Mastering Compound Words and Affixes: Vocabulary from 'The Attic' by Satyajit Ray

Vocabulary (compound words) - The Attic | by Satyajit Ray | Prose

Compound Words

Read these sentences:

1. Beyond the iron gates were the playing field and the two-storeyed school building.

2. The owner of the tea shop, now over sixty, a little rustic in appearance, with his white neatly-combed hair and clean look, was the same as before.

3. His nerves seemed overwrought for some reason.

The words in italics are Compound words. A compound word is a combination of two or more words that function as a single unit of meaning.

C. Complete the following table with two more compound words.

• ❖ Noun + Noun : kitchen garden, school bus, table spoon
• ❖ Noun + Verb : mouthwash, sunset, pen stand
• ❖ Verb + Noun : watchman, playground, call taxi
• ❖ Preposition + Noun : overcoat, underworld, upstream
• ❖ Gerund + Noun : bleaching powder, walking stick, dining hall
• ❖ Noun + Gerund : housekeeping, birdwatching, babysitting
• ❖ Adjective+ Preposition + Noun : good for nothing, lack of food, free of cost
• ❖ Noun + Preposition + Noun : mother-in-law, line-by-line, day-to-day

D. Combine the words in column A with those in column B to form compound words as many as you can.

Answer

• rainfall
• snowball / snowfall
• starlight
• drawback
• plaything / playback
• lottery ticket
• underworld
• manhole
• sidewalk/ backside
• footnote

E. Form compound words from the boxes given below and fill in the blanks in the sentences that follow with the appropriate compound words.

1. Siva visited the hair stylist to have a clean haircut.
2. Tharani had given the sarees for dry cleaning.
3. The green house is a natural process that warms the earth’s surface.
4. Never wait for an alarm clock to wake you up.
5. The children were late to school as there was a traffic jam near the toll plaza.
6. The government expects every individual to promptly pay the income tax.
7. People usually wear sun glasses during summer.
8. The patients were asked to sit in the waiting room until the doctor arrived.
9. With teamwork we are able to multiply our output.
10. The room was looking bright with the colourful wallpaper.

AFFIXES

Read the following line taken from the text:

In the English language, new words can be formed by a process called affixation. Affixation means adding affixes to the root word to form a new word. Affixes can be classified into prefix and suffix. If an affix is attached to the beginning of a word, it is called a Prefix. If an affix is attached to the end of the word, it is called a Suffix.

Examples:

Prefixes: illiterate, disqualify, supernatural, suburban, malnutrition.

Suffixes: childhood, ability, examination, establishment, slavish.

F (i) Form new words by adding appropriate prefix/suffix:

1. accurate: inaccurate, accuracy
2. understand: misunderstand, understanding
3. practice: practical, impractical, malpractice
4. technology: technologist, technological
5. fashion: fashionable, fashionate
6. different: indifferent, difference, differentiate
7. child: childish, childhood, childlike
8. national: nationally, nationality, international
9. origin: originally, originality, originate
10. enjoy: enjoyment, enjoyable

F (ii) Frame sentences of your own using any five newly formed words.

1. Raja misunderstood me for a lawyer.
2. Stephen is a well-known computer technologist.
3. We never forget our childhood days.
4. Wipro is an international company.
5. Reading books is an enjoyable hobby.

G. Fill in the blanks by adding appropriate prefix/suffix to the words given in brackets.

1. He was sleeping comfortably in his couch. (comfort)
2. Kavya rides a bicycle to school. (cycle)
3. There was only a handful of people in the theatre. (hand)
4. It is illegal to cut sandalwood trees. (legal)
5. The arrival of the President has been expected for the last half an hour. (arrive)
6. The man behaved abnormally in front of the crowd. (normal)
7. Swathy had no intention of visiting the doctor. (intend)
8. The bacteria are so small that you need a microscope to see them. (scope)