BGC SenegalMaster the power of suffixes and elevate your vocabulary! Add an ending to the word to expand the meaning of each word and build your English language lexicon.
Suffixes are a powerful tool. With a few extra letters appended to the end of words you can make big changes to your communication!
Take the word “work” Suddenly it becomes “worker”, meaning someone who does the work. Add the suffix –er to the end of the word and you expand the meaning of the original verb.
By playing around with the ending of words you can make terms that speak volumes. There are a variety of suffixes that you can explore to see what meanings can be created.
Try adding “–able” to the end of” understand” to make “understandable” – meaning that someone can understand what they hear.
Or you can use the suffix “sanity” to turn “restore” into “restore sanity” – meaning to restore to a calm state.
Explore the power of suffixes and supercharge your vocabulary today! Many English language learners are discouraged by the size of the English vocabulary. With over one million words, understanding and learning the right ones for every context can be challenging. But, there’s an easier way to build a larger vocabulary: using suffixes.
A suffix is defined as a word element added to the end of a root or base word that changes the grammatical or semantic meaning of the word. Suffixes often come in groups, and they are a great way to quickly expand your English vocabulary.
When armed with a handful of the most common suffixes, you’ll be able to recognize unfamiliar words and even create new words using a previously known root. Let’s look at some of the most common suffixes and how they can be used to increase your vocabulary.
Beginning with the suffix -ion, it is used to create nouns from verbs. Most verbs ending in -ate are converted to nouns with the suffix -ation. For example “activate” becomes “activation”, “regulate” becomes ”regulation”, and “structure” becomes “structure.”
Another common suffix is -ize. It’s used to create verbs from nouns. For example, “nation” is converted to “nationalize”, “object” is converted to “objectize”, and “decision” is converted to “decisionalize”.
In the same way, the suffix -esque is used to create adjectives from nouns. Common examples are “Mona Lisa” becoming “Monalisan”, “Renaissance” becoming “Renaissanceque”, and “Africa” becoming “Africanesque.”
The suffix -ity is used to turn adjectives into nouns. For example, “black” becomes “blackity”, “vicious” becomes “viciousity”, and “juicy” becomes “juicity.”
Finally, the suffix -ment is used to create nouns from adjectives. Examples are “certain” turns into “certainment”, “true” turns into “truement”, and “obvious” turns into “obviousment.”
Using these suffixes, you can dramatically increase your English vocabulary and more accurately express yourself. Furthermore, you’ll gain confidence in the language as you know the means to create words to fit specific contexts. Most importantly, through familiarizing yourself with just a few suffixes and the effects they have on a root word, you’ll be able to rapidly expand your English vocabulary.
Feeling empowered yet? Looking for more ways to expand your vocabulary? No problem. You can make a killing on suffixes, and when you put them to use, your eloquence is sure to impress. So now get out there and start building a supercharged lexicon!