ENG • SHS 1Term 3WAEC / WASSCE SyllabusVIP Lesson
Word Formation: Prefixes, Suffixes and Vocabulary Growth
Building nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs with derivational prefixes and suffixes, negative prefixes, stress shifts in derived words, and using formation knowledge in comprehension and cloze.
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Real-World Context & Relevance in Ghana
A Ghana Foods Bulletin headline — "COCOA PRODUCTION: UNPREDICTABLE RAINS DELAY SELLING, RAISE CONCERN IN THE SUIKO DISTRICT" — stacks production, unpredictable, delay, selling, concern: five derived words that a cocoa-farm family meets in one market morning.
Key Syllabus Learning Objectives
- 1Form nouns, adjectives, verbs and adverbs from a given root using correct suffixes
- 2Apply the negative prefix selection rules un-/in-/im-/il-/ir-/dis-/mis-/non-
- 3Adjust spelling when suffixes attach (y→i, drop silent e, double consonants)
- 4Shift word stress correctly in common derived families
- 5Use formation clues to guess the meaning of unfamiliar words in comprehension passages
1
Suffix Families: Changing the Word Class
Suffixes are the class-changers. Noun-makers: -tion/-ation/-sion (educate→education), -ment (agree→agreement), -ness (aware→awareness), -ity/-ty (responsible→responsibility), -ance/-ence (attend→attendance), -er/-or/-ar/-ant/-ee (one who/one acted upon: employer vs employee). Adjective-makers: -ful, -less, -ous, -al, -ic, -able/-ible, -y (sun→sunny), -ish (child→childish). Verb-makers: -ize/-ise, -ify, -en (short→shorten). Adverb-maker: -ly, built on the adjective (quick→quickly).
- The SAME root supports different families: decide → decision (n), decisive (adj), decisively (adv), decide (v), indecisive (neg adj).
- -ee = receiver, -er/-or = doer: employee/employer, trainee/trainer, examinee/examiner.
- -able survives from verbs whose object can "be -ed": readable, washable; impossible/visible come from Latin -ible.
- Double-suffix chains: friend → friendly → unfriendliness — every English noun can grow into two or three steps.
Practical Example:
A spelling-be list: "careless, carelessness, careful, carefully" — one root, one family, four class shifts in four marks.
Core Takeaway:
Spot the suffix, predict the class: -ment/-tion nouns, -ful/-able adjectives, -ize/-en verbs, -ly adverbs.
2
Negative Prefixes: Choosing the Right No
un- negates adjectives (unfair, unhappy) and reverses verbs (lock/unlock, do/undo). in- and its assimilated twins handle Latinate adjectives and their nouns: im- before p/m/b (polite→impolite, possible→impossible), il- before l (legal→illegal), ir- before r (regular→irregular, responsible→irresponsible); ability→inability. dis- opposes verbs and some adjectives (appear→disappear, honest→dishonest, agree→disagree). mis- means wrongly (judge→misjudge, spell→misspell, lead→misleading). non- is the neutral not-a prefix (non-violent, non-member, nonsense).
- Assimilation rule of thumb: match the first LETTER of the root (possible→im-, legal→il-, regular→ir-).
- Some words take ONLY one form: "unforgettable" (never *inforgettable); memorise the odd ones.
- A double negative is not a negation: "not unhappy" = rather happy (litotes).
- The WAEC meaning-trap pair: "uninterested" (bored) versus "disinterested" (impartial) — same root, different senses, a classic objective item.
Practical Example:
A voter card note: "IRRESPONSIBLE choices bring ILLEGAL consequences" — the r and l assimilation shown live.
Core Takeaway:
The root's first sound picks the negative prefix: p/m/b → im-, l → il-, r → ir-, else in-/un-/dis-/mis-/non-.
3
Spelling Adjustments When Affixes Land
Four habits cover most errors: (1) Final y changes to i before most suffixes — merry→merrier, happy→happiest, study→studies, beauty→beautiful — BUT y is kept before -ing (studying, carrying) and in the -ness family (happiness, kindness). (2) Silent e drops before a vowel suffix: move→moving, hate→hateful, lone→loneliness; e is KEPT to protect a soft c/g (changeable, noticeable) and in the small set surely, lately, rudely. (3) Double the final consonant in a one-syllable or finally-stressed CVC word: big→bigger, begin→beginning, occur→occurrence, prefer→preferred; do NOT double when the stress is not final: visit→visiting, benefit→beneficial (BrE still doubles an unstressed -l: traveller, labelled — a favourite WAEC spelling item). (4) -able versus -ible must simply be learned: washable, readable, but visible, possible, terrible.
