Chapter 1

Words in Contexts and Sentence Patterns

One of the reading problems of all for the foreign language readers is that their
vocabulary is not good enough for the reading. It is said that moderate readers can recognize
about 50,000 different words in L1 (first language) reading, while graded reader series prepared
for EFL (English as a foreign language) readers seldom go higher than the 3,500-word level. How
is the student supposed to cope with a learning problem of this size? This chapter is not intended
to tell you what to do if your vocabulary is weak, but to reveal some vocabulary learning
techniques and how words are used in sentences.

1. Word Function
Each word in English belongs to one of the eight parts of speech. Each word is also either
a content word or a function word.
1.1 Content Word Types
Content words are usually nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. A noun tells us which
object, a verb tells us about the action happening, or the state. Adjectives give us details about
objects and people and adverbs tell us how, when or where something is done. Nouns, verbs,
adjectives and adverbs give us important information required for understanding.
Noun = person, place or thing
Verb = action, state
Adjective = describes an object, person, place or thing
Adverb = tells us how, where or when something happens
Examples
Nouns Verbs Adjectives Adverbs
House Enjoy Wonderful slowly
football run marvelous often
education evaluate sorrowful suddenly
magnet modify lively thoughtfully

Other Content Words

While nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs are the most important content words, there
are a few other words that are also key to understanding. These include negatives like no, not and
never; demonstrative pronouns including this, that, these and those; and question words like what,
where, when, how and why.
1.2 Function Word Types
Function words help us connect important information. Function words are important for
understanding, but they add little meaning beyond defining the relationship between two
words. Function words include auxiliary verbs, prepositions, articles, conjunctions, and
pronouns. Auxiliary verbs are used to establish the tense, prepositions show relationships in time
and space, articles show us something that is specific or one of many, and pronouns refer to other
nouns.
Auxiliary verbs Prepositions Articles conjunctions pronouns
do In A And I
has on an but you
will through the for him
is by so her
did between since us
have been next to as ours
was or she
yet

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Knowing the difference between content and functions words is important because content
words are stressed in conversation in English. Function words are non-stressed. In other words,
function words are not emphasized in speech, while content words are highlighted. Knowing the
difference between content and function words can help you in understanding.
Activity 1: Decide which words are function and content words in the following sentences.
1. Mary has lived in England for ten years.
2. He's going to fly to Chicago next week.
3. I don't understand this chapter of the book.
4. The children will be swimming in the ocean this time next week.
5. John had eaten lunch before his colleague arrived.
6. The best time to study is early in the morning or late in the evening.
7. The trees along the river are beginning to blossom.
8. Our friends called us yesterday and asked if we'd like to visit them next month.
9. You'll be happy to know that she's decided to take the position.
10. I won't give away your secret.

2. Word Meaning
The most common use for a dictionary is to find out the meaning of new words. A
problem can occur when we have words that have more than one meaning, and we have to choose
the correct one. In English, there are many words which are spelt the same, but which have
different meanings. One way that we can be sure we have the correct meaning, is to check what
types of speech our words is; is it a noun, verb, adjective or adverb?, and compare it with the
word in the dictionary.

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Look at the following dictionary example for “Orange”.

We can see that the word “Orange” can be both a noun, or an adjective, and that both
have different meanings. So, to be sure we have the correct meaning, we have to check the type of
word in the sentence we are reading, to make sure that it is the same. Look at the following
sentences and decide which type of word is correct. Is the word “orange” in each sentence a noun,
or an adjective?
Example a) He ate an orange after his lunch.
Example b) She wore an orange skirt.
In Example a, the word orange is a noun. We know this because of the context. We do
not eat colors, and orange as an adjective is a color.
In Example b, the word orange is an adjective. Again, the context tells us this is correct,
because we do not wear fruit, and we do not make skirts from fruit.
Activity 2: Look at the following pairs of sentences. The same word is used in both sentences,
but sometimes the meaning is the same, and sometimes it is different. If you think the meaning is
the same in both sentences, write “same”, if the meaning is not the same, write different”. And
please identify the functions of the underlined words.
Example; The tree had orange leaves. (adjective) / He ate an orange. (noun) different

