Abjectives
ashion - FASHIONABLE
terror - TERRIBLE
creation - CREATIVE
obedience - OBEDIENT
history - HISTORICAL
beauty - BEAUTIFUL
possibility - POSSIBLE
imagination - IMAGINATIVE
wood - WOODEN
absence - ABSENT
prestige - PRESTIGIOUS
independence - INDEPENDENT
economy - ECONOMICAL
aggression- AGGRESSIVE
duration - DURABLE
danger - DANGEROUS
resistance - RESISTANT
gold - GOLDEN
courage - COURAGEOUS
access – ACCESSIBLE
happy - UNHAPPY
correct - INCORRECT
legible - ILLEGIBLE
pack - UNPACK
patient - IMPATIENT
regular - IRREGULAR
friendly - UNFRIENDLY
lock - UNLOCK
polite - IMPOLITE
visible - INVISIBLE
employed - UNEMPLOYED
agree - DISAGREE
legal - ILLEGAL
possible - IMPOSSIBLE
honest - DISHONEST
appear - DISAPPEAR
ob- also oc-, of-, blocking, against, obstruct, occult,
op- concealing offend, oppose
out- surpassing, outperform
exceeding
external, away from outbuilding, outboard
over- excessively, overconfident,
completely overburdened,
overjoyed
upper, outer, over, overcoat, overcast
above
peri- round, about perimeter
post- after in time or order postpone
pre- before in time, pre-adolescent,
place, order or prelude, precondition
importance
pro- favouring, in support pro-African
of
acting for proconsul
motion forwards or propulsion
away
before in time, place prologue
or order
re- again repaint, reappraise,
reawake
semi- half, partly semicircle, semi-
conscious
sub- also suc-, suf-, at a lower position submarine, subsoil
sug-, sup-, sur-,
sus-
lower in rank sub-lieutenant
nearly, sub-tropical
approximately
syn- also sym- in union, acting synchronize,
together symmetry
trans- across, beyond transnational,
transatlantic
into a different state translate
ultra- beyond ultraviolet, ultrasonic
extreme ultramicroscopic
un- not unacceptable, unreal,
unhappy, unmanned
reversal or unplug, unmask
cancellation of
action or state
under- beneath, below underarm,
undercarriage
lower in rank undersecretary
not enough underdeveloped
Suffixes
suffix is a group of letters placed at the end of a word to make
a new word. A suffix can make a new word in one of two ways:
1. inflectional (grammatical): for example, changing singular to plural
(dog → dogs), or changing present tense to past tense (walk →
walked). In this case, the basic meaning of the word does not
change.
2. derivational (the new word has a new meaning, "derived" from the
original word): for example, teach → teacher or care → careful
A suffix goes at the end of a word. A prefix goes at the beginning.
Inflectional suffixes
Inflectional suffixes do not change the meaning of the original word. So
in "Every day I walk to school" and "Yesterday I walked to school", the
words walk and walked have the same basic meaning. In "I have one
car" and "I have two cars", the basic meaning of the
words car and cars is exactly the same. In these cases, the suffix is
added simply for grammatical "correctness". Look at these examples:
example
suffix grammatical change original word suffixed word
-s plural dog dogs
-en plural (irregular) ox oxen
-s 3rd person singular present like he likes
example
-ed past tense work he worked
past participle he has worked
-en past participle (irregular) eat he has eaten
-ing continuous/progressive sleep he is sleeping
-er comparative big bigger
-est superlative big the biggest
Derivational suffixes
With derivational suffixes, the new word has a new meaning, and is
usually a different part of speech. But the new meaning is related to the
old meaning - it is "derived" from the old meaning.
We can add more than one suffix, as in this example:
derive (verb) + ation → derivation (noun) + al → derivational (adjective)
There are several hundred derivational suffixes. Here are some of the
more common ones:
suffix making example example
original word suffixed word
-ation nouns explore exploration
hesitate hesitation
-sion persuade persuasion
divide division
-er teach teacher
-cian music musician
-ess god goddess
-ness sad sadness
-al arrive arrival
-ary diction dictionary
-ment treat treatment
suffix making example example
original word suffixed word
-y jealous jealousy
victor victory
-al adjectives accident accidental
-ary imagine imaginary
-able tax taxable
-ly brother brotherly
-y ease easy
-ful sorrow sorrowful
forget forgetful
-ly adverbs helpful helpfully
-ize verbs terror terrorize
private privatize
suffix making example example
original word suffixed word
-ate hyphen hyphenate
Note that the suffix -er can convert almost any verb into the person or
thing performing the action of the verb. For example: a teacher is a
person who teaches, a lover loves, a killer kills, an observer observes, a
walker walks, a runner runs; a sprinkler is a thing that sprinkles, a
copier copies, a shredder shreds.
