Phil Young’s English School · Sheet 7 of 11
These errors are not about vocabulary. The student knows the word and picks the wrong ending for the slot it has to fill — which is why error-identification items lean on this family so heavily. Twelve patterns below, then thirty exercises.
The word is right. The ending is not. Ask what job the slot needs done, then build the form that does it.
An adjective describes a noun; an adverb describes a verb, an adjective or another adverb. Find what the word is actually modifying. Careful readings modifies a noun, so no -ly; recorded carefully modifies a verb, so -ly is required.
After be, seem, appear, become, remain, look, sound, feel, taste, smell, prove the word describes the subject, not the action, so it stays an adjective. Test by substituting is: if the results are conclusive works, the adjective is right.
A word sitting directly in front of a noun usually has to be an adjective. The trap is that some nouns can modify other nouns (government policy, research funding), so students assume all of them can. When a matching adjective exists — economic, political, industrial, cultural — that adjective is the one the slot wants.
After the, a, this, its or any other determiner, only a noun can follow. Pairs worth drilling because the noun is irregular: analyze / analysis, decide / decision, describe / description, succeed / success, prove / proof, choose / choice, lose / loss, believe / belief.
-ing describes the thing that causes the feeling; -ed describes the person who has it. A lecture is boring, an audience is bored. The full set: interesting/interested, confusing/confused, surprising/surprised, tiring/tired, frustrating/frustrated, worrying/worried.
The endings that build nouns: -tion (protection), -ment (agreement), -ance / -ence (resistance, independence), -ity (complexity), -ness (awareness), -ship (leadership), -cy (efficiency), -al (approval), -ure (failure).
The endings that build adjectives: -al (national), -ive (persuasive), -ous (dangerous), -ful (successful), -less (harmless), -able / -ible (reliable, responsible), -ic (economic), -ent / -ant (dependent, significant). After more, very, quite, too and after a linking verb, an adjective is what belongs.
The endings that build verbs: -en (strengthen, widen, shorten), -ize (modernize, prioritize), -ify (simplify, clarify), -ate (differentiate). After to, after a modal, or in any main-verb slot, the noun form cannot stand in.
Affect is nearly always the verb, effect nearly always the noun. Others that turn up: advice (noun) / advise (verb), rise (no object) / raise (takes one), economic (of the economy) / economical (thrifty), historic (momentous) / historical (of the past), sensible (reasonable) / sensitive (easily affected).
Some pairs look related and are not. Hard means with effort, hardly means almost not. Late means not on time, lately means recently. Near is close by, nearly is almost. Note also that good is only an adjective — the adverb is well — and that friendly, likely, lively end in -ly but are adjectives.
A subject must be a noun or a gerund. Work through the slots in order: after a determiner, a noun; after be or seem, an adjective; modifying a verb, an adverb; in the subject or object slot, a noun. Identify the slot before you pick the ending.
A noun used to modify another noun loses its plural: a two-hour meeting, a ten-page report, a three-day conference. The plural returns as soon as the noun stands on its own again. The hyphen is a reliable signal that the singular is required.
Questions 1–12. Tap the form that the slot requires.
Questions 13–22. Four parts of each sentence are underlined. Tap the one that is wrong. Only one contains an error.
Questions 23–30. Each sentence contains exactly one word in the wrong form — and at least one other word doing the same job correctly. Find the error, write the correction, and name the pattern behind it. Write your version in your notebook, then reveal the correction and compare.