Have you ever noticed that the ending of a word can change its meaning? Sometimes this is a simple change, like when ‘work’ (the activity) becomes ‘worker’ (the person who works).
But sometimes the change is bigger, like when you put ‘-ism’ at the end of ‘cube’ (i.e. a shape with six square sides) to make ‘Cubism’ (i.e. the artistic movement).
All of this is related to suffixes, which are a crucial part of the English language. As such, we thought it would be helpful to set out what suffixes are and how they’re used to create new words.
What Are Suffixes?
Suffixes are common word endings. Each suffix has a different use, so by adding or changing the suffix at the end of a word we can create a new term with a different meaning.
For instance, ‘-ful’ is a suffix that we see at the end of words like ‘helpful’, ‘wonderful’ and ‘beautiful’. This suffix means ‘full of’ or ‘characterised by’, so something ‘beautiful’ is full of beauty!
You can’t use every suffix with every word, though, so we can’t add ‘-ful’ to the term ‘happy’ to describe something that is characterised by happiness (although being ‘happiful’ sound good to us).
As a result, you should check any word you’re unsure about when adding a suffix.
Some Common Examples
We won’t try to list all of the suffixes in English here. However, we can offer you a few examples to show you the different ways they can work. Keep an eye out for words that end with the following:
|
Suffix |
Use/Meaning |
Examples |
|
-al (noun) |
Added to a verb to denote a process |
Arrive → Arrival Bury → Burial Recite → Recital |
|
-al (adjective) |
Added to nouns to mean ‘related to’ |
Emotion → Emotional Grammar → Grammatical Region → Regional |
|
-dom |
Indicates a place or state of being |
Bore → Boredom Free → Freedom King → Kingdom |
|
-ise/ize |
Used to form verbs, usually indicating a change of some kind |
Carbon → Carbonise Fossil → Fossilise Hospital → Hospitalise |
|
-ism |
Used to denote a set of beliefs (often a theory or practice, but sometimes discriminatory) |
Capital → Capitalism Sex → Sexism Social → Socialism |
Some words can’t be broken down as easily as those above. The word ‘organise’, for example, doesn’t mean ‘turn into an organ’ in the modern sense of ‘organ’ (e.g. a body part or instrument). The ‘-ise’ in ‘organise’ still indicates change, but the ‘organ’ part is related to the Latin word organum (i.e. a tool). So, to ‘organise’ something is to prepare it for a particular function or role!
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Spelling Changes
Keep in mind that the spelling of some words changes when adding a suffix. If a word usually ends in a ‘y’, for example, the ‘y’ will often change to an ‘i’ when you add a suffix (e.g. beauty → beautiful). And when a word usually ends in an ‘e’, the ‘e’ is sometimes dropped (e.g. love → loving).
But these rules are not universal. For instance, even though ‘change’ ends in an ‘e’, when we add the adjective suffix ‘-able’, it becomes ‘changeable’ (not ‘changable’). This, again, makes it important to check any word you’re unsure about (or have your work proofread) when adding a suffix.