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1. a) The leaves are turning red. (leave =_______)
b) He leaves work at 6 p.m. everyday. (leave = _________)
2. a) The girl went to see a play. (play = _________)
b) I play tennis every night. (play = _________)
3. a) We get water from a spring. (spring = _________)
b) Trees get new leaves in spring. (spring = __________)
4. a) The house is painted green. (green = ____________)
b) I want to get a green car. (green = __________)
5. a) If you feel blue, you should do a relaxing activity to release your sadness. (blue =_______)
b) He like to listen to the blues. (blue = __________)
6. a) Birds fly south in winter. (fly = ____________)
b) He killed the fly with a newspaper. (fly = __________)
7. a) The mail has been sent to the receiver. (mail = _________)
b) The mail arrived at 10 a.m. (mail = ________)
8. a) She saw her mother at the market. (saw = __________)
b) The man cut the wood with a saw. (saw = __________)
9. a) He lives in America. (live = ___________)
b) A cat has nine lives. (live = ___________)
10. a) The beat of his heart is so fast. (beat = ________)
b) The beat of this song is exciting. (beat = ________)
Write same or different for each item.
1) ______________________ 2) ______________________
3) ______________________ 4) ______________________
5) ______________________ 6) ______________________
7) ______________________ 8) ______________________
9) ______________________ 10) ______________________

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3. Word Formation
Most of us would dislike the idea of preparing lists of prefixes and suffixes to be learned
by students. But understanding the meanings of affixes and the way they are used to build words is
extremely useful in tackling new lexical items.
Look at each word in the table and analyze the feature of each type of words. What do you think
about the forms of the following words?

Noun Adjective Verb Adverb

Activity Active Activate actively

Anger Angry Anger angrily

Beauty Beautiful Beautify beautifully

creation Creative Create creatively

Depth Deep Deepen deeply

Ease Easy Ease easily

enjoyment Enjoyable Enjoy enjoyably

Fear Fearless Fear fearlessly

Hope hopeful/hopeless Hope hopefully

infection Infectious Infect infectiously

laziness Lazy laze(about/around) lazily

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Noun Adjective Verb Adverb

Music Musical musically

pleasure Pleasant Please pleasantly

Sadness Sad Sadden sadly

Truth true/truthful

Wonder Wonderful Wonder wonderfully

In English, words are usually formed in many ways to change their functions in a
sentence. One word can be transformed to many types of words. We can attach a new morpheme
to change the word function. This process can be called affixation. So, the following concept
will show how words can be changed and formed into different parts of speech.
Affixation is the morphological process in by which bound morphemes are attached to
roots or stems to mark changes in meaning, part of speech, or grammatical relationships. Affixes
take on several forms and serve different functions. There two main types of affixes which are
prefixes and suffixes.
Derivational affixes derive new words by altering the definitional meaning or the
grammatical category of a word, whereas inflectional affixes show grammatical relationships
between words or grammatical contrast. In English, both prefixes and suffixes can be
derivational, but only suffixes can be inflectional.

Prefixes are added to the front of the base (like dislike). Prefixes usually do not
change the class of the base word, but suffixes usually do change the class of the word. The most
common prefixes used to form new verbs in academic English are: re-, dis-, over-, un-, mis-, out-.
The most common suffixes are: -ise, -en, -ate, -(i)fy

