Word Formation – English Grammar Exercises for B1
You are writing a feedback email to your manager about your colleague, Alex. Choose the best option (A, B, C, or D) to complete each sentence.
1 “Dear Manager, I am writing to praise Alex, as he demonstrated excellent ______ skills throughout the entire project.”
(A) communicate
(B) communicative
(C) communication
(D) communicator
2 “His positive attitude and willingness to share ideas made our daily ______ much smoother.”
(A) collaborate
(B) collaboration
(C) collaborative
(D) collaborator
3 “I truly appreciate his valuable ______ to the final marketing report.”
(A) contribute
(B) contributing
(C) contribution
(D) contributer
4 “During the client meeting, his slide ______ was clear, engaging, and highly professional.”
(A) present
(B) presentation
(C) presentative
(D) presenter
5 “He always listens carefully during team ______, making sure everyone feels heard and respected.”
(A) discuss
(B) discussing
(C) discussions
(D) discussers
6 “Whenever we faced a sudden problem, Alex was quick to propose a creative ______.”
(A) solve
(B) solving
(C) solvable
(D) solution
7 “He never hesitated when we needed someone to make a quick and fair ______.”
(A) decide
(B) decision
(C) deciding
(D) decisiveness
8 “Thanks to his careful planning, the ______ of the project files on the shared drive was perfect.”
(A) organize
(B) organizing
(C) organization
(D) organizer
9 “When I didn’t understand the new software, his clear ______ saved me a lot of time.”
(A) explain
(B) explanation
(C) explaination
(D) explaning
10 “His high energy level provided a great source of ______ for the whole team during stressful weeks.”
(A) motivate
(B) motivator
(C) motivation
(D) motivating
11 “I was particularly impressed by his thorough ______ before every single client meeting.”
(A) prepare
(B) preparation
(C) preparer
(D) preparatory
12 “His friendly ______ with the new interns helped them feel welcome and comfortable immediately.”
(A) interact
(B) interactive
(C) interaction
(D) interactment
13 “He is very open-minded and always accepts constructive ______ from other team members.”
(A) suggest
(B) suggestive
(C) suggestions
(D) suggesters
14 “We could always count on his active ______ in our weekly brainstorming sessions.”
(A) participate
(B) participation
(C) participant
(D) participance
15 “Alex showed a very strong ______ to meeting our strict project deadlines.”
(A) commit
(B) committance
(C) commitment
(D) committee
16 “Overall, I would rate his ______ on this project as absolutely outstanding.”
(A) perform
(B) performance
(C) performation
(D) performer
17 “I hope this positive ______ helps you in his upcoming annual review.”
(A) evaluate
(B) evaluating
(C) evaluater
(D) evaluation
18 “Because of his help, there was a noticeable ______ in our team’s overall workflow.”
(A) improve
(B) improving
(C) improvement
(D) improveness
19 “Even when we had different ideas, we usually reached an ______ very quickly.”
(A) agree
(B) agreement
(C) agreeable
(D) agrement
20 “Finally, he has excellent time ______ skills, which kept us all perfectly on schedule.”
(A) manage
(B) manager
(C) management
(D) manageable
ANSWER KEY & EXPLANATIONS
1 (C) communication
- Why it is correct (The Key): “Communication skills” is a compound noun phrase. The noun form of the verb communicate is communication.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Adjective. (D) Noun referring to a person, which doesn’t fit the compound phrase “skills.”
2 (B) collaboration
- Why it is correct (The Key): An abstract noun is needed after the adjective “daily”. Collaborate + -ion = collaboration (working together).
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (C) Adjective. (D) Noun referring to a person (a collaborator).
3 (C) contribution
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the adjective “valuable”. Contribute + -ion = contribution (something that you give or do to help produce a successful result).
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Gerund. (D) Spelling error / person noun.
4 (B) presentation
- Why it is correct (The Key): Functions as the head noun in the compound “slide presentation”. Present → presentation.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (C) Adjective. (D) Noun referring to the person speaking.
