English suffixes you need to know

English suffixes you need to know Posted by Gabriele on Mar 7, 2013 in English Grammar, English Language

There are many, many different types of suffixes in English. Suffixes are letters added to the end of a word to give the word new meaning. Some of the most common suffixes in English are related to conjugating verbs, for example –ed is added to a word to show it is in the past tense (e.g. walk – walked). Another very common suffix is –s or –es, which is added to the end of words for plurals (e.g. dog – dogs).

There are many more suffixes in English though and some of these add more specific meaning to an already existing root word. Below I have listed a number of common suffixes you will surely see when reading almost any passage in English and which you likely already use, even if you haven’t thought about using them as suffixes in the past. Learning these suffixes is a great way to expand your vocabulary and learn how to dissect (or take apart) words to figure out their meaning.

Common suffixes:

suffix	meaning	example word	word meaning
-able,-ible	ability, capable of	edible	something that a person is able to eat
-ance	the state of	maintenance	the state of being in good repair or maintained
-ate	become	populate	to become filled with people
-dom	a place	kingdom	a place or area belonging to a king
-er, -or	a person who does a job	painter	a person who paints
-en	to become	enlighten	to become knowledgeable about spiritual ways
-esque	reminding you of	picturesque	reminding you of or looking like a picture
-ical	related to	musical	related to music
-ify	to make or become	nullify	to make void or invalid
-ish	have the quality of	babyish	acting or looking like a baby
-ism	a belief	Buddhism	the belief in the Buddha
-ist	a person who	chemist	a person who studies chemistry
-ment	the condition of	argument	being in the middle of arguing, the condition of arguing
-ness	state of being	heaviness	the state of being heavy
-y	characterized by	healthy	characterized by good health

Tags: suffix, suffixes

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About the Author: Gabriele

Hi there! I am one of Transparent Language's ESL bloggers. I am a 32-year-old native English speaker who was born and raised in the United States. I am living in Washington, DC now, but I have lived all over the US and also spent many years living and working abroad. I started teaching English as a second language in 2005 after completing a Master's in Applied Linguists and a Certificate in English Language Teaching to Adults' (CELTA). Since that time I have taught ESL in the United States at the community college and university level. I have also gone on to pursue my doctorate in psychology and now I also teach courses in psychology. I like to stay connected to ESL learners around the world through Transparent Languages ESL Blog. Please ask questions and leave comments on the blog and I will be sure to answer them.

Comments:

Nasser:

I have some issue with suffix like (ness). i just want to know how to get the correct meaning without reading whole passage.

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