On today's review English Bites we're going to look back over the week's stories.


We're going to look at some language used in the stories, and today we're going to focus on suffixes that form nouns.

Let's start by looking at Monday's story about whether burning off in areas actually helps to prevent bush fires.



PAUL McCARTHY: Kieran Brewer has run a vegetation management business in the Mt Lofty Ranges for the past 15 years. He knows the local ecology inside out and accepts fire is a natural part of the environment. But he says prescribed burns are not always what the doctor ordered and, to demonstrate his theory, he took us to different sites to compare the effects of the burn.

KIERAN BREWER: What we're looking at on this side is the mid-storey, the golden wattle, in an area that was burnt about 10 years ago, and you can see that there's a proliferation of the golden wattle as a result of the fire, it's been stimulated by the fire; and on the other side there you can see a contrast of an area that hasn't been burnt for some time that in fact has very little of the golden wattle in it.

PAUL MCCARTHY: So we've actually got a greater fuel load where the burn-off has occurred?

KIERAN BREWER: I believe that's the case in this particular example here, that's for sure.

PAUL McCARTHY: So we've made the situation worse by burning off?

KIERAN BREWER: I think we have, yeah.



People have been burning to get rid of this old leaves and branches on the ground for many years, in the belief that it will stop uncontrolled bushfires.

But the man in this story doesn't believe that it's the answer.

They are visiting a site where one side has been burnt off, and the other side hasn't.

He says there's a proliferation of golden wattle in the burnt off area.

A proliferation is a sudden growth or increase in number.

The suffix -ion forms nouns from verb. It forms nouns that show an action or condition.

The verb is proliferate, the noun is proliferation. Notice that the 'e' is dropped.

It means the condition of something suddenly growing or increasing.

The speaker also uses the word stimulate. He says 'the area has been stimulated by the fire.'

To stimulate means to encourage to grow.

We can form a noun from stimulate. We drop the 'e' and add 'ion' to form the noun, stimulation.

A good way to learn new words is in word groups like this.

Depending on how the verb is spelt, the -ion suffix may need to change a bit, and you may need to add a variant of the suffix eg 'tion', 'ation', 'sion

So we have

Act, action

complete, completion

possess, possession.

and continue, continuation.

The variation of the suffix is to make the new words easier to say.

OK. Now let's look a another story - it's about a disease that's ruining the oyster farming industry on the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney. Listen for another 'ion' word.



SARAH SCHOFIELD: The Hawkesbury River used to be a hub of activity at low tide with oyster farmers, workers and their punts dotting the river's edge. But on this cold winter's morning, it's deserted.

IAN MACDONALD, PRIMARY INDUSTRIAL MINISTER: Once our scientists had evaluated the development of the QX disease within the oysters grown in the Hawkesbury, they came to the conclusion that we should close it down, which we did. This was to prevent any spread across the State, particularly into, say, Brisbane waters, which is an adjoining estuary.

ROB MOXHAM, OYSTER FARMER: A very small percentage of the oysters will survive it. That's if they've built up a resistance to QX. That's one that's in the process of dying. The parasite infects the gut and it starves the oyster and the oyster gradually gets poorer and poorer and poorer until it's just can't survive but it takes months and months to kill it.



He says they came to the conclusion that they should close the Hawesbury river to oyster farming.

We have the verb to conclude, and the noun conclusion. In this case, conclude drops both the e and the d.

There are many common verbs that take the -ion suffix -

declare and declaration

negotiate and negotiation

associate and association

Now watch the clip again. Listen for some other suffixes that form nouns.



IAN MACDONALD, PRIMARY INDUSTRIAL MINISTER: Once our scientists had evaluated the development of the QX disease within the oysters grown in the Hawkesbury, they came to the conclusion that we should close it down, which we did. This was to prevent any spread across the State, particularly into, say, Brisbane waters, which is an adjoining estuary.

ROB MOXHAM, OYSTER FARMER: A very small percentage of the oysters will survive it. That's if they've built up a resistance to QX. That's one that's in the process of dying. The parasite infects the gut and it starves the oyster and the oyster gradually gets poorer and poorer and poorer until it's just can't survive but it takes months and months to kill it.



We heard the words development, percentage and resistance.

The suffix -ment turns verbs into nouns as well.

It forms nouns that refer to an action or its result.

So we have to develop, development

disappoint, disappointment

refresh, refreshment

achieve, achievement,

manage, management,

Notice that the verbs don't drop an 'e', the base verb doesn't change it's form.

He also says percentage, from the word percent.

The suffix '-age' forms a number of different types of nouns. When added to nouns, it forms collection nouns or the names of places.

Leaf, leafage,

orphan, orphanage.

But when '-age' is added to verbs, it forms nouns that refer to the result of something.

block, blockage, shrink, shrinkage, waste wastage.

OK, now we're going to look at a clip from another of this week's stories. It's about the plastic that surrounds us in daily life.



JONATHAN HARLEY: In this consumer's paradise, polymers or plastics encase everything from TVs to PCs and fill out couches and mattresses.

Cheap mouldable strong or soft, polymers have been a modern wonder material. They're everywhere. And only now are we learning that they harbour a serious toxic threat.

On their own, plastics catch fire very easily. To stop that, they're treated with fire retardants. And those chemicals, thought to be safe and dormant, are where the problem is presenting.

DR MARIANN LLOYD-SMITH, COORDINATOR, NATIONAL TOXICS NETWORK: They basically contaminate every aspect of our life. We are living in a toxic home.

MICHAEL CATCHPOLE, CEO, PLASTICS & CHEMICALS INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION: Much of our technology today, whether it be computers or motor cars, or many other things, including many health products, would be much less safe in terms of fire safety without the use of flame retardants.



The plastics that surround us are treated with fire retardants.

-Ant is another noun forming suffix. It means the person or thing that performs or causes the action.

So to retard means to slow down. A retardant is something that slows a thing down.

A fire retardant slows down a fire, makes it stop burning.

We can have assist and assistant, serve and servant, irritate and irritant, disinfect, disinfectant.

And for more on all these noun suffixes, and some others we haven't looked at today, just go to our English Bites website. You'll find all this week's stories there as well.