Word Families: Common Patterns
Word families are the systematic networks that one root produces. Decide → decision → decisive → decisively → indecisive → indecisiveness. Communicate → communication → communicative → communicator → communicable → communicably. Develop → development → developmental → developer → undeveloped → developing. A B2 learner who can navigate full word families produces fluent, varied writing; one who can only use the verb form sounds repetitive. The worksheet covers the highest-frequency word families and the patterns that recur across them.
This worksheet builds B2 fluency with word-family navigation and form selection.
Worksheet preview
What’s inside:
- Word-family tables with 15+ high-frequency roots and all their derived forms
- Multiple-choice items: select the correct word-family form for the sentence context
- Gap-fill in academic-paragraph extracts requiring word-family choices
- Word-family expansion task: from one verb root, write four sentences using different derived forms
- Full Answer Key plus Teacher Notes with FCE/CAE Use of English Part 3 extension
Common challenges: Spelling shifts trip up B2 learners — able → ability (drop e), responsible → responsibility (no e), happy → happiness (y → i). Stress shifts in spoken English: PHOtograph → phoTOGrapher → photoGRAPHic — stress migrates and learners need pronunciation practice. False friends within families: sensible → sensibility (Eng: rationality) vs Spanish sensibilidad (sensitivity).
For: Adult and teenage learners (14+) at CEFR B2, in upper-intermediate classes, 1:1 lessons, or self-study. Word-family precision is central to Cambridge B2 First (FCE) and C1 Advanced (CAE) Use of English. Part of the Word Building & Style collection — the natural next step is Synonyms and Antonyms Practice, which extends word-family work into semantic-network territory.
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