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Suffixes are added the end of the base (active activate). The most common suffixes
are: -ise, -en, -ate, -(i) fy.
3.1 Nouns
The most common prefixes used to form new nouns in academic English
are: co- and sub-. The most common suffixes are: -tion, -ity, -er, -ness, -ism, -ment, -ant, -ship, -
age, -ery. By far the most common noun affix in academic English is -tion.
3.1.1 prefix + noun noun
Prefix Meaning Examples
anti- Against anticlimax, antidote, antithesis
auto- Self autobiography, automobile
bi- Two bilingualism, biculturalism, bi-mentalism
co- Joint co-founder, co-owner, co-descendant
counter- Against counter-argument, counter-example, counter-proposal
dis- the converse of discomfort, dislike
ex- Former ex-chairman, ex-hunter
hyper- Extreme hyperinflation, hypersurface
in- the converse of inattention, incoherence, incompatibility
in- Inside inpatient,
inter- Between interaction, inter-change, interference
kilo- Thousand Kilobyte
mal- Bad malfunction, maltreatment, malnutrition
mega- Million Megabyte
mis- Wrong misconduct, misdeed, mismanagement

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mini- Small mini-publication, mini-theory
mono- One monosyllable, monograph, monogamy
neo- New neo-colonialism, neo-impressionism
out- Separate outbuilding,
poly- Many Polysyllable
pseudo- False pseudo-expert
re- Again re-organization, re-assessment, re-examination
semi- Half semicircle, semi-darkness
sub- Below subset, subdivision
super- more than, above superset, superimposition, superpowers
sur- over and above Surtax
tele- Distant Telecommunications
tri- Three Triparty
ultra- Beyond Ultrasound
under- below, too little underpayment, under-development, undergraduate
vice- Deputy vice-president

Activity 3: Add a prefix to a word and write down the change of meaning.
Example: play : replay = play again.
1. understand : ___________________= ______________________________
2. ground: ______________________ = _______________________________
3. tone: ___________________= ____________________________
4. national: ________________ = ____________________________

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5. social: _________________ = _______________________________
3.1.2 Suffix added to a verb (V), noun (N) or adjective (A) noun
Suffix Meaning Examples
-tion alteration, demonstration
action/instance of V-ing
-sion expansion, inclusion, admission
person who V-s advertiser, driver
-er
something used for V-ing computer, silencer
-ment action/instance of V-ing development, punishment, unemployment
-ant assistant, consultant
person who V-s
-ent student
-age action/result of V breakage, wastage, package
-al action/result of V denial, proposal, refusal, dismissal
-ence preference, dependence, interference
action/result of V
-ance attendance, acceptance, endurance
action/instance of V-ing bribery, robbery, misery
-ery/-ry
place of V-ing refinery, bakery

Suffix Meaning Examples

-er person concerned with N astronomer, geographer
-ism doctrine of N Marxism, Maoism, Thatcherism
-ship state of being N friendship, citizenship, leadership
-age collection of N baggage, plumage

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Suffix Meaning Examples
-ity state or quality of being A ability, similarity, responsibility, curiosity
-ness state or quality of being A darkness, preparedness, consciousness
-cy state or quality of being A urgency, efficiency, frequency

3.2 Verbs

3.2.1 prefix + verb verb

Prefix Meaning Examples
re- again or back restructure, revisit, reappear, rebuild, refinance
dis- reverses the meaning of the verb disappear, disallow, disarm, disconnect, discontinue
over- too much overbook, oversleep, overwork
un- reverses the meaning of the verb unbend, uncouple, unfasten
mis- badly or wrongly mislead, misinform, misidentify
out- more or better than others outperform, outbid
be- make or cause befriend, belittle
co- Together co-exist, co-operate, co-own
de- do the opposite of devalue, deselect
fore- earlier, before foreclose, foresee
inter- Between interact, intermix, interface
pre- Before pre-expose, prejudge, pretest
sub- under/below subcontract, subdivide
trans- across, over transform, transcribe, transplant

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under- not enough underfund, undersell, undervalue, underdeveloped

