Suffix is a word part added to the end of a word to indicate its part of speech

  • suffixes are "morphemes" (the smallest constituent part of a word)
  • most words that are changed by a suffix start as a verb or a noun, but are frequently the same as an adjective
  • note that verb conjugations may also "inflect" with a different ending
    • ex. verb "to address"
      • present participle "addressing"
      • past participle "addressed"
    • -ing and -ed are not suffixes
Verb Noun Adjective Adverb
  • address ("to address")
  • address (an address)
  • addressee
n/a n/a
  • object("to object")
  • object("an object")
  • objection
  • objective
  • objectifiable
  • objectionable
  • objectively
  • perfect ("to perfect")
  • perfecter
  • perfectibility
  • perfection
  • perfectionist
  • perfect
  • perfectible
  • perfective
  • perfectly

Suffix endings parts of speech

Verb Noun Adjective Adverb
-ate, -en, -fy, -ify, ise, -ize -al, -ance, -ant, -ard, -dom, -er, -ess, -hood, -ics,

-ism, -ion, -ite, -ive,

-kind, -like, -logy,

-lore, -ment, -ness, -old, -ology -or, -ship,

-sion, -tion -um

-able, -al, -ance, -ant,

-ence -ed, -esque, -er, -ful, -ible,

-ic, -ile, -ish, -ist, -ive, -less, -old, -ous, -y

-est, -ly, -ward,

-wise

irregular example:

fast instead of fastly