This document provides information about a Verbal Ability Lab course offered at an educational institution. The course aims to improve students' English language skills through topics like word formation, spelling, vocabulary, grammar, and writing. It will include exercises in these areas and aims to empower students' communication abilities and prepare them for professional environments. The course objectives, instruction details, topics to be covered, expected outcomes, and references are outlined.

1. Verbal Ability (VA) Lab.
Sl. No Topics
1 Word Formation
2 Spellings
3 Synonyms and Antonyms
4 Homonyms, Homophones and Homographs
5 Collocations
6 One Word Substitutes
7 Idiomatic Expressions
8 Phrasal Verbs
9 Verbal Analogy
10
Sentences (Grammar, Corrections, Improvement, Spotting of
Errors, Jumbled Words)
11 Paragraph Writing
12 Essay Writing
13 Business Letter Writing

2. Course Objectives:
1. Students will be trained to become proficient in word formation, spellings, and vocabulary
2. Students will develop linguistic competence through appropriate use of Idioms and
Phrasal verbs
3. Students will develop verbal reasoning through Verbal Analogy
4. Students will be trained to identify the common errors in English and write grammatically
correct sentences
5. Students will develop professional writing skills through business letters
• Instruction: 2 periods/week Sessional Marks : 30 Credits : 1
• End Examination Marks : 70 End Exam duration: 3 Hours

3. The students will be given exercises covering the following topics:
1. Word Formation 2. Spelling
3. Synonyms and Antonyms 4. Homonyms, Homophones and Homographs
5. Collocations 6. One-word substitutes
7. Idiomatic expressions 8. Phrasal Verbs
9. Verbal Analogy 10. Sentences (Rearranging jumbled words to make meaningful
sentences, Identifying errors in sentences, Correction of sentences, Improvement of sentences)
Writing Skills
11. Paragraph writing (different kinds of paragraph writing
12. Essay writing
13. Business Letter writing

4. Course Outcomes:
• CO 1: Students will be empowered in English language skills and meet the demands of the global
work environment
• CO 2: Students will have enriched vocabulary
• CO3: Students will be proficient in answering reasoning based questions
• CO4: Students will develop the ability to write grammatically correct sentences
• CO5: Students will enhance their professional writing skills through business letters
• References:
1. Objective English, Edgar Thorpe & Showick Thorpe, S.Chand & Co., 2011.
2. A Modern Approach to Verbal Reasoning, R. S. Aggarwal, S.Chand & Co., 2011.
3. Barron’s Essential Words for GRE, Philip Geer, Barron’s Educational Series, 2011.
4. How to prepare for Verbal Ability and Reading Comprehension for the CAT, Arun Sharma and Meenakshi Upadhyay, Tata McGraw-Hill, 2011.
5. Word Power Made Easy, Norman Lewis, Goyal publishers & Distributors, 2011.
• English Vocabulary in Use Advanced, Michael McCarthy, Cambridge University Press, 2008.

5. 1. Word Formation
• Vocabulary plays an important role in effective communication & enhances
confidence of the speaker/writer.
• A person who possesses great knowledge of vocabulary can be compared to one
who has a wide range of tools and technology to solve different problems
efficiently.
• A person with a depth in vocabulary, knows origin of words or root words,
becomes proficient in using prefixes, suffixes and feels comfortable to
communicate on any topic, group or circumstance.
• The person also becomes confident in using words in their various forms of parts
of speech.

6. Examples: -
1. The beginners of English language can be told that the ability to deal with a
difficulty is “overcome” while the advanced learners can be told that it is
“surmount”
2. Instead of saying “I can use English language to bring great effect”, one can say
“I can use English language effectively”
Importance:The importance of vocabulary for a student of engineering is
twofold; first, to prepare for Campus Placement & secondly to perform well in
his/her career.

