Improve Your Vocabulary Easily: Add “-NESS”!

Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a

lesson on expanding your vocabulary by adding

a suffix. A suffix means a word that goes at the end or some letters that go at the

end of an existing word. So, the word here

or the letters are "ness", and what it does,

it means any adjective or some adjectives that

you already know, like "good". If you just add

"ness" to it, that adjective becomes a noun, an

abstract noun. Okay? So, "good" becomes "goodness".

So, maybe some of these words you will already

know anyway, but it's always worth thinking of

extra ones to expand your vocabulary and to

give you more flexibility when you're speaking

or writing. Okay? So, from the adjective on the left... In the left-hand column,

you add "ness" and you get an abstract noun. It

doesn't work for every adjective. You have to

know which one works and which one doesn't, but

you can always look it up to see if that word

exists. Okay? So, for example, with colours,

you know you can have "blue", "blueness", "red",

"redness", "black", "blackness", "white",

"whiteness". A lot of colours it will work with.

So, you just have to test them out to see if they work with the suffix "ness". Okay?

So, let's just go through the list and I'll give

you some examples of how each word might be used

in a sentence. So, we've got "good" and then

"goodness". So, "good" is the adjective and

"goodness" is the abstract noun. Okay? So, "goodness". "Goodness" is a good thing,

you could say. Or something like people say, "Oh,

goodness me!" as an expression. An exclamation,

if they're surprised about something, they say, "Oh, goodness me. Goodness me,

it's been raining a lot today." Anything like

that. Okay? It's a strange expression, really.

Why add "me" to "goodness"? "Goodness me"? It doesn't really make sense logically,

but it's just an expression. Okay. And then we

have "rich" and "richness". So, you could talk

about the richness of nature with all the trees,

and flowers, and animals, and the weather,

different weather, mountains, and fields. So,

the richness, the variety of nature. Okay.

"Sick", if you're sick, you're ill. So, "sick"

and "sickness". There has been a lot of sickness

around recently. There is more sickness in the winter, that kind of thing. Okay.

"Heavy", so "heavy" when something weighs a lot.

This time, you have to be careful if the word

ends with a letter "y", often you have to change

it to an "i" when you add "ness". So, "heavy",

and "heaviness". So, you can have a feeling

of heaviness. Okay? You could use it that way.

And then the opposite, "light" and "lightness",

you can have a feeling of lightness when you feel

as if you're about to float off into the air.

Okay. And "dizzy", if you're dizzy, your head is...

You feel you might fall over. Your head is sort of going round like this, dizzy.

You don't feel stable. So, "dizzy", again, the

"y" is replaced with an "i", and it's "dizziness".

So, you could say, "I have been suffering from

dizziness today." Okay? I think there's something

wrong. "Dizziness". Okay? And then "like", this

is an interesting one because this isn't really

an adjective itself, but when you put it with

"ness", it becomes a noun, so it's an exception,

really. But this is a useful word here, "likeness".

It's to do with if somebody paints a portrait or

draws a portrait of a person who you know

personally, and you can see... You can recognize

the person in the picture, then you say, "Oh,

that's a very good likeness of my friend. I

recognize who it is." You know, that's a very

clever drawing or painting. The artist, whoever

it was, has captured the way the person really

looks so that you do recognize them. So, it's a

very good likeness. Or maybe they haven't done

very well, so it's not a very good likeness.

It doesn't really look like that person. Okay? So that's a useful word there.

And then back to adjectives again. "Lazy", and

then the "y" changes to an "i". "Laziness".

So, you might say, "I don't approve of all

this laziness. Why are people being so lazy?

Laziness is such a bad thing." If you're being lazy every day, it's not good. Okay?

And then "shy", if somebody's shy. This time,

the "y" doesn't change. It stays as a letter "y".

"Shyness". So, if somebody's shy, they have a

problem with shyness, or they may be trying to

overcome their shyness. Okay? To be a little

bit more comfortable with people, and a bit more

chatty. "Shyness". Okay. And then finally, "happy".

Again, the "y" changes to "i". "Happiness".

So, in life we are all looking for happiness. That sort of thing. Okay?

So, okay. I hope that's been a useful lesson,

and do give it a try with some other adjectives,

and see what more new words you can add to your

vocabulary to give yourself more... More scope,

and more flexibility with your use of English.

And if you'd like to do a quiz on this topic,

go to the website, www.engvid.com, and there's

a quiz there. Test your knowledge. And thanks

for watching. Hope to see you again soon. Bye for now. Bye.