Linguistic commentary on unit 6. Suffixes ‘-ous’, ‘-ious’, ‘-eous’, ‘-uous’.

Suffix ‘-ous’ is always pronounced as unstressed short [əs]: jealous. This suffix usually follows voiced consonants and liquid ‘r’.

Suffix ‘-ious’ is usually pronounced as [iəs]: notorious, glorious. But when it follows sounds [∫] or [dg], it’s pronounced as [əs]: precious, prestigious.

Suffix ‘-eous’ is normally pronounced as [jes] or [jəs]: miscellaneous. Words with such a suffix are usually bookish words.

Suffix ‘-uous’ can only be pronounced as [juəs]: continuous.

If the word ends in ‘f’, it’s changed into ‘v’ when a suffix is added: grief – grievous.

If the word ends in ‘-ge’, ‘e’ is preserved when suffix ‘-ous’ is added: courage – courageous.

If the word ends in ‘-ce’, ‘e’ is changed into ‘i’ when suffix ‘-ous’ is added: grace – gracious.

If a suffix is added to the words ending in ‘-our’, letter ‘u’ in the ‘-our’ is omitted: vigour – vigorous. NB! A letter can also be omitted when some other suffixes are added: curious – curiosity, etc. These words should be memorized.

Adding ‘-ly’ to form adverbs.

Adverbs are usually formed by adding ‘-ly’ to adjectives: light – lightly, brave – bravely.

If an adjective ends in ‘-y’, then ‘-y’ changes into ‘i’ + ‘ly’: funny – funnily.

If an adjective ends in ‘-le’, ‘e’ is dropped and ‘y’ is added: simple – simply, possible – possibly.

If an adjective ends in ‘-ic’, we must add ‘ally’: automatic – automatically.

Exceptions: true – truly, shy – shyly, sly – slyly, public – publicly, whole – wholly.

NB! Some adjectives have the same form for adverbs: fast – fast, early – early. Some adjectives change their form completely when forming an adverb: good – well.

Unit 7. Differences between American and English spelling.

Exercise 1. Change American spelling of the words below for British one.

Analog, archeology, dialog, draft, favorite, maneuver, mustache, story (of a building), anesthesia, catalog, encyclopedia, humor, jewelry, omelet, pajamas, aluminum, defense, donut, plow, license, routing, specialty, stabilize.

Exercise 2. Respell the following American commercials.

From Monday thru Friday

Nite Life

Phabulous Phood

When in Roam…

Hy* Top

Shu-Wite

California Sunkist

Can we tawk?

Squeezit

Hi-way

Your fate and your wate

Exercise 3. Insert the missing letters for the following words in American spelling and then write the words in British spelling.

Telegr.., met.., fo..nt, trave..er, t..re, arch..ology, co..y, hum..r, jewe..ry, c..rb, defen..e, fav..rite, p..jamas, gr..y, mechanic..e, abridg..ment, blam..able, s..eptic, wag..on, conne..ion, apologi..e, stor..y, skil..ful.

Exercise 4. Write the word according to its definition. Give, if possible, two variants of spelling.

1. List of items, events, etc, e.g. for a concert, for radio or TV…………… .

2. Decision of a judge or court…………. .

3. Colour made by mixing black and white, coloured like ashes…………… .

4. Coded collection of information, data, etc fed into a computer………….. .

5. Floor or level in a building…………… .

6. Band of rubber on the rim of a wheel……………. .

Exercise 5. Edit the text for a British newspaper. Correct the misspellings.

Studies show that color not only attracts attention but also helps readers remember a feature. The novelty of the color favors. But as color becomes more comonnplace on papers, its effectivness is likly to become less pronounced. Remarkable black and white photoes might well be more memorable. An advantage of editorial color is that it stimulats advertizers to use color, too. And advertizers, of course, pay more for color advertizing then for black and white advertizing.

Exercise 6. Insert the missing letters. Sometimes more than one variant is possible.

1. She was so thin I hardly recogni..ed her.

2. Exerci..e is good for you.

3. The second edition has been revi..ed.

4. The teacher had 30 children to supervi..e.

5. My friends organi..d a surpri..e party for me.

6. The music store speciali..es in pianos.

7. Some snakes hypnoti..e their prey.

8. The sales assistant pressuri..ed me into buying it.

9. I won first pri..e in the competition.

10. Our new puppy was adverti..ed in the newspaper.

11. When the actor forgot his lines, he had to improvi..e.

12. I like taking part, but I despi..e losing.

13. My big brother critici..es me.

14. I went trick or treating disgui..ed as a vampire.

15. My brother pri..ed the box open with a lever.