FCE

Part 3 — Word Formation

8 questions · use the prompt word to form a derivative

What does Part 3 test?

Each line has a gap, and at the end of the line is a CAPITAL word. You must change that word to fit the gap — adding prefixes, suffixes, or changing the part of speech.

Length

~150 words

Questions

Time

~10 minutes

Skills tested

Suffixes, prefixes, conversion (noun ↔ verb ↔ adjective ↔ adverb)

Common transformations

Verb → Noun

decide → decision · arrive → arrival · achieve → achievement

Adjective → Noun

happy → happiness · safe → safety · weak → weakness

Noun → Adjective

beauty → beautiful · success → successful · economy → economic

Adjective → Adverb

quick → quickly · careful → carefully · good → well

Negative prefixes

happy → unhappy · possible → impossible · regular → irregular · responsible → irresponsible · agree → disagree

Other prefixes

understand → misunderstand · estimate → underestimate / overestimate

Strategy

Read the FULL sentence to know what part of speech is needed
Look BEFORE the gap (article? adverb?) and AFTER the gap (noun? preposition?)
Decide: noun? verb? adjective? adverb? Then form it
Check if it is positive or negative — many answers need a negative prefix
Check if it is plural (with -s) or singular
Spelling: double consonants (success → successful), drop -e (write → writer)

FCE Strategy: Always check the words around the gap (article, noun, preposition) before deciding what form you need. This eliminates half the difficulty.

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