BGC SenegalJourney into the wonderful world of suffixes and improve your wordplay skills! Suffixes, also known as word endings, are a great way to add extra meaning to words.
Let your adventure begin with a few of the most common suffixes:
-tion: adding the suffix ‘tion’ to a verb will often create a noun that describes the action of the verb, encouraged →encouragement
-ment: adding the suffix ‘ment’ to a verb will often create a noun that describes the action of the verb, participate →participation
-able: adding the suffix ‘able’ to a verb will often create an adjective that describes something capable of doing the action of the verb, regard →regardable
-ful: adding the suffix ‘ful’ to a noun will often create an adjective describing something that has the qualities of the original noun or verb, hope →hopeful
As you continue your voyage, you will discover many more interesting suffixes that you can use to enhance your writing and make your words stand out! Let the voyage begin! Improving your English vocabulary is an important part of learning the language. One great way to improve your vocabulary is to learn about the different types of suffixes and how they’re used in English words. A suffix is a letter or group of letters that are added to the end of a word to make a new word. Suffixes are often used to make new words from existing words and to give words different meanings.
Common Suffixes
Some of the most common suffixes in English are “-ed,” “-ing,” “-er,” and “-est,” all of which change the meaning of the base word. For example, “play” becomes “played” when “-ed” is added to it, indicating the past tense. “Teach” becomes “teacher” when “-er” is added to it, indicating the person who does the teaching. “Big” becomes “bigger” when “-er” is added to it, indicating a comparative form.
Word Families
When you know the meaning of a suffix, you can easily figure out the meaning of many other words. For example, when you know the meaning of “-tion”, you know that the words “formation,” “confirmation,” “interpretation,” and other words that end in “-tion” will all have something to do with action, process, or state. Knowing suffixes also helps you understand the relationships between different words. You can see that the word “accommodate” is related to “accommodation” because they both end with “-ate.”
Forming Adjectives, Nouns and Verbs
Suffixes are often used to make adjectives, nouns, and verbs from other words. For example, “-ful” is often used to make adjectives from nouns; the word “beauty” becomes the adjective “beautiful.” Similarly, nouns can be formed from verbs using “-ment,” as in the word “enjoyment” which is the noun form of the verb “enjoy.” “-ify” is often used to make verbs from other words, as in the word “classify” which is made up of the noun “class” plus the verb-forming suffix “-ify.”
Using Context Clues
When you try to figure out the meaning of a word that has a suffix, pay attention to its context. The suffix might tell you something about the word, but if you don’t understand the other words around it then you could be interpreting it incorrectly. The best way to understand a suffix is by reading a lot and paying attention to the words that appear with it.
Improving your English vocabulary with suffixes is a great way to become a better English speaker. Knowing how suffixes are used can help you figure out the meanings of words and make you an overall better communicator. Start by learning the most common suffixes and reading a variety of texts to gain an understanding of how they’re used. With practice and patience, you’ll soon find yourself speaking more eloquently in no time!
The power of prefixes, suffixes, and wordplay are truly endless, and with Vocabulary Voyage you can discover the fun of understanding how adding various letters to words can shape its meaning. Don’t just learn words, learn the adventure of words!