3.2.2 Suffix used to form verbs with the meaning "cause to be".
Suffix Example
-ise stabilise, characterise, symbolise, visualise, specialise
-ate differentiate, liquidate, pollinate, duplicate, fabricate
-fy classify, exemplify, simplify, justify
-en awaken, fasten, shorten, moisten

3.3 Adjectives
Many adjectives are formed from a base of a different class with a suffix (e.g. -less, -
ous). Adjectives can also be formed from other adjectives, especially by the negative prefixes (un-
, in- and non-). The most common suffixes are -al, -ent, -ive, -ous, -ful, -less.
3.3.1 Suffix added to verbs or nouns adjective
Suffix Example

-al central, political, national, optional, professional

-ent different, dependent, excellent

-ive attractive, effective, imaginative, repetitive

-ous continuous, dangerous, famous

-ful beautiful, peaceful, careful

-less endless, homeless, careless, thoughtless

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-able drinkable, countable, avoidable,

Activity 4 Write the suffixes or prefixes to form words in each table.

1. class
Noun Noun Verb
Class

2. profit

Noun Verb Adjective adverb

Profit profitable profitably

3. luxury
noun Verb Adjective adverb
luxury luxuriate Luxurious luxuriously

4. danger
Noun verb (prefix) Adjective Adverb
Danger endanger dangerous dangerously

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5. produce
noun Noun Noun verb adjective Adverb
(person)
production product producer produce productive productively

4. Sentence patterns
Sentence patterns can be understood as the way sentences are usually structured.
Understanding how sentences are formed can help EFL readers to understand the basic reading. A
sentence is usually constructed by words which their formation is related to parts of speech.
In a normal sentence, you can see a subject (noun), a verb, and complement (object/ time/ place).
The boy quickly kicked his bouncy ball past a defender, but he stumbled. Oops!
As you can see every word in the sentence above has its function. When words become a
sentence, it reveals understandable meaning in the sentence. Hence, it is important to learn the
most common sentence patterns in English, as most of the sentences you will hear, write, and
speak will follow these basic patterns.
Sentence Pattern #1: Noun / Verb
The most basic sentence pattern is a noun followed by a verb. It's important to remember that
only verbs that do not require objects are used in this sentence pattern.
• People work.
• Frank runs.
• Things happen.
This basic sentence pattern can be modified by adding a noun phrase, possessive adjective, as
well as other elements. This is true for all the sentence patterns that follow.

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People work. -> Our employees work. Frank eats. -> My dog Frank eats. Things happen. ->
Crazy things happen.
Sentence Pattern #2: Noun / Verb / Noun
The next sentence pattern builds on the first pattern and is used with nouns that can take objects.
• John plays softball.
• The boys are watching TV.
• She works at a bank.
Sentence Patterns #3: Noun / Verb / Adverb
The next sentence pattern builds on the first pattern by using an adverb to describe how an action
is done.
• Thomas drives quickly.
• Anna doesn't sleep deeply.
• He does homework carefully.
Sentence Pattern #4: Noun / Linking Verb / Noun
This sentence pattern uses linking verbs to link one noun to another. Linking verbs are also
known as equating verbs - verbs which equate one thing with another such as 'be', 'become',
'seem', etc.
• Jack is a student.
• This seed will become an apple.
• France is a country.
Sentence Pattern #5: Noun / Linking Verb / Adjective

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This sentence pattern is similar to sentence pattern #4, but uses linking verbs to link one noun to
its description, which is supplied by an adjective.
• My computer is slow!
• Her parents seem unhappy.
• English seems easy.
Sentence Pattern #6: Noun / Verb / Noun / Noun
Sentence pattern #6 is used with verbs that take both direct and indirect objects.
• I bought Katherine a gift.
• Jennifer showed Peter her car.
• The teacher explained the homework to Peter.
There are a number of common sentence patterns used to write most sentences in English. The
basic sentence patterns presented in this guide to sentence patterns will help you understand the
underlying pattern in even the most complex English sentences.
Activity 5
1. Peter studies Russian.
a. Noun / Verb / Noun
b. Noun / Linking Verb / Noun
c. Noun / Verb / Adverb
2. I am a teacher.
a. Noun / Verb
b. Noun / Linking Verb / Noun
c. Noun / Linking Verb / Adjective
3. I bought him a gift.
a. Noun / Linking Verb / Pronoun

