Lesson 2 of 125 min read
Word Families & Word Class
A familiar root can still produce a wrong answer. Decide what grammatical job the missing word must do before choosing among members of its family.
Understand the pattern
Compare The decision was difficult with We decided yesterday. Decision names an event or result; decided reports an action. A determiner such as the often introduces a noun phrase, while a subject followed by yesterday may need a past-tense verb. Read the whole phrase: a determiner can also be followed by an adjective before the noun.
A word family is a study aid, not a machine for inventing forms. Analyse, analysis and analytical are related, but an analyst is a person, not the process. Some families have spelling changes or more than one noun with different uses. Learn each useful form with a short sentence rather than attaching the same definition to every item.
In a gap task, check both sides. The word after highly is often an adjective or participle, but highly alone cannot tell you the answer. In a highly effective method, method is the head noun and effective describes it. Meaning and grammar must agree before you choose.
Language in context
| Word or pattern | Meaning or use | Example |
|---|---|---|
| analyse / analysis | Verb / noun naming the process | We analyse the survey. Our analysis identifies a pattern. |
| benefit / beneficial | Noun or verb / adjective | The change has benefits. It is beneficial to learners. |
| accurate / accurately / accuracy | Adjective / adverb / noun | Accurate notes help us report the figures accurately. |
| decide / decision / decisive | Action / choice / showing determination or settling an issue | The team made a decision after a decisive vote. |
Worked example
Reason through the choice
The researchers recorded the measurements ___. Choose accurate, accuracy or accurately.
Answer: Accurately.
The gap describes how the researchers recorded the measurements, so an adverb fits. Accurate could describe the measurements in accurate measurements; accuracy would name the quality. Sharing a root does not make the forms interchangeable.
Try it yourself
Write your answers before opening the key. For open responses, the suggested answer is one possible version; keep the meaning and check the target pattern.
- Complete: The ___ of the results took two hours. (analyse / analysis / analytical)
- Complete: This is a highly ___ method. (effect / effective / effectively)
- Rewrite The report is accurate using accuracy.
Check answers and explanations
1. Analysis. The gap is the head of the noun phrase The analysis of the results.
2. Effective. The adjective describes method; highly modifies the adjective.
3. The report has a high level of accuracy. The noun needs a new grammatical structure. Simply replacing accurate with accuracy after is would not work.
Use it in your PTE preparation
PTE Academic
During a Reading gap exercise, label the missing word class before comparing meanings. Afterwards, write a second sentence with a different member of the same family. This turns one correction into practice with two useful patterns.
PTE Core
When writing a message, check common families such as available and availability, confirm and confirmation, or assist and assistance. I need confirmation and Please confirm are both useful, but need different sentence structures.
Recall and transfer
Make two columns headed action and result. Put decide and decision into the right columns, then add your own pair. Say a sentence for each word without reading the example. Check that the forms sound natural in their new positions.