Part three of the C1 Advanced reading and use of English paper is word formation. Yeah word
formation. So then, what is word formation? Is it difficult? What is the best strategy? Are we going
to die? Let's find out! My name is Toby, this is SMASH English and here is everything that you need
to know about part three of the reading and use of English paper for the C1 Advanced Cambridge exam!
So firstly what is word formation? Well you will be given a text with eight spaces. For
each space you will be given a stem word and it is your job to transform this stem word so that
it goes into the space. This may sound confusing and don't worry because I'm gonna give you lots
of examples but before I do here are some things that I would like you to think about. Number one:
you should be asking yourself what type of word is the stem word. Is it a noun an adjective? A
verb? Or an adverb? Number two: from our sentence what type of word do you think we need to make?
Do we need to transform our stem word into a verb, a noun, an adjective or an adverb?
And number three: what is the meaning? We need to make sure that the word that we make makes sense
in the sentence. This means that we might need a plural noun or we might need to add a positive
or negative prefix to an adjective for example. Let's have a look at a really simple example but
I promise you, in the exam it will be a lot more difficult than this. This is just to show you the
type of exercise that we're talking about here. Unfortunately time travel is still an _____. Our
stem word here is POSSIBLE. We need to change the word POSSIBLE so that it fits in the space.
Our stem word POSSIBLE is an adjective. We have the indefinite article AN before our space and our
space is the last word in the sentence. So this suggests that we need to make a noun. We can make
two possible nouns from the adjective POSSIBLE: POSSIBILITY or we can add the negative prefix IM-
to create IMPOSSIBILITY. Well, time travel is not possible so possibility isn't possible and
secondly we have the indefinite article AN, not A, so our answer must be IMPOSSIBILITY.
See? That wasn't difficult, was it? No! That was easy! But it was a really easy
example so don't be too proud of yourself. Let's look at an entire text together.
All right? Oh good God what have you been doing? Uh I am doing research,
Toby. For the video. Huh? I've been researching British pubs for the exercise, Toby. Uh, look.
Oh all right. Why is it wet? Oh shut up! Stop complaining! Give it back! I want to read it.
Okay.
Read the text below. Use the word given in capitals to form one word in each Gap.
The British pub is _____ one of the most renowned of British institutions but not every British pub
is the same. Some are young, hip and _____ with music bellowing from a modern sound system.
Others or less _____, a quiet respite from the hustle and bustle of modern city life.
Often it is thought that pubs are solely a place to drink but this is a common _____ ranging from
the cheap and _____ to the sophisticated and refined. A pub is out there for all budgets
and culinary tastes but of course one thing that unites them all is alcohol. Indeed a pub would
surely not deserve the name if it did not serve _____ beverages. Pints of Ale are _____ pulled
and served at room temperature but that does not mean you can't find a _____ of wines,
Spirits, cocktails and even soft drinks. So let's try and answer some of these questions.
The British pub is ____ one of the most renowned of British institutions.
Our stem word DOUBT can be a verb or a noun. For example "You could be right but I doubt it".
That's a verb. Or "I want to believe you but I have my doubts" Now doubt is a noun. Can you think
of any word or phrase with doubt that we could put in this space? This might help us understand
the meaning. We could say "without a doubt" and this is a fixed expression that means something
is certainly true. Now of course we cannot write "without a doubt" in this space because we need
to transform the word DOUBT. We can only use one word. However we've identified the meaning
and this is an important step. So then we need an adverb that modifies the verb IS and means
the same thing as "without a doubt". The adverb we need is UNDOUBTEDLY. Please remember that suffixes
and prefixes follow very little logic so you can talk about something being "undoubtedly true" but
you cannot describe something as "doubtedly" true because "doubtedly" doesn't exist.
Yes Toby, I only included this one because it's so difficult, yeah. Undoubtedly only the most
intelligent of students will've got this one right. Yeah, great. Um, well done, Bruce. Let's
move on. Some are young, hip and _____ with music bellowing from a modern sound system.
What type of word is our stem word? Well LIVE can be a verb and an adjective. Be careful with the
pronunciation here though because if LIVE is an adjective we pronounce it LIVE. For example you
could go to see a live band, you could listen to live music, you could watch a live TV show or you
could see real live animals at the zoo. Great. And of course we pronounce the verb to LIVE: LIVE. For
example you could live your dreams, you could live in denial, you could live your life to the full or
you could live a lie. Oh no! So then what type of words do we need in the space? Well we have a list
"young, hip and..." Young And Hip are adjectives so this suggests that the word we need is an
adjective. Could we just put the adjective LIVE here? Well no because a live Pub...? That makes no
sense. Those words are not collocated. What about the adjective ALIVE? For example a city can be
alive, a place can come alive, a lover can make you feel alive! But a pub? Can a pub be alive?
Not really, no. We could say LIFELESS. If a place is lifeless it means it's dull and boring, but
that doesn't really make sense with the meaning because this Pub is Young And Hip. So then,
it sounds like we need the opposite of LIFELESS which is.... LIFEFUL! What? No. Just because an
adjective ends with the suffix -less does not mean that it's opposite finishes with the suffix -ful.
