Why word forms are important

When you first started learning English, you were probably introduced to different “parts of speech.” These are classes of words, like nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs. Each of these classes performs different functions in a sentence.

In English, many words stay the same … they can be used as several parts of speech without changing their form. For example, in “Do you need some help?” the word help is a noun. In “Can I help you?” help is a verb. The form of help stays the same.

But this is certainly not always the case. And if you get the word form wrong, it will hurt your fluency. It’s like wearing a pair of jeans, but wearing the wrong size. You are dressed appropriately … you’re wearing jeans, but everyone notices that they don’t fit. Using the wrong word form is like having the right word, but not having it fit.

For example, if you’re taking TOEFL and you say, “Animals survival by hunting prey,” or “This choice is the most convenience,” you’re using the wrong form of the right word. It should be, “Animals survive by hunting prey,” and “This choice is the most convenient.”

So how do you learn the proper word forms?

First, be sure you really understand what functions a noun, verb, adjective, and adverb perform. Diagramming is a super-effective way to master this. When I teach, I often give students practice where I remove a word from a sentence and have them guess what kind of word goes in the blank. For example, if I say “the — is late today,” you know that a noun goes in the blank. If I say, “He — very well yesterday,” you’ll guess that a verb is missing. You can do the same thing when you study alone by taking simple sentences and identifying the nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Second, when you study vocabulary, be sure to include different forms of the word. The Academic Word List makes this really easy, because each of the headwords includes the whole word family. So if you learn the verb analyze, you should also master two noun forms, analysis (the process of analyzing) and analyst (someone who does the analysis). Perhaps you’ll also want to include the adjective analytical and the adverb analytically. If you do this, your vocabulary will expand exponentially. You’ll get way more “bang for your buck,” because instead of just learning one use of a particular word, you’ll be able to use it in multiple ways.

Finally, focus on commonly misused pairs (or triplets) of words. For example, the verb produce and the noun product are commonly mistaken. If possible, make a mental picture of these words, rather than translating into your own language. For example, when learning produce, picture an Apple factory with thousands of workers carefully assembling iPhones. The factory is producing iPhones. When learning product, picture an Apple store offering a wide variety of items. The store sells lots of Apple products.