Page 25 - English Vocabulary in Use (Pre & Intermediate)

Adjective suffixes

Suffixes change word class, e.g. from verb to noun or noun to adjective, but they can also
change meaning (see sections B and C below).

Noun or verb + suffix
Noun or Verb Suffix Adjectives
danger, fame -ous dangerous, famous (= well-known)
music, politics -al musical, political, industrial,
industry, economics economical (= saves you money)
cloud, fog, sun, dirt -y cloudy, foggy, sunny, dirty (¥ clean)
attract, create -ive attractive (= pretty, nice to look at); creative (= able
to produce new ideas; with imagination)
Note: Sometimes there is a spelling change. Here are common examples:
double the consonant, e.g. sun/sunny, fog/foggy
leave out the final ‘e’, e.g. create/creative, fame/famous
leave out the final ‘s’ before ‘al’, e.g. politics/political; economics/economical
change ‘y’ to ‘i’ before ‘al’, e.g. industry/industrial

-able /abl/
This suffix (also -ible in some words) is used to form many adjectives from nouns or verbs:
enjoyable, comfortable, knowledgeable (= knows a lot), suitable (= right/correct for a
particular situation).
Quite often, -able (and -ible) has the meaning ‘can be done’. For example, something that is
washable ‘can be washed’. Other examples include:
drinkable, comprehensible (= can be comprehended or understood), reliable (= can be relied
on or trusted, e.g. a car or other machine that never goes wrong or breaks down).
Words ending -able quite often express the opposite meaning by adding the prefix un-:
undrinkable, unreliable, unbreakable (= cannot be broken), unsuitable, uncomfortable
Words ending -ible add the prefix in-:
incomprehensible, inflexible (somebody who is inflexible has a fixed idea about something
and cannot change quickly or easily; an inflexible timetable cannot be changed easily);
inedible (= cannot be eaten).

-ful and -less
The suffix -ful often means ‘full of + the meaning of the adjective: careful, you are full of
care; if you are helpful you are full of help. Other examples are: painful (= hurts a lot),
useful, and thoughtful (= someone who is thoughtful is kind and always thinks about
others; a thoughtful action shows care for others)
The suffix -less means ‘without’ + the meaning of the adjective: if you are careless, you do
something ‘without care’. Other examples are: painless, useless (= has no use or function)
thoughtless, jobless and homeless (= with nowhere to live)
Note: You can see that -ful and -less are often used with the same words to form opposites.
This is not always true: a person with a home is NOT hemefet.

22 English Vocabulary in Use (pre-intermediate & intermediate)