Chapter 2 — Word form

The essentials in four points:

• An adverb modifies a verb, an adjective or another adverb: analyze carefully — an adjective modifies a noun: a careful analysis.
• Suffixes signal the class: -tion, -ment, -ity, -ness → noun; -ous, -ful, -able, -ive → adjective; -ly → adverb (with exceptions: friendly).
• Present participle (-ing) = causing: a boring lecture; past participle (-ed) = affected: a bored student.

Word-form questions do not test vocabulary but syntax: the position in the sentence dictates the word class. The word offered has the right root (origin-, consist-, science-) but the wrong suffix.

1. Read the position, not the meaning. Each slot calls for one class: after a determiner and before of → noun; before a noun → adjective; modifying a verb or adjective → adverb; after a linking verb (be, seem, become, remain) → adjective, never an adverb.
✔ the originality of the methodology · ✔ a remarkably clear explanation · ✔ The results were consistent.

2. Suffixes as a compass. -tion, -ment, -ness, -ity, -ance → nouns; -ous, -ive, -al, -able, -ful → adjectives; -ly → adverbs (careful: friendly, lively, lonely are adjectives); -ize, -ify, -en → verbs.

3. -ing / -ed participles as adjectives. The source of the effect takes -ing; whoever undergoes it takes -ed: a boring lecture (it bores) / bored students (they are bored). The ITP loves swapping the two.