7. Morpheme and Word Formation
• The smallest unit in a language is called a Morpheme.
• The difference between a word and morpheme number is that while a word may stand by itself a
morpheme may not.
• Every word comprises of one or morphemes.
• Broadly speaking Morphemes can be divided into Free or Bound.
• Free Morphemes can function as words whereas the Bound Morphemes appear as parts of words.
• Examples: Free Morphemes : freedom , teacher, talkative, cutter, intentional,
• Bound Morphemes: protest, discontent, receive, intolerable
• A morpheme should not be confused or understood to be prefix or suffix alone and can be words used in different situations.
• For example:The intelligent students worked hard for examinations.: The --- Article, Intelligent – Adjective, Students --- Noun,
Worked --- Verb, Hard --- Adjective, Examinations – Noun

8. 1. Conversion
• Conversion can be defined the derivation of a new word without any overt marking.
• In order to find cases of conversion we have to look for pairs of words that are derivationally related and are
completely identical in their phonetic realization.
• Such cases are not hard to find, and some are listed below:
1. the hammer to hammer
2. the bottle to bottle
3. the file to file
4. to call a call
5. to dump a dump
6. to guess a guess

9. 2. Truncation
• Truncation is a process in which the relationship between a derived word and its base is
expressed by the lack of phonetic material in the derived word.
• Examples:
1. Ron (¬ Aaron)
2. Condo (¬ condominium)
3. Liz (¬ Elizabeth)
4. demo (¬ demonstration)
5. Mike (¬ Michael)

10. 3. Blending
• Blending has often been described as a rather irregular phenomenon, but, as we will shortly see, we find a
surprising degree of regularity.
1. breath + analyzer = Breathalyzer
2. motor + hotel = Motel
3. breakfast + lunch = Brunch
4. information + entertainment= Infotainment
5. drama+ comedy = Dramedy

11. Word Formation Methods:
• In this module, we will learn vocabulary building through the following methods:
1. Root Words
2. Prefixes
3. Suffixes
4. Parts of Speech
• Root Words: As the name suggests, a Root Word is the most basic form of a word from which other words are formed. It does not have a prefix or a
suffix.
• A root word can be used to form different words by adding prefixes and suffixes. Different words can also be formed by combining two root words.
• Examples:
• Able – becomes Unable by a using a prefix – un
• Prefer – becomes Preferable by using a suffix – able (it is also an example of combining two roots words to form a new word)
• Two root words Bed and Room become Bedroom

12. Using Parts of Speech to build vocabulary:
Noun Verb Adjective Adverb
Beauty Beautify Beautiful Beautifully
Intelligence Intelligent Intelligently
Honesty Honest Honestly
Empathy Elaborate Enthusiastic Evasively
Glamour Gallop Glamorous Gallantly
Kindness Affectionate Lovely

13. Word Formation / Vocabulary Building
Prefix Meaning Examples
A, An Not, Without Anarchy, atrophy, asymmetrical, anesthetic
Ab Away, apart Abnormal, abdicate, absolve, absent, absorb
Able Ability, capable of Workable, understandable
Ac, Acr Sour, High, Sharp Acrobatics, acronym, acumen
Ad to, toward Advance, adventure, advertisement
Be Good Benefactor, benevolent, beneficent
Cede, ceed, cess Achieve, result, follow Succeed, precede, recede, proceed
Chron Time Chronometer, chronology, chronic
Contra Opposite Contradictory, contradiction, Contrary
De Move away, change, hold, stop Debar, detain, detach, destroy, demolish
Di Clear, away, measure Distinct, distance ,distract
Em To join, to be placed Emplane, embark
En To please Enthrall,
Ext Outside Exterior, External
Fa In support of Favourable, favour, favourite,
Ful Full of, complete Successful, eventful, meaningful
Ga Brave, speed, together Gallant, Gallop, Gather
Hyper High, Immense Hyperactive, Hypersensitive, Hyperbola
Ism System, method, quality, thinking Heroism, capitalism, optimism
Ject Matter, throw, Subject, inject, reject