A suffix is a type of affix that is placed at the end of a root word (or 'base') to change its meaning or grammatical function. Suffixes are essential as they help us to adapt words.

Suffix definition

Suffixes are often used to change the word class of a word. For example, we can change the adjective 'excited' to the adverb 'excitedly' using the suffix -ly. We can also create comparative and superlative forms of the adjective by attaching the suffixes -er or -est to a root word eg. 'fast' to 'faster' and 'fastest'.

Suffixes can also change a word to show plurality, eg. 'dog' (singular) to 'dogs' (plural), and tense eg. 'play' (present tense) to 'played' (past tense), and more.

Examples of Suffixes

Happy → Happily

An example of a suffix is the word ending -ly in happily. The -ly in happily refers to the manner in which an action is performed (in a happy way); the adjective 'happy' becomes the adverb 'happily'.

Smart → Smarter/Smartest

Other examples are the suffixes -er in 'smarter' and -est in 'smartest'. The suffixes -er and -est allow us to compare two or more things. Adding the suffix -er to the word 'smart' would make the adjective comparative (smarter), and adding -est to 'smart' makes it a superlative (smartest).

Let's take a further look at how suffixes can change the grammatical properties, word class, or meaning of their root words. We will talk about the use of suffixes with nouns, adjectives, verbs, and adverbs.

Fig 1. The river Nile is the longest river in the world

Suffixes in Nouns

A noun is a word that names something or someone. This can be a name of a person, place, animal, food, concept, or thing eg. 'Joe', 'carrot', 'dog', 'London' etc.

Here are examples of suffixes in nouns. Notice how each example derives from a root word (eg. 'kindness' has the root word of 'kind'):

Suffixes showing the plural

Here is an example of a suffix changing the grammatical properties of a noun:

• There was one balloon in the room.

Imagine another balloon is placed in the room. The noun ‘balloon’ must be altered in order to maintain the grammatical correctness of the sentence:

• There were two balloons in the room.

Here, the suffix -s is used to make the noun 'balloon' plural, 'balloons'. The suffix shows that there is more than one balloon.

Suffixes for agreement

The suffix -s isn't just used to show the plural. In Standard English, we have to add the suffix -s or -es to the base form of a regular verb when using the third person. For example, I wait → she waits or I watch → He watches.

Suffixes in Adjectives

An adjective is a word that describes a feature or quality of a noun, such as its colour, size, quantity etc.

Here are examples of suffixes in adjectives. Notice how each example derives from a root word (eg. 'beautiful' is from the root word 'beauty') :

Let's look at an example of the suffix -less changing the grammatical properties of the word 'fear'.

• The girl has no fear → The girl is fearless.

Here the suffix -less changes the noun 'fear' to the adjective 'fearless'. The suffix -less, therefore, shows that someone is without something.

Suffixes in Verbs

A verb is a word that expresses an action, event, feeling, or state of being.

Here are examples of suffixes in verbs. Notice how each example derives from its root word (eg. 'strengthen' comes from the root word 'strength') :

Suffixes showing tense

Suffixes can change the grammatical properties of a verb by indicating when an action was performed. Take a look at the following example:

• The man laughs at the pantomime.

The suffix -ed can be added to the root verb ‘laugh’ to indicate that the action occurred in the past:

• The man laughed at the pantomime.

We can also add the suffix -ing to the verb 'laugh' to show a continuous action:

• The man is laughing at the pantomime.

Suffixes in Adverbs

An adverb is a word that gives more detail about a word (often an adjective, verb, or another adverb).

Here are examples of suffixes in adverbs. Notice how each example derives from its root word (eg. 'excitedly' has the root word of 'excited') :

Let's look at an example:

• The woman shouted in an excited manner → The woman shouted excitedly.

Here, the suffix -ly changes the word 'excited' from an adjective to an adverb ('excitedly'). This helps to express the meaning of the sentence in a more concise way.

Derivational or Inflectional Suffixes

There are two types of suffixes in English - derivational suffixes and inflectional suffixes. Let's look at what they are along with some examples.

Inflectional Suffixes

Inflection is a process of changing the grammatical properties of a word. Inflectional suffixes are therefore suffixes that change the grammatical