There are words like overwhelming which spring to mind when thinking of word formation up, down, over and under. In reality, these words aren’t the most high-frequency things you’ll ever come across, but you’d better know them for the Advanced exam. There’s a decent chance these prefixes will pop up in a word formation exercise at C1 level. And even if they don’t, wouldn’t it be great to throw out some of this vocab and impress the examiner in the Speaking or Writing exam?
Contents
The materials
These materials introduce several words with our favourite prefixes through a short text about social media and advertising. Words with over and under are more common, but there are plenty of words with up and down also.
After discussing the text and extracting the words, you can brainstorm more words before checking the list for some ideas.
Finally, there’s an exam-style word formation task for you to complete, staying on the topic of social media.
To follow up, get students to write their own text with some words missing, then exchange with a partner and test each other. Or use our word formation conversation questions.
TOPIC: Social media
EXAM PART: Use of English
EXAM SKILLS: Vocabulary, use of affixation in word formation
TIME: 30 minutes
PREPARATION: One copy of the worksheet per student
Download
The list
Here’s a pretty compete list of words using word formation up, down, over, under prefixes. We think this a pretty solid selection, but there may be more that come up. As always with word formation, it’s pretty difficult to predict what’s going to end up in the exam on exam day.
up-
| ROOT | NOUN | VERB | ADJECTIVE |
|---|---|---|---|
| bring | upbringing | ||
| date | update | update | |
| grade | upgrade | upgrade | |
| hold | uphold | upheld | |
| keep | upkeep | ||
| load | upload | upload | |
| rise | uprising | ||
| set | upset | upset | upset / upsetting |
| stage | upstage | upstaged |
down-
| ROOT | NOUN | VERB | ADJECTIVE |
|---|---|---|---|
| fall | downfall | ||
| grade | downgrade | downgrade | |
| load | download | download | |
| play | downplay | ||
| pour | downpour | ||
| side | downside | ||
| size | downsize |
over-
| ROOT | NOUN | VERB | ADJECTIVE |
|---|---|---|---|
| abound | overabundance | overabundant | |
| achieve | overachiever (person) | overachieve | |
| come | overcome | ||
| complex | overcomplicate | overcomplicated | |
| do | overdo | overdone | |
| dose | overdose | overdose | |
| estimate | overestimation | overestimate | overestimated |
| expose | overexposure | overexpose | overexposed |
| flow | overflow | overflow | overflowing |
| load | overload | overloaded | |
| look | overlook | ||
| popular | overpopulation | overpopulated | |
| rate | overrate | overrated | |
| rule | overrule | ||
| run | overrun | ||
| see | oversight | oversee | |
| shadow | overshadow | ||
| take | overtake | overtaken | |
| throw | overthrow | overthrown | |
| whelm | overwhelm | overwhelming | |
| value | overvalue | overvalue |
under-
| ROOT | NOUN | VERB | ADJECTIVE |
|---|---|---|---|
| achieve | underachiever (person) | underachieve | |
| develop | underdeveloped | ||
| estimate | underestimation | underestimate | underestimated |
| go | undergo | ||
| line | underline | ||
| lie | underlie | underlying | |
| perform | underperform | ||
| rate | underrate | underrated | |
| state | understate | understated | |
| take | undertake | ||
| value | undervalue | undervalued |
