verb to noun; noun to adjective

[Arthurivan]

I had my first english teaching lesson this week and I stumbled across structures I could not easy explain.

Are there rules that explain how verbs can change into nouns?
For example,

verb noun(thing) noun(person) adjective
develop development developer developable
produce production producer productive
My students want to be able to make an educated guess of how a verb like 'invent' can become an adjective like 'innovative.' Is it cold mechanical memorization or is there a patterned rule?

[Mister Micawber]

Are there rules that explain how verbs can change into nouns?-- No, but certain suffixes are common (-tion, -ity, -ment, etc) and they carry certain meanings (-er = agent, -tion = process, etc). The same applies to adjectives: certain suffixes are adjectival: -able ('can do'), -ic ('like'), etc.

My students want to be able to make an educated guess of how a verb like 'invent' can become an adjective like 'innovative.' -- These are unrelated words, not derivatives.

Is it cold mechanical memorization or is there a patterned rule?-- It is mostly memorization, though you can often take educated guesses if you know the suffixes.

Read more HERE.
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Native English teacher at Mister Micawber's