❖ Unit 1 ❖ Youth: Potential and Challenges ❖ Vocabulary ❖

Youth Traits & Qualities

This unit's vocabulary focuses on personality traits, youth qualities and the word-formation patterns (suffixes) that turn nouns into adjectives and vice versa. Mastering this vocabulary is essential for the writing task on describing a person and for the language section of the exam.

Core nouns of youth qualities

Each of the words below describes a quality or a characteristic often associated with young people. Learning the precise definition helps you both understand the comprehension text and use the right word in writing.

Word	Meaning
talent	Natural ability or skill.
audacity	The ability to take risks and do dangerous things; courage or bravery.
enthusiasm	A feeling of energetic interest in a subject or activity.
ambition	Willingness to achieve success.
vitality / vigour	Physical strength and health; activity or energy.
imagination	The ability to form pictures or new ideas in the mind.
innovation	The use of a new idea or method.
passion	Extreme wish or love for an activity, hobby, person.
adventure	An exciting or dangerous experience.

Personality adjectives

These adjectives are the building blocks of any portrait or description of a person. Memorise them with their meanings.

Adjective	Meaning
mature	Behaves like an adult.
reliable	Does what he promises to do.
punctual	Respects his time at school, work, appointments.
honest	Tells the truth, doesn't lie.
sociable	Friendly, enjoys being with others.
creative	Able to create new things or methods.
cooperative	Works well with other people.
ambitious	Wants to succeed.
self-confident	Believes in himself and his abilities.
energetic / active	Full of energy; always doing something.
gifted / talented	Has a natural ability for something.
optimistic	Looks on the good side of things.
pessimistic	Sees the negative side of things.
imaginative	Has a strong creative mind.
adventurous	Willing to take risks; enjoys new experiences.
stubborn / strong-headed	Refuses to change his mind; doesn't listen to advice.
careless	Doesn't pay attention; doesn't take precautions.
old-fashioned	Believes in old principles and traditions.

Word formation — suffixes

The National Exam often tests your ability to give the correct form of a word in brackets. Knowing the typical noun suffixes and adjective suffixes is essential.

Adjective suffixes

-ful: useful, careful
-less: careless, useless
-ous: famous, dangerous
-ive: creative, active
-tic: optimistic, energetic
-al: traditional, cultural
-ed: gifted, talented
-able / -ible: reliable, flexible
-ent / -ant: patient, tolerant

Noun suffixes

-ment: achievement
-ance / -ence: tolerance, patience
-tion: imagination, innovation
-cy: democracy
-ity: creativity, maturity
-ness: kindness, honesty
-ism: optimism, pessimism
-er / -or: teacher, actor

❖ Word families to memorise

imagination (n.) ↔ imaginative (adj.)
innovation (n.) ↔ innovative (adj.)
creativity (n.) ↔ creative (adj.)
maturity (n.) ↔ mature (adj.)
honesty (n.) ↔ honest (adj.)
reliability (n.) ↔ reliable (adj.)
flexibility (n.) ↔ flexible (adj.)
optimism / pessimism (n.) ↔ optimistic / pessimistic (adj.)
self-confidence (n.) ↔ self-confident (adj.)
success (n.) ↔ successful (adj.) — note the doubled "s"

Practice 1 — Definitions to words

Match each definition to the right word

Fill in the blank with the appropriate word from the list:

talent · vigour · passion · ambition · enthusiasm · audacity · vitality · adventure · innovation · imagination

Natural ability or skill: talent
The ability to take risks and do dangerous things: audacity
A feeling of energetic interest in a subject or activity: enthusiasm
Willingness to achieve success: ambition
Physical strength and health: vigour
The ability to form pictures in the mind: imagination
Courage or bravery: audacity / adventure
Activity or energy: vitality
The use of a new idea or method: innovation
Extreme wish for doing something: passion

Practice 2 — Adjectives in context

Fill in the blanks with the right adjective

From the list: cooperative · ambitious · adventurous · sociable · reliable · gifted · optimistic · imaginative · punctual · honest

Mehdi is a punctual student. He always goes to school on time.
A lot of people believe that Messi is a gifted football player.
The youths are usually adventurous. They can do risky and dangerous things.
Sara is a sociable girl. She enjoys being with other people and she can make friends easily.
When the students are assigned a team project, Nabil helps and works well with them. He is really cooperative.
My little brother is very ambitious. He wants to become a successful man.
People must be honest all the time. They have to tell the truth and never lie.
We have to be optimistic and look at the good side of things. Life is beautiful.
Nada is an imaginative student. She can write very wonderful stories.
Whenever I ask my friend for help, he never lets me down. He is really reliable.

Practice 3 — Word formation

Put the word between brackets in the correct form

Some people are (pessimism) pessimistic. They see only the negative side of things.
Youths are full of (energetic) energy. They move too much.
Some parents think that their children are (strong-head) strong-headed. They don't listen to their advice.
Everybody wants to live in a (democracy) democratic country.
Most students need only (self-confident) self-confidence to pass their exams.
If you want to be (success) successful, you must work hard.
A (skill) skillful / skilled driver never makes accidents.
We have a (creativity) creative teacher. He explains the lessons with good methods.
(Audacious) Audacity and adventure are the keys to success.
Tom says that his father is (old-fashion) old-fashioned. He still believes in old principles and traditions.

❖ Key Takeaways ❖

① Two fields of vocabulary

Memorise nouns of qualities (talent, ambition, vitality…) and personality adjectives (reliable, sociable, mature…). Both appear in the writing task and the language quiz.

② Word formation is testable

Always learn each word as a family: noun + adjective + opposite. The exam often asks for the correct form (creativity → creative, success → successful).

③ Suffix patterns are predictable

Adjective suffixes: -ful, -less, -ous, -ive, -tic, -al, -ed, -able. Noun suffixes: -tion, -ity, -ness, -ism, -ence/-ance. Recognising the pattern saves time in the exam.

❖ Exam tip

In the Language section (15 pts), one exercise always asks you to put the word in brackets in the correct form. This costs 2 to 4 points. To succeed, build a personal list of at least 30 word-families from each unit. Revise daily for 10 minutes.