Suffixes -less & -free

Catherine
Hello and welcome to 6 Minute Vocabulary. I’m Catherine…

Neil
And I’m Neil. Today we’re looking at the suffixes - less and - free.

Catherine Suffixes are two or three letters at the end of a word that affect its meaning.

Neil We’ll look at what the suffixes -free and -less mean and give you some examples…

Catherine There’ll be a quiz…

Neil …and we’ll leave you with a top tip for learning vocabulary.

Catherine Let’s start by listening to Markus. He’s a politician and he’s talking about his party’s policies.

Neil Right. So while you listen, think about this question: Do e-cigarettes produce smoke? Here’s Markus.

INSERT
Markus We’re focusing on the jobless , the homeless , the sick and the elderly - people who are powerless to change things for themselves. We’re campaigning for more car-free and smoke-free zones. We’re going to extend the smoking ban to include e-cigarettes, which may be smokeless , but they aren’t harmless , and we’re going to raise the penalties for careless drivers.

Catherine
So we asked you: Do e-cigarettes produce smoke?

Neil
And the answer is: No they don’t. E-cigarettes are smokeless .

Catherine And smokeless is a key word in this programme because it ends with the suffix less, spelt l-e-s-s. This means ‘without’.

Neil So smokeless cigarettes are cigarettes without smoke - they don’t produce any smoke.

Catherine And if something is harmless , it doesn’t cause harm. Markus said that e-cigarettes are not harmless . In other words, they are dangerous.

Neil Markus also said his party was going to raise penalties - or increase punishments - for careless drivers - people who drive without care.

Catherine Yes, careless means not being careful.

Neil So, by adding -less to the nouns smoke, harm and care, we turn them into adjectives. Let’s hear some more examples with -less .

INSERT Markus We’re focusing on the jobless , the homeless , the sick and the elderly - people who are powerless to change things for themselves.

Neil So we had the jobless …

Catherine That’s people without jobs…

Neil …the homeless …

Catherine …people who have nowhere to live. We can create a noun to describe a particular group of people, by using the word the with a ­ -less word. The jobless , the homeless .

Neil Lastly, we had the adjective powerless, which describes people who are unable to do certain things. If we add the , we get a group noun: the powerless .

Catherine Let’s have another clip. Listen out for the suffix -free.

INSERT Markus We’re campaigning for more car-free and smoke-free zones.

Neil We had car-free and smoke-free . Now if you add -free to a noun, you get an adjective, meaning that there isn’t any of that noun, or it’s not allowed, or both. Car-free means there are no cars because they’re not allowed. Smoke-free means smoking is not allowed and so there is no smoke.

IDENT
6 Minute Vocabulary from BBC Learning English.

Catherine And we’re talking about the suffixes - free and - less . And Neil how was your journey to work today; stress-free , I hope?

Neil No, actually, it was awful! I tried to use my contactless credit card to pay for the train, but it didn’t work, so I had to walk all the way…

Catherine Oh, won’t do you any harm, Neil.

Neil No. It’s good for me, I suppose.

Catherine It is. And contactless credit cards are the cards that work without a PIN number.

Neil Usually you use either - free or - less with a particular word. But occasionally you can use -free and - less interchangeably, as in sugarless and sugar-free. These both mean: without sugar.

Catherine But be very careful with the words careless and carefree because they have very different meanings.

Neil Yes, they do. A careless person is someone who doesn’t take much care over what they’re doing…

Catherine …whereas a carefree person like you, Neil, doesn’t worry about anything.

Neil No, I don’t worry about a thing.

Catherine Now, it’s time for a quiz. Choose the correct word. Ready? Number one: Jack looks scary, but he’s actually very kind and gentle. He’s a) careless b) harmless c) powerless.

Neil And the answer is b) harmless .

Catherine Number two. Dalya doesn’t check her work properly so she makes lots of mistakes. She’s very a) careless b) carefree c) contactless.

Neil And the answer is a) careless .

Catherine Number three: To cut the risk of cancer, some people smoke e-cigarettes which are a) smokeless b) smokeless-free c) smoke-free.

Neil And the answer is a) smokeless.

Catherine
And that’s the end of the quiz. Well done if you got them right.

Neil
And now, here’s today’s top tip for learning vocabulary: record yourself saying new words and then listen to them every day.

Catherine Top tip. And there’s more about this at bbclearningenglish.com. Join us again for more 6 Minute Vocabulary.

Both
Bye!