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b. Pronoun / Verb / Noun / Noun
c. Pronoun / Verb / Pronoun / Noun
4. Alice is happy.
a. Noun / Verb / Adjective
b. Noun / Linking Verb / Adjective
c. Pronoun / Linking Verb / Adverb
5. My friends danced.
a. Noun / Verb
b. Noun / Linking Verb
c. Verb / Noun
6. Mark spoke slowly.
a. Noun / Verb / Adjective
b. Noun / Linking Verb / Adverb
c. Noun / Verb / Adverb

Activity 6 Complete each sentence with the correct word from the word family chart. Make
nouns plural where necessary. Use the correct form of verbs.
noun Noun adjective
adolescence adolescent adolescent
1. Parents need to be aware of how their _______________ children spend their time on the
Internet.
2. These days, _______________are used to making new acquaintances on the Internet.
3. As children enter ________________, they start spending more time on the Internet, pursuing
both educational and social activities.

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noun verb Adjective
eradication eradicate eradicable
4. The Internet _______________ the need for face-to-face communication.
5. Internet communication could lead to the ______________ of face-to-face communication in
many aspects of our lives.
6. Internet communication has made the limits of the physical world ______________.
Noun verb adjective
Explosion explode explosive
7. Countries around the world are experiencing the ______________ of online social networking.
8. Interest in online social networking has _________________everywhere.
9. The _____________growth of online social networking has rapidly changed the way we
communicate.

Noun adjective Adverb

Immensity immense Immensely
10. The ___________________of the effects of online social networking will have on our lives
remains to be seen.
11. Online social networking will have __________________effects on the way we
communicate.
12. Adolescents are _______________interested in online social networking.
Noun verb Adjective adverb
Interaction interact interactive interactively
13. Some sites allow users to communicate _______________.
14. Online ______________ is very different from talking with someone face-to-face.
15. Some computer games are highly _________________.

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16. The Internet makes it possible to ________________with people in faraway.
noun noun Adjective adverb
statistics statistician statistical Statistically
17. _______________information is important, but it doesn’t give us a complete picture.
18. We can learn a lot from _________________, but we need to be careful about how we
interpret them.
19. The differences in the data were not _________________significant.
20. ________________tell us that online social networking communities have grown explosively.

Activity 7 Choose the correct word family member from the list below to complete each blank.
1. interaction interacts interactive
2. explosion exploded explosive
3. adolescence adolescent adolescents
4. Statistics Statistician Statistical
5. eradication eradicated eradicable
6. immensity immense immensely
These days, many people are spending more time in online (1) ________________ than
they do in face-to-face communication with the people around them. The (2) ________________
of interest in online social networking us especially prevalent among the (3) _______________
age group. (4) ___________________ who study the trend report that a significant number of
teenagers spend a large percentage of their free time online and that much of this time is spent on
social networking sites. The Internet has apparently (5) _________________limits to
communication. It is too soon to tell how (6) ___________________this will affect teenagers’

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lives as they grow up. For now, experts recommend that parents impose restrictions on the
amount of time their children spend on the Internet.

References

Kenneth Beare. (2019). Content and Function Words. retrieved on July 26, 2019 from
[Link]
Kenneth Beare. (2019). Common English-Language Sentence Patterns. Retrieved on July 26,
2019 from [Link]
and-quiz-4583892
Lin Lougheed. (2014). Essential Words for the IELTS. Baron’s Education Series.

Sirilak Bunma, et al. (2007). English for Study Skills Development. Tian Wattana Printing.
Ayutthaya.

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