Page 23 - English Vocabulary In Use upper intermediet and advance

Suffixes

Suffixes can change the word-class and the meaning of the word.
Common noun suffixes

-er /a/ is used for the person who does an activity, e.g. writer, worker, shopper, teacher.
You can use -er with a wide range of verbs to make them into nouns.
Sometimes, the /a/ suffix is written assinstead of -er. It is worth making a special list of
these as you meet them, e.g. actor, operator, sailor, supervisor.
-er/-or are also used for things which do a particular job, e.g. pencil-sharpener, bottle-
opener, grater, projector.
-
-er and~an contrast with each other meaning 'person who does something.' (-er) and
'person who receives or experiences the action' (-ee), e.g. employer/employee,
sender/addressee,$ayee (e.g. of a cheque).
-
-(t)ion /J(a)n/ is used to make nouns from verbs.
complication pollution reduction alteration donation admission
-ist [person] and -ism [activity or ideology]: used for people's politics, beliefs and ideologies,
and sometimes tErofession (compare with -er/-or professions above),
e.g. Marxism, Buddhism, journalism, anarchist, physicist, terrorist.
-
-ist is also often used for people who play musical instruments, e.g. pianist, violinist, cellist.
-
-ness is used to make nouns from adjectives. Note what happens to adjectives that end in -y:
goodness, readiness, forgetfulness, happiness, sadness, weakness.
,
Adjective suffix
-
-able/-ible lab11 with verbs, means 'can be done'.
drinkable washable readable recognizable countable forgivable
Exampled with&edible (can be eaten) flexible (can be bent)

Verbs
-
-ise (or -ize_) makes verbs from adjectives, e.g. modernise, commercialise, industrialise.
Other suffixes that can help you recognise the word class
-ment: (nouns) excitement enjoyment replacement
-ity: (nouns) flexibility productivity scarcity
.
A
-hood: (abstract nouns esvecially family terms) childhood motherhood
P
-ship: (abstract nouns especially status) friendship partnership membership
-ive: (adjectives) passive productive active
-adjectives) brutal legal (nouns) refusal arrival
. .
-011s: (adjectives) delicious outrageous furious
-ful: (adjectives) forgetful hopeful useful
-(adjectives) useless harmless - cloudless
-
-ify: (verbs) beautify purify terrify
Note: the informal suffix -ish, which can be added to most common adjectives, ages and
times to make them less precise, e.g. She's thirtyish. He has reddish hair. Come about
eightish.

English Vocabulary in Use