Remember that. Bloody hell, alright. Don't go on about it. Jesus... The opposite of lifeless is
LIVELY. And that's the word that we need. Remember you can also have a lively debate or a lively
discussion. If you're really keen on something you may have a lively interest in it. For example, you
guys have a lively interest in English learning. Otherwise you wouldn't be watching this video now,
would you? No. Others are less _____ a quiet respite from the hustle and bustle of modern
city life. This one is easier as there are fewer options. We have the verb TO BE and
the comparative LESS. GLAMOUR is a noun. We need to transform the noun GLAMOUR into its adjective.
Only one adjective is possible from GLAMOUR and that is GLAMOROUS. So that's our answer.
However can you make any other words from the stem GLAMOUR? What about the verb to GLAMOURISE? Which
means to make something glamorous. For example "I don't like the way modern music GLAMOURISES
drug use" for instance. You can also "add a bit of glamor" to something or "add a touch
of glamour" to something. For example, I add a touch of glamour to SMASH English. There are
many words I can think of to describe you but, uh, glamorous? that's uh that's not one of them.
Often it is thought that pubs are solely a place to drink but this is a _____.
Let us start with the meaning here. Is it true that you can only drink in pubs? Well no because
this entire paragraph is talking about the food served in pubs. So we need a word that
means "wrong idea". We know that we need a noun because we have the indefinite article A. Our stem
word is CONCEPT and CONCEPT is a noun. CONCEPT can mean "idea" and we can talk about a common
concept but we know that concept is not the word that we need because common concept does not have
its equivalent negative form. Ah. So we need to take the noun CONCEPT transform it into another
noun that has a negative form and this negative form needs to collocate with the adjective COMMON.
This requires transforming the noun CONCEPT into CONCEPTION and then adding the negative
prefix mis- so our word here is MISCONCEPTION. So that's our answer. MISCONCEPTION. A misconception
is a falsely held belief or idea. Oh I'm sorry about that, everyone. Bruce, no, no, you've drunk
too much. Go to bed. Go away. Uh, Toby that is actually a common misconception. If I am still
capable of movement then I am not drunk enough. Oh right yeah, yeah, sure. Ranging from the cheap
and _____ to the sophisticated and refined a pub is out there for all budgets and culinary tastes.
Let us try not to analyze this one too much because the expression is a common collocation.
If something is cheap and CHEERFUL it means it's cheap. "Hey Toby how was your holiday?" "It was
all right". "Where did you stay?" "Nowhere special. We kept things cheap and cheerful".
Great. Indeed a pub would surely not deserve the name if it did not serve _____ beverages.
So we need an adjective to describe the word beverages that comes from the stem ALCOHOL. We
have two options here. We could say ALCOHOLIC or we could say NON-ALCOHOLIC and of course we are
talking about pubs so the answer is ALCOHOLIC and that means containing alcohol. Remember
that this word can also be a noun. Someone is an alcoholic if they are addicted to alcohol.
What? Nothing. Good.
_____,
pints of ale are pulled and served at room temperature. Notice here that our word is at the
beginning of the sentence and it is separated from pints by a comma. Now this means that we need an
adverb to modify the sentence and not an adjective to modify PINTS. This is a really important point
as if you don't notice this you might take the word TRADITION and create the adjective
TRADITIONAL to describe PINTS and then you would be wrong. Ah. So we'll take our noun tradition,
we will transform that into the adjective traditional, we will then transform the adjective
traditional into the adverb TRADITIONALLY and there we have our answer: TRADITIONALLY. Great.
But that does not mean you can't find a _____ of wines, spirits and Cocktails and even soft drinks.
Okay this one is difficult and maybe you know the answer immediately but do you know why you
know the answer? Probably not. So let's have a look. VARY is a verb and in this space we
need a noun. The two obvious choices we have are VARIATION and VARIETY but which one do we need?
Well rather than try to give you a complicated definition for each one that wouldn't make much
sense anyway let's have a look at a bunch of sentences with both variety and variation and
from there, see what makes the most sense. Boy oh boy! This sounds like a lot of fun!
This recipe is a variation of a dish I had while traveling. Here the meaning of variation is
similar to modification. The recipe is similar but distinct. All of the songs are variations
on the same theme: a homage to love and loss through the eyes of a 13th century peasant.
Here all the songs share the same theme but they are presented in a different way.
Emphasis on differences between the sexes fails to take into account the variation within them.
Here variation means difference but again is only appropriate
if we are talking about the differences between things that are mostly similar.
I decided to learn English for a variety of reasons not least of which being my love of Toby.
Here variety means range. Variety is collocated strongly with REASONS. Students are offered
a wide variety of extracurricular activities including Cricket, amateur dramatics and yoga.
Here variety means range again. Variety is strongly collocated with the adjective WIDE.
I never want to settle in one place, after all, variety is the spice of life. Variety
is the spice of life is an idiom. It means new and exciting experiences make life more interesting.
Looking at the examples then which word do you think makes the most sense? Well VARIETY,
here meaning range. And there we go we've done them all! That was so much fun! And with that
we are finished! That was how to do part three of the C1 Advanced reading and use of English paper:
the word formations! If you liked the video don't forget to SMASH that like button, subscribe if you
haven't already, leave a comment down below! My name is Toby and this was SMASH English...