Uploaded June 2019 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Multiply your vocabulary with this amazing lesson! Watch how four easy suffixes can form HUNDREDS of words! Improve your academic and professional vocabulary quickly and easily. A great lesson for TOEFL and IELTS success. Download the free resource page with hundreds of examples here: engvid.com/english-resource/vocabulary-suffixes-ful-fully-fulness-less-lessly-lessness All my Vocabulary Hack lessons teach you shortcuts to upgrade your English in smart ways. Watch more of Rebecca's famous VOCABULARY HACK lessons here:
1. Vocabulary Hack: Sound smarter and avoid mistakes: youtube.com/watch?v=rKsm3AZuuFE&t=0s&list=PLxSz4mPLHWDZgp8e6i0oyXOOrTAAaj0O7&index=28
2. Vocabulary Hack: Learn 30+ Verbs in 10 minutes! youtube.com/watch?v=WyF8qR-1JXA&t=0s&list=PLxSz4mPLHWDZgp8e6i0oyXOOrTAAaj0O7&index=62
3. Vocabulary Hack: 2 suffixes, 200+ words! youtube.com/watch?v=T4vJn7hdlI0&t=0s&list=PLxSz4mPLHWDZgp8e6i0oyXOOrTAAaj0O7&index=19
TRANSCRIPT
Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid, back with another vocabulary hack lesson. Now, what is a "hack"? A "hack" is a shortcut; a way for someone to learn to do something faster and more effectively. Okay? And that's what you're going to do here - you're going to take actually a system to expand your vocabulary, to multiply your vocabulary very easily and quickly.
The way we're going to do it today is by adding suffixes to nouns. Now, what does all that mean? Okay, so we're going to take a word. Our sample word here is "power". Now, "power" is a noun. To that, we're going to add a suffix. What's a "suffix"? A "suffix" is just a group of letters that you add to the end of a word to change the meaning. So, we have two suffixes, here: "ful" and "less". When we add "ful" to the end of the word "power", we get the new word: "powerful". And the suffix "f-u-l"-with only one "l", okay? Don't get fooled-it means "full of" whatever; in this case, full of power, but when we spell it, we add only one "l". Okay? So it becomes one word: "powerful". For example: "A powerful leader". Okay?
Or here's another suffix: "less". When this word is added... This suffix is added to the end of a word, it means without something. So, when we add it to "power", we get: "powerless", which means without power. This meant full of power; that means without power. Okay? Got it? So, we could have "a powerful leader" or "a powerless leader". Okay? We could be in "a powerful position" or "a powerless position". All right? Here we do write two "s'", but here remember only one "l".
Now, you can use these same suffixes to create hundreds of words. Okay? And that's what I'm going to show you here. Let's just look at some examples first. You could say, for example... Suppose we're talking about a message. It could be "a thoughtful message" or "a thoughtless message"; "a useful idea" or "a useless idea". Right? A mean-... We could say: "meaningful words" or "meaningless words". We could say: "These are harmful products" or "harmless products". "Harmful" - they cause harm, they do damage, they hurt you. Or "harmless" - they don't hurt you. Okay? So, you see the same pattern is being applied; the same rule - we're just adding "ful" or "less" to the end of a noun. All right?
Let's look at many more words now. All right? And let's go from here. So, for example, we could talk... We start with the nouns. Okay? We have five nouns. We're going to turn them into ten words. All right? So you're already multiplying your vocabulary. "A careful driver" or "a careless driver". "A powerful leader", as we said, or "a powerless leader".
"A fearful person" or "a fearless person". In this case, without... It's good to be fearless; "without fear" means that you are not afraid. And "to be fearful" means you are afraid. Okay? So, it doesn't mean that the word with "ful" is always the more positive or stronger word. Okay? You have to look at: What's the noun? If the noun is something positive, then when you're full of something positive, you're going to be stronger. But if the noun suggests a weakness, then when you're full of something you're going to be less strong. Okay? Let's continue.
Let's say you're talking about an operation: "A painful operation" or "a painless operation". "A helpful person" or "a helpless person". Okay? Did you get that? Did you see that just by taking some nouns and adding "ful" or "less", we've come up with adjectives now, and we've come up with not only one adjective per word, but two? So we've already multiplied our words from five to 10. Now let's see what happens next.
