Good morning, folks! Today we’re going to have a look at another affix. If you’ll remember from last time, an affix is a sound, letter, or a few letters that we add to a word to create a new word. Depending on where this information is added, you could end up with a word that means the opposite (in + flammable), a word that means a smaller version of the original word (micro + biology), or something even crazier. We’ll get to those soon.
Today I have another trip down memory lane for a lot of us. The other day I shared prefixes—an affix added before the word. The affix for today is:
suffix: an affix occurring at the end of a word, base, or phrase (Merriam-Webster)
Today I have a list of common English suffixes, their meanings, and some examples. Save it, cherish it, show it to your kids (or grandkids)! It’s fascinating stuff!
| Suffix | Meaning | Examples |
| -age | action/process | drainage
marriage salvage outage |
| -al | pertaining to | fictional
regional accidental logical |
| -ate | become | mediate
collaborate eradicate detonate |
| -ful | notable for | playful
hopeful skillful thankful |
| -ic/-cal | having the form | psychological
methodical hypocritical musical |
| -ious/-ous | characterized by | pious
jealous religious ridiculous |
| -ive | having the nature of | inquisitive
attentive informative active |
| -ity/-ty | quality of | validity
veracity security enormity |
| -less | without | meaningless
hopeless mindless spotless |
| -ly | related to, quality | softly
happily madly slowly |
| -ment | condition | enchantment
excitement argument encouragement |
| -ness | state of being | heaviness
sickness rudeness happiness |
| -ship | position held | friendship
internship citizenship membership |
| -sion/-tion | state of being | position
promotion affection ambition |
| -ward/-wards | direction | towards
afterwards backwards outwards |
| -wise | in relation to | otherwise
likewise clockwise crosswise |
Examples courtesy of 7ESL.
Capybara family, just for cuteness.
Kara Church | Technical Editor, Advisory | Knowledge Enablement
Pronouns: she/her | Call via Teams | jackhenry.com
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