Hello. I'm Gill at engVid,
and today we have a lesson on expanding
your vocabulary by adding a suffix. A suffix means a word that goes
at the end or some letters that go at the end of an existing
word. So, the word here or the letters are
"ness", and what it does, it means any adjective
or some adjectives that you already know, like
"good". If you just add "ness" to it, that adjective
becomes a noun, an abstract noun. Okay? So,
"good" becomes "goodness". So, maybe some of these
words you will already know anyway, but it's
always worth thinking of extra ones to expand
your vocabulary and to give you more flexibility
when you're speaking or writing. Okay? So, from the adjective
on the left... In the left-hand column, you add "ness" and you
get an abstract noun. It doesn't work for every
adjective. You have to know which one works
and which one doesn't, but you can always look
it up to see if that word exists. Okay? So, for
example, with colours, you know you can have
"blue", "blueness", "red", "redness", "black",
"blackness", "white", "whiteness". A lot of
colours it will work with. So, you just have to test them out to see
if they work with the suffix "ness". Okay? So, let's just go through
the list and I'll give you some examples of
how each word might be used in a sentence. So,
we've got "good" and then "goodness". So, "good"
is the adjective and "goodness" is the abstract noun. Okay?
So, "goodness". "Goodness" is a good thing, you could say. Or something
like people say, "Oh, goodness me!" as an
expression. An exclamation, if they're surprised about something,
they say, "Oh, goodness me. Goodness me, it's been raining a lot
today." Anything like that. Okay? It's a
strange expression, really. Why add "me" to "goodness"? "Goodness me"?
It doesn't really make sense logically, but it's just an expression.
Okay. And then we have "rich" and "richness".
So, you could talk about the richness of
nature with all the trees, and flowers, and
animals, and the weather, different weather,
mountains, and fields. So, the richness, the
variety of nature. Okay. "Sick", if you're sick,
you're ill. So, "sick" and "sickness". There
has been a lot of sickness around recently. There is more sickness
in the winter, that kind of thing. Okay. "Heavy", so "heavy" when
something weighs a lot. This time, you have
to be careful if the word ends with a letter "y",
often you have to change it to an "i" when you
add "ness". So, "heavy", and "heaviness". So,
you can have a feeling of heaviness. Okay?
You could use it that way. And then the opposite,
"light" and "lightness", you can have a feeling
of lightness when you feel as if you're about to
float off into the air. Okay. And "dizzy", if
you're dizzy, your head is... You feel you might fall over. Your head
is sort of going round like this, dizzy. You don't feel stable.
So, "dizzy", again, the "y" is replaced with an
"i", and it's "dizziness". So, you could say, "I
have been suffering from dizziness today." Okay?
I think there's something wrong. "Dizziness".
Okay? And then "like", this is an interesting one
because this isn't really an adjective itself,
but when you put it with "ness", it becomes a
noun, so it's an exception, really. But this is a useful
word here, "likeness". It's to do with if somebody
paints a portrait or draws a portrait of a
person who you know personally, and you can
see... You can recognize the person in the
picture, then you say, "Oh, that's a very good
likeness of my friend. I recognize who it is."
You know, that's a very clever drawing or
painting. The artist, whoever it was, has captured
the way the person really looks so that you do
recognize them. So, it's a very good likeness. Or
maybe they haven't done very well, so it's not
a very good likeness. It doesn't really look like that person.
Okay? So that's a useful word there. And then back to
adjectives again. "Lazy", and then the "y" changes
to an "i". "Laziness". So, you might say,
"I don't approve of all this laziness. Why are
people being so lazy? Laziness is such a bad thing." If you're
being lazy every day, it's not good. Okay? And then "shy", if
somebody's shy. This time, the "y" doesn't change.
It stays as a letter "y". "Shyness". So, if
somebody's shy, they have a problem with shyness,
or they may be trying to overcome their shyness.
Okay? To be a little bit more comfortable
with people, and a bit more chatty. "Shyness". Okay.
And then finally, "happy". Again, the "y" changes
to "i". "Happiness". So, in life we are all looking for
happiness. That sort of thing. Okay? So, okay. I hope that's
been a useful lesson, and do give it a try with
some other adjectives, and see what more new
words you can add to your vocabulary to give
yourself more... More scope, and more flexibility
with your use of English. And if you'd like to
do a quiz on this topic, go to the website,
www.engvid.com, and there's a quiz there. Test your
knowledge. And thanks for watching. Hope to see you
again soon. Bye for now. Bye.
