Word formation

🔊 The teacher reads for you

An astronomer is not an astrologer, and an astrophysicist is not a fortune-teller. One small suffix — -er or -ist — turns a science into the person who practises it; one small change turns long into length, and prove into proof. You already know how to build words with suffixes; this lesson makes sure you can build the words of astronomy yourself. How do you turn a science into a scientist — and an adjective into a measurement?

🎓في نهاية هذا الدرس ستكون قادرا على:

تكوين اسم الشخص من اسم العلم أو من الفعل بـ ⁦-er · -ist⁩ ⁦(astronomy → astronomer · science → scientist)⁩
تكوين أسماء القياس من صفاتها ⁦(long → length · wide → width · deep → depth · high → height)⁩
تكوين الاسم من الفعل في المفرد والجمع ⁦(prove → proof · proofs)⁩
اختيار الكلمة المشتقّة المناسبة لسياقها داخل نصّ

🔑يفترض هذا الدرس أنّك تتقن:

أقسام الكلام: الفعل والاسم والصفة ⁦(verb · noun · adjective)⁩
جمع الأسماء ⁦(proofs · beliefs)⁩
كلمات أساسيّة: ⁦astronomy · science · measure⁩

1. From a science to a scientist: -er and -ist

لتسمية من يمارس علما أو يقوم بفعل، نضيف ⁦-er⁩ أو ⁦-ist⁩ : ⁦astronomer · scientist⁩. ولا قاعدة تفرّق بينهما، فتُحفظ الكلمة.

To name the person who practises a science, or who does an action, English adds a suffix: -er or -ist. astronomy → astronomer · astrology → astrologer · observe → observer science → scientist · astrophysics → astrophysicist · psychology → psychologist The ending of the science goes (-y, -s) before the suffix; science → scientist is an exception: -ce becomes -t. And nothing tells you in advance whether a word takes -er or -ist — astronomer, but psychologist — so learn each word with its suffix.

People of science

astronomy → astronomerastrology → astrologerastrophysics → astrophysicistscience → scientistpsychology → psychologistobserve → observer

Task 1 — Add the suffix -ist or -er to the words in brackets to get a meaningful text.

An (astrology) is completely different from an (astronomy) and an (astrophysics). All three are constant (observe) of the skies, but only the latter two really deserve the title of (science). The difference between them is similar to the one between a fortune-teller and a (psychology).

Task 1 — the text, completed

النصّ مكتملا : اسم الشخص في كلّ فراغ.

An astrologer is completely different from an astronomer and an astrophysicist. All three are constant observers of the skies, but only the latter two really deserve the title of scientist. The difference between them is similar to the one between a fortune-teller and a psychologist.

Observers takes an -s: « all three » are plural. And the text says it plainly: an astrologer is not a scientist.

2. From an adjective to a measurement

لكلّ صفة من صفات القياس اسمها : ⁦long → length · wide → width · deep → depth · high → height · heavy → weight⁩.

The adjectives of measurement have their own nouns: long → length, wide → width, deep → depth, high (and tall) → height. Most of them end in -th (length, width, depth) or -t (height). Weight is built on the verb weigh, not on heavy. The adjective describes, the noun measures: « It is 13 m long. » → « Its length is 13 m. »

Measurement adjectives and their nouns

long → lengthwide → widthdeep → depthhigh → heighttall → heightheavy → weightweigh → weight

Task 2 — Rewrite each sentence with the noun of the measurement. A. The Hubble Space Telescope is 13 m long. · B. It weighs more than 11 tons. · C. The swimming pool is 2 m deep. · D. The wall of the school is 3 m high.

أعد كتابة كلّ جملة باسم القياس بدل الصفة أو الفعل.

A. The length of the Hubble Space Telescope is 13 m.
B. Its weight is more than 11 tons.
C. The depth of the swimming pool is 2 m.
D. The height of the wall of the school is 3 m.

With the noun, the sentence changes shape: the length of … is … · its weight is …

3. From a verb to a noun — singular and plural

بعض الأفعال تكوّن اسمها بتغيير حرف : ⁦prove → proof⁩ و ⁦believe → belief⁩، ولهذا الاسم مفرد وجمع.

Some verbs form their noun by changing a letter: prove → proof, believe → belief — the v of the verb becomes an f in the noun. These nouns have a singular and a plural: a proof → two proofs, a belief → strong beliefs. Watch the verb and the noun: he believes (verb) — his beliefs (noun).

Verbs and their nouns

prove → a proof → proofsbelieve → a belief → beliefs

Task 3 — Fill in the blanks with the verb or the noun. A. A long time ago, people …… (believe) that the Sun revolved round the Earth. · B. This …… (believe) came from the fact that they saw the sun rise in the east every morning and set in the west every evening. · C. Photographs taken from space are a …… (prove) that the Earth is round.

املأ الفراغ بالفعل أو بالاسم المناسب.

A. believed — a verb in the past simple.
B. belief — after « This », a noun.
C. proof — after « a », a noun.

Ask what the sentence needs before you choose: a verb after a subject (people believed), a noun after a determiner (this belief, a proof).

Do this alone, in writing. Write four sentences about astronomy with four words you have built: a person in -er, a person in -ist, a measurement noun, and a noun from a verb. Then underline each word and write, next to it, the word it comes from.

اكتب وحدك أربع جمل عن الفلك بأربع كلمات مشتقّة، واكتب بجانب كلّ واحدة الكلمة التي اشتُقّت منها.

A model answer

An astronomer watches the sky with a telescope. (astronomy) An astrophysicist studies the matter of the stars. (astrophysics) The length of the Hubble Space Telescope is 13 metres. (long) Old beliefs about the sky were replaced by scientific proofs. (believe · prove)

In the exam, word formation is tested in the text exploration: you complete a table of word families — verb, noun, adjective, person — or you give the right form of the word in brackets. Have three things ready: ① -er and -ist for people — astronomer, observer, scientist, psychologist; ② the measurement nouns — length, width, depth, height, weight; ③ nouns from verbs — proof, belief — and their plurals. The frequent mistake: an adjective for a person — ✗ « an astronomic » → ✓ « an astronomer ».

What I keep — -er and -ist turn a science or an action into a person: astronomy → astronomer, observe → observer, science → scientist, psychology → psychologist — learn which suffix each word takes. The measurement adjectives have their nouns: length, width, depth, height, and weight from weigh. And some verbs give a noun with a changed letter: prove → proof, believe → belief, with their plurals proofs and beliefs.

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