Word Families

A. Test your knowledge of words by choosing the correct option for each gap.
1. excite

excitement

exciting

excited

excitedly

Dont ______________ the children before bedtime, she said, but it was too late. They were
already ______________ . They ran to meet their father ______________ . Their father asked,
Whats all this ______________ about? Flying for the first time is so ______________, they
replied.
2. financed

finances

financial

financially

I was always good at managing my ______________ . My parents ______________ my

studies at university and now I work as a ______________ advisor for a bank. I give advice to
people who have suddenly become ______________ secure after winning the lottery.
3. succeed

success

successful

successfully

If you want to run a business ______________, you have to work hard. ______________
salesmen do not just wait for ______________ to arrive but take action to make sure they
______________.
4. offend

offence

offensive

offensively

Some people on holiday abroad speak very ______________ about the people and country
they are visiting and even seem to enjoy giving ______________. These ______________ people
really make me angry. When I go abroad, I always try not to ______________ the local people.
5. intended

intentions

intentional

intentionally

He ______________ to be early for the meeting, but his good ______________ were
worthless because he was involved in an accident on his way to the office. It seemed as if the other
driver had ______________ swerved into his car, although she denied it was ______________.
6. suspected (v)

suspect (n)

suspicion

suspicious

suspiciously

The police arrested the ______________ on Friday. They ______________ him of attacking a
stranger near his home. He admitted hitting the stranger, but explained he had been behaving
______________ and he had a ______________ that he was planning to rob his house. He said he
had seen the ______________ man watching his house for two weeks.

B. Now write sentences in the same way using as many words as possible from each of the
following word families. Use your dictionary to help.
1. satisfy

satisfaction

satisfying

satisfactory

satisfactorily

2. value (v)

value (n)

valuables

valuable

invaluable

3. invent

inventor

invention

inventive

inventively

4. possess

possessor

possession

possessive

possessively