All right. Ready for some more magic? Here we go. So, we started with five words, five nouns, then we turned them into ten with the adjectives, now we're going to create adverbs from the same basic word. How do we create an adverb? Usually by adding "ly". Okay? So, we could say, for example: "He drove carefully." Right? Or: "He drove carelessly". […]
Multiply your vocabulary with this amazing lesson! Watch how four easy suffixes can form HUNDREDS of words! Improve your academic and professional vocabulary quickly and easily. A great lesson for TOEFL and IELTS success. Download the free resource page with hundreds of examples here: engvid.com/english-resource/vocabulary-suffixes-ful-fully-fulness-less-lessly-lessness All my Vocabulary Hack lessons teach you shortcuts to upgrade your English in smart ways. Watch more of Rebecca's famous VOCABULARY HACK lessons here:
1. Vocabulary Hack: Sound smarter and avoid mistakes: youtube.com/watch?v=rKsm3AZuuFE&t=0s&list=PLxSz4mPLHWDZgp8e6i0oyXOOrTAAaj0O7&index=28
2. Vocabulary Hack: Learn 30+ Verbs in 10 minutes! youtube.com/watch?v=WyF8qR-1JXA&t=0s&list=PLxSz4mPLHWDZgp8e6i0oyXOOrTAAaj0O7&index=62
3. Vocabulary Hack: 2 suffixes, 200+ words! youtube.com/watch?v=T4vJn7hdlI0&t=0s&list=PLxSz4mPLHWDZgp8e6i0oyXOOrTAAaj0O7&index=19
TRANSCRIPT
Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid, back with another vocabulary hack lesson. Now, what is a "hack"? A "hack" is a shortcut; a way for someone to learn to do something faster and more effectively. Okay? And that's what you're going to do here - you're going to take actually a system to expand your vocabulary, to multiply your vocabulary very easily and quickly.
The way we're going to do it today is by adding suffixes to nouns. Now, what does all that mean? Okay, so we're going to take a word. Our sample word here is "power". Now, "power" is a noun. To that, we're going to add a suffix. What's a "suffix"? A "suffix" is just a group of letters that you add to the end of a word to change the meaning. So, we have two suffixes, here: "ful" and "less". When we add "ful" to the end of the word "power", we get the new word: "powerful". And the suffix "f-u-l"-with only one "l", okay? Don't get fooled-it means "full of" whatever; in this case, full of power, but when we spell it, we add only one "l". Okay? So it becomes one word: "powerful". For example: "A powerful leader". Okay?
Or here's another suffix: "less". When this word is added... This suffix is added to the end of a word, it means without something. So, when we add it to "power", we get: "powerless", which means without power. This meant full of power; that means without power. Okay? Got it? So, we could have "a powerful leader" or "a powerless leader". Okay? We could be in "a powerful position" or "a powerless position". All right? Here we do write two "s'", but here remember only one "l".
Now, you can use these same suffixes to create hundreds of words. Okay? And that's what I'm going to show you here. Let's just look at some examples first. You could say, for example... Suppose we're talking about a message. It could be "a thoughtful message" or "a thoughtless message"; "a useful idea" or "a useless idea". Right? A mean-... We could say: "meaningful words" or "meaningless words". We could say: "These are harmful products" or "harmless products". "Harmful" - they cause harm, they do damage, they hurt you. Or "harmless" - they don't hurt you. Okay? So, you see the same pattern is being applied; the same rule - we're just adding "ful" or "less" to the end of a noun. All right?
Let's look at many more words now. All right? And let's go from here. So, for example, we could talk... We start with the nouns. Okay? We have five nouns. We're going to turn them into ten words. All right? So you're already multiplying your vocabulary. "A careful driver" or "a careless driver". "A powerful leader", as we said, or "a powerless leader".
"A fearful person" or "a fearless person". In this case, without... It's good to be fearless; "without fear" means that you are not afraid. And "to be fearful" means you are afraid. Okay? So, it doesn't mean that the word with "ful" is always the more positive or stronger word. Okay? You have to look at: What's the noun? If the noun is something positive, then when you're full of something positive, you're going to be stronger. But if the noun suggests a weakness, then when you're full of something you're going to be less strong. Okay? Let's continue.
Let's say you're talking about an operation: "A painful operation" or "a painless operation". "A helpful person" or "a helpless person". Okay? Did you get that? Did you see that just by taking some nouns and adding "ful" or "less", we've come up with adjectives now, and we've come up with not only one adjective per word, but two? So we've already multiplied our words from five to 10. Now let's see what happens next.
All right. Ready for some more magic? Here we go. So, we started with five words, five nouns, then we turned them into ten with the adjectives, now we're going to create adverbs from the same basic word. How do we create an adverb? Usually by adding "ly". Okay? So, we could say, for example: "He drove carefully." Right? Or: "He drove carelessly". […]