- advice/advise: the noun keeps c, the verb takes s; practice/practise (BrE verb with s) follow the same pattern.
- -ful drops one l when it attaches: wonder→wonderful, care→careful (but full-of: handful keeps the hyphen-less l pair in "full" as a separate word).
- The silent e survives before -ment: arrangement, acknowledgement, enrichment — never *arrangment.
- Double consonants after short stressed vowel: regret→regrettable, plan→planning; but NOT when stress is elsewhere: travel→traveller (BrE keeps two l, a common WAEC spelling item).
Practical Example:
A notice board: "IMPORTANT: attendance REGISTER will be maintained — latecomers will be marked ABSENT" — three -ance/-ent/-ant formations in one line.
Core Takeaway:
Learn the four spelling habits (y→i, e-dropping, consonant doubling, l-twins) and derived words stop being misspelt.
4
Stress Shifts and Meaning in Reading
Derivation drags the stress like a magnet: PHO-tograph → pho-TOG-ra-phy → pho-to-GRAPH-ic; ED-u-cate → ed-u-CA-tion. The suffix is the clue: -tion, -sion, -ic, -ity and -ian take no stress themselves but pull it to the syllable IMMEDIATELY BEFORE them — naTION, demoCRAtion, eLECtric, puRITY, muSICian. Prefixes and adjective suffixes such as -less and -ful leave the root stress untouched: UNHAPPY, CARELESS, WONderful. In fast speech some long words shrink (COMF-ta-ble), but in the oral exam give every written syllable its full value unless the dictionary marks it silent.
- The penultimate law: with -tion/-ic/-ian the beat lands one syllable before the suffix — eduCAtion, acaDEMic, muSICian.
- Noun/verb stress pairs (RE-cord vs re-CORD, PRO-duce vs pro-DUCE) extend into SHS 2 word-stress items — start collecting them now.
- Correct stress is worth marks in oral reading aloud: deVELopment, not DEvelopment; PREFERable keeps the stress of the root PREFER.
- When guessing an unknown word's class inside a passage, the suffix plus stress pattern usually identifies it even before meaning.
Practical Example:
School prefect announcements must stress "preSENtation" and "eXTRAcurricular" — a wrong beat makes a hall of students miss the word.
Core Takeaway:
Suffix location predicts stress location — -tion, -ic, -ity all stress the syllable in front.
WAEC / WASSCE Examiner Tips
- Cloze strategy: the missing word's suffix is chosen by its SLOT (after a determiner = noun; before a noun = adjective; after verb = adverb) — then match meaning with the correct prefix.
- Word-formation objectives: if the root is "SUCCESS", expect the four-slot family successive/succession/succeed/successful+ly — WAEC builds options from these.
- In "use a word from the passage to mean...", the passage word usually carries a prefix/suffix you can parse: INABILITY = in + able + ity = cannot-do-ness.
- Keep an error log of misspelt derivatives: the exam punishes the same ten words — environment, government, necessary, separate, definite, beginning, occurrence, possibility, independence, attendance.
- For essays, one well-placed derived adjective ("unpredictable rains") buys Expression marks; range, not rarity, is what is rewarded.
Common Candidate Pitfalls & Errors to Avoid
- Wrong negative prefix: "unlegal", "inregular", "dispossible" — apply the p/m/b→im, l→il, r→ir rule.
- Class confusion: writing "his behaviour is very influence" (verb/noun into adjective slot) — formation tells you which slot each word fits.
- Spelling collapse when adding suffixes: *happyness, *carefuly, *planing, *suceeding.
- Keeping silent e wrongly: *moveing, *hatefull.
- Doubling where stress is not final: *prefered (preferred doubles: preFER — yes it IS final stress; contrast *referred? also doubles) — check stress before doubling.
- Over-generalising -ly: "friendly" looks like an adverb but is an adjective — form does not always equal function.
Topic Mastery Checklist
- Can I build a four-word family (n/v/adj/adv) from roots like decide, care, employ, educate?
- Can I pick the right negative prefix for illegal, impossible, irregular, unable, dishonest, misleading?
- Can I spell happiness, carefully, moving, bigger, preferred, traveller under time pressure?
- Can I place the stress in educational, photographer, decision, comfortable?
- Can I parse an unseen word like "incomprehensibility" into parts and guess its meaning?
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