, good for a purpose	A moto is very useful for getting around town.
useless	adjective	not helpful; has no purpose	A broken pen is useless.
user	noun	a person who uses something	Are you a regular Facebook user?

Your Turn!

Practice Quiz

Use your knowledge of word families to choose the best word.

1. Knowing English is a very _______ skill for getting a good job in the tourism industry.

• A. useless
• B. user
• C. useful

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Answer: C. useful. The sentence needs an adjective to describe the skill.

2. The suffix '-less' in the word 'useless' means:

• A. full of
• B. a person who
• C. without

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Answer: C. without. 'Useless' means 'without a use'.

Vocabulary Glossary

1. Word Family (noun)
   ភាសាខ្មែរ: គ្រួសារពាក្យ
   A group of words that share the same base or root word (e.g., happy, happiness). ↩ back to text
2. Base Word / Root Word (noun)
   ភាសាខ្មែរ: ពាក្យដើម
   The main part of a word that contains the core meaning. ↩ back to text
3. Prefix (noun)
   ភាសាខ្មែរ: បុព្វបទ
   Letters added to the beginning of a base word to change its meaning (e.g., un-happy). ↩ back to text
4. Suffix (noun)
   ភាសាខ្មែរ: បច្ច័យ
   Letters added to the end of a base word, often changing its part of speech (e.g., happi-ness). ↩ back to text

Homework Task

Explore a Word Family!

The base word is 'help' (a verb).

1. The suffix `-ful` means "full of". What do you think the adjective `helpful` means? Write one sentence using `helpful`.
2. The suffix `-less` means "without". What do you think the adjective `helpless` means? Write one sentence using `helpless`.