Word formation: collocations with “school” and “education”, suffixes –ive and –al

🔊 The teacher reads for you

« Assist school » or « attend school »? « Obligatory education » or « compulsory education »? Some words simply go together in English, and others do not. And when a school inspector asks for « effective » measures and a more « selective » examination system, he has turned two nouns into adjectives. You already know the suffixes -ive and -al; the collocations of school and education are new. So which words go with school and education — and how do you make an adjective from a noun?

🎓في نهاية هذا الدرس ستكون قادرا على:

التعرّف على المتلازمات اللفظية ⁦(collocations)⁩ مع ⁦school⁩ و ⁦education⁩، وطرق كتابتها
استعمال متلازمات مثل ⁦state school, schoolmate, compulsory education, higher education⁩ في جمل
تكوين صفات من أسماء باللاحقتين ⁦-ive⁩ و ⁦-al⁩، مثل ⁦effect → effective⁩ و ⁦education → educational⁩
استعمال هذه الصفات في خطاب عن التعليم

🔑يفترض هذا الدرس أنّك تتقن:

أقسام الكلمة: الاسم والفعل والصفة
اللواحق التي تغيّر قسم الكلمة، مثل ⁦-ment⁩ و ⁦-ic⁩
مراحل التعليم: الابتدائيّ والمتوسّط والثانويّ والعالي

1. Collocations with school and education

المتلازمة اللفظية كلمات تتصاحب كثيرا في الاستعمال، وتُكتب كلمتين منفصلتين أو بشرطة أو كلمة واحدة. لا تُستنتج، بل تُحفظ مجتمعة.

A collocation is the way in which words frequently occur together in language use: timetable, school bag, notice-board. A collocation may be spelt as two separate words (school bag), as two words joined by a hyphen (notice-board), or simply as a single word (timetable). Collocations are learnt as wholes: the right partner of a word is the one that English speakers actually use.

Keep the words that collocate with school or education, and cross out the ones that don't.

A. bed-and-breakfast · boarding · co-educational — school B. school — mate · report · leaving age C. assist · attend · drop out of — school D. comprehensive · distant · grammar — school E. public · expensive · state — school F. compulsory · obligatory · necessary — education G. further · supplementary · higher — education

Task 1 — the collocations, and the words to cross out

المتلازمات الصحيحة، والكلمات التي تُشطب.

A. boarding school, co-educational school — cross out bed-and-breakfast.
B. schoolmate, school report, school-leaving age — all three collocate.
C. attend school, drop out of school — cross out assist.
D. comprehensive school, grammar school — cross out distant.
E. public school, state school — cross out expensive.
F. compulsory education — cross out obligatory and necessary.
G. further education, higher education — cross out supplementary.

Two traps: assist looks like a French word, but in English we attend school; and the adjective that goes with education is compulsory, not obligatory or necessary.

Collocations with school and education

boarding schoolco-educational schoolschoolmateschool reportschool-leaving ageattend schooldrop out of schoolcomprehensive schoolgrammar schoolpublic schoolstate schoolcompulsory educationfurther educationhigher education

Fill in the blanks with suitable collocations with school and education.

A. …… …… are open for children over eleven of all abilities. B. I have lost touch with most of my former ……, except for Saïd. C. The name …… …… is very illogical since it means a private school for the rich and privileged in Britain. D. The Algerian …… …… provides free and compulsory education until the age of sixteen. E. The …… …… age in Britain and Australia is the same: sixteen. F. As every …… says, maths is difficult. G. …… …… in Britain generally lasts from age five to age sixteen.

Task 2 — the answers

الإجابات، مع الكلمة التي تدلّ على كلّ متلازمة.

A. Comprehensive schools — open to children of all abilities.
B. schoolmates — the friends of my school years.
C. public school — in Britain, a public school is in fact a private school for the rich and privileged: the name is illogical.
D. state school — free and run by the state.
E. school-leaving — the school-leaving age: sixteen.
F. schoolmate — everybody in the class.
G. Compulsory education — from five to sixteen.

2. Adjectives in -ive and -al

اللاحقتان ⁦-ive⁩ و ⁦-al⁩ تصنعان صفات من الأسماء: ⁦effect → effective⁩، ⁦education → educational⁩.

The suffixes -ive and -al form adjectives from nouns: effect → effective, education → educational. The noun sometimes loses its own ending first: selection → selective, attraction → attractive.

The nouns in brackets

educationeffectselectionfunctionpracticeattractionresponseinnovationconstruction

Replace the nouns in brackets with their adjectives in -ive or -al, so that the school inspector's speech makes sense.

Ladies and gentlemen, In order to improve our (education) system, we should take (effect) measures. To begin with, we should make our examination system more (selection) so that both our students and teachers will work harder. Second, we should give more importance to (function) literacy. By this I mean that we ought to make our courses more (practice) so as to enable the students to fulfil their roles outside school. Third, we ought to make our teaching more (attraction) so that students will be more (response) to what we teach them. In short, we must be both (innovation) and (construction) in the training we give to our students.

Task 3 — the nine adjectives

الصفات التسع، ولاحقة كلّ واحدة.

Noun	Adjective	Suffix
education	educational	-al
effect	effective	-ive
selection	selective	-ive
function	functional	-al
practice	practical	-al
attraction	attractive	-ive
response	responsive	-ive
innovation	innovative	-ive
construction	constructive	-ive

« In order to improve our educational system, we should take effective measures… we should make our examination system more selective… more importance to functional literacy… our courses more practical… our teaching more attractive so that students will be more responsive… both innovative and constructive. »

Do this alone, in writing. Write four sentences about your school with two collocations (state school, schoolmate, compulsory education…) and two adjectives in -ive or -al (educational, practical, attractive…). Then check: is each collocation one that English really uses, and is each adjective in the place of an adjective — before a noun or after be?

اكتب وحدك أربع جمل عن مدرستك، فيها متلازمتان وصفتان منتهيتان بـ ⁦-ive⁩ أو ⁦-al⁩.

A model answer

I study at a state school near my home. Most of my schoolmates want to go on to higher education. Our teachers try to make their lessons more practical. The school library is small, but very attractive.

In the exam, word formation is tested in a chart to complete (noun → adjective), and vocabulary in blanks to fill with the right collocation. Have three things ready: ① the collocations of the unit — state school, public school, boarding school, schoolmate, school report, school-leaving age, attend school, drop out of school, compulsory education, further and higher education; ② the adjectives in -ive (effective, selective, attractive, responsive, innovative, constructive) and in -al (educational, functional, practical); ③ the spelling: selection → selective. The frequent mistakes are « assist school » for attend school and « obligatory education » for compulsory education.

What I keep — A collocation is a group of words that frequently occur together; it may be two words (school bag), two words with a hyphen (notice-board) or one word (timetable). With school and education: state school, public school, boarding school, schoolmate, school-leaving age, attend school, compulsory education, higher education. The suffixes -ive and -al make adjectives from nouns: effect → effective, education → educational, selection → selective.

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