5 (C) discussions
- Why it is correct (The Key): Noun needed after “team”. Discuss + -ion = discussion. The plural form is used here for general repeated events.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Gerund. (D) Invalid word (not a standard term for participants).
6 (D) solution
- Why it is correct (The Key): Noun required after the article “a” and adjective “creative”. Solve → solution.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Gerund. (C) Adjective (capable of being solved).
7 (B) decision
- Why it is correct (The Key): Decide → decision. Follows the adjectives “quick and fair”.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (C) Gerund. (D) Noun meaning a personality trait (decisiveness), which doesn’t fit making “a” specific choice.
8 (C) organization
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the article “the”. Organize → organization (the act of arranging things).
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Gerund. (D) Person who organizes.
9 (B) explanation
- Why it is correct (The Key): Note the spelling change: the ‘i’ from explain is dropped when adding the suffix to form explanation.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (C) A very common spelling mistake made by English learners. (D) Misspelled gerund.
10 (C) motivation
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the preposition “of”. Motivate → motivation (the feeling of wanting to do something).
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) A thing/person that motivates. (D) Participle/Gerund.
11 (B) preparation
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the adjective “thorough”. Prepare → preparation.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (C) Person who prepares. (D) Adjective.
12 (C) interaction
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the adjective “friendly”. Interact → interaction (communication or direct involvement with someone).
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Adjective. (D) Invalid suffix combination.
13 (C) suggestions
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the adjective “constructive”. Suggest → suggestion. Plural is used contextually for multiple ideas.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Adjective. (D) People who suggest.
14 (B) participation
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the adjective “active”. Participate → participation (the act of taking part in something).
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (C) A person who participates. (D) Invalid suffix.
15 (C) commitment
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the adjective “strong”. Commit + -ment = commitment (dedication to a cause or policy).
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Invalid word. (D) A group of people appointed for a specific function.
16 (B) performance
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the possessive adjective “his”. Perform + -ance = performance (how well a person does their job).
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (C) Invalid suffix. (D) A person who entertains.
17 (D) evaluation
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the adjective “positive”. Evaluate → evaluation (an assessment or review).
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Gerund. (C) Spelling error for the person evaluating (evaluator).
18 (C) improvement
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the adjective “noticeable”. Improve + -ment = improvement.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) Gerund. (D) Invalid suffix.
19 (B) agreement
- Why it is correct (The Key): Follows the article “an”. Agree + -ment = agreement.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (C) Adjective. (D) Spelling error (missing an ‘e’).
20 (C) management
- Why it is correct (The Key): Forms the compound noun “time management” (the ability to use one’s time effectively). Manage + -ment = management.
- Distractor Analysis: (A) Verb. (B) A person who manages. (D) Adjective.
GRAMMAR POINTS TO REMEMBER
1 The Purpose of Word Formation (Verb → Noun)
In professional contexts, such as writing feedback or performance reviews, we often need to evaluate actions as measurable concepts. To do this, we turn Verbs (actions) into Nouns (abstract concepts) using suffixes.
- Action: He communicates well.
- Concept: He has good communication skills.
Using nouns allows your writing to sound more objective, formal, and professional.
2 Common Suffixes for Verb → Noun Conversion
- -tion / -sion: * communicate → communication
- collaborate → collaboration
- decide → decision
- -ment:
- commit → commitment
- manage → management
- agree → agreement
- -ance / -ence:
- perform → performance
3 Syntactic Rules: When to use Nouns
You must select a noun (not a verb or an adjective) when filling a blank in these grammatical positions:
- After an Article: a, an, the (e.g., a solution, an agreement).
- After a Possessive Adjective: my, your, his, her, our, their (e.g., his performance, our discussion).
- After a Descriptive Adjective: strong, clear, positive (e.g., strong commitment, clear explanation).
- As part of a Compound Noun: Noun + Noun combinations (e.g., communication skills, time management).
4 Spelling Traps to Avoid
When adding suffixes, the base verb sometimes changes its spelling. A very common B1-level mistake is failing to drop letters:
- Explain → Explanation (Drop the ‘i’).
- Pronounce → Pronunciation (Drop the ‘o’).