Vocabulary 3:
Structural clues
Knowing what part off speech a word is can help us 'guess' its meaning
by narrowing down the choices we have. The major parts of speech are
noun, verb, adjective and adverb. Remember a noun is a lifeform, a
thing or a concept: a verb is a 'doing' word: an adjective is used to
describe a noun: an adverb is used to describe a veb or an adjective.
If you can work out what part of speech an unknown word is, then it
becomes much easier to use context or word parts to 'guess' its meaning. Task 1: Look at
the following sentence.
The engineer welded the two
pieces of metal together. What part of
speech is welded? Now from
the context try to 'guess' the meaning. Task 2: Look at
another sentence.
The weld connecting the two pieces of metal was actually stronger than
the pieces of metal it joined. What
part of speech is weld? Did
the meaning you 'guessed' in Task 1 still make sense. Check in your
dictionary to find the meaning of weld. Task 3: Look at
the following sentences and try to identify the part of speech and the
meaning of the words in bold. 1) When I was a boy, the tents we
used when we went camping were made of canvas.
What part of speech is canvas?
_____________ What do you think it
means? _____________ 2)Now almost all tents are made of a synthetic fabric such as nylon or
rayon. What part of speech is synthetic? _____________ What do you think it means?
_____________ 3)Each day we hiked about 20
kilometres, carrying our food, clothes and tents in our very heavy
rucsacs. In the late afternoon, we would look for a good place to camp.
When we found one we would pitch
our tents, light a fire and start to prepare our evening meal. What part of speech is pitch? _____________ What do you think it means?
_____________
Task 4: Look at the following sentences and try to identify the part of
speech and the meaning of the words in bold. 4)The most well known amphibious fish is the mudskipper.
These fish often crawl onto land and can survive for up to three days
out of the water. What part of speech is amphibious? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________ 5)Most fish can only breath by
passing water through their gills,
but mudskippers are also able to breath air through their skin and the
roof of their mouth. What part of speech is gills? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________
Task 5: Look at the following sentences and try to identify the part of
speech and the meaning of the words in bold. 6)When two electrodes are placed in
an electrolyte and a voltage
is applied, the electrolyte will conduct electricity. What part of speech is voltage? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________ 7)An electrolyte is a substance
containing free ions that behaves as an electrically conductive medium. What part of speech is conductive? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________ 8)Electroplating is the process of
using electrical current to coat
an electrically conductive object with a relatively thin layer of
metal. What part of speech is coat? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________ 9)In electroplating tanks, the
electrolyte simultaneously
deposits metal onto the object to be plated, and electrically connects
that object in the circuit. What part of speech is simultaneously? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________
Task 6: Look at the following sentences and try to identify the part of
speech and the meaning of the words in bold. 10)There are many unicellular organisms, bacteria
being one example. What part of speech is unicellular? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________ 11)The human body contains many
different organs, such as the heart, lung, and kidney, with each organ
performing a different function. Cells also have a set of "little
organs," called organelles,
that are adapted and/or specialized for carrying out one or more vital
functions. What part of speech is organelle? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________ 12)In cell biology, a mitochondrion
(plural mitochondria) is a membrane-enclosed
organelle, found in most eukaryotic
cells. What part of speech is membrane-enclosed? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________ What part of speech is eukaryotic? _____________ What do you think it
means? _____________
Task 7: In the
sentences above we saw four very common types of adjective endings.
What are they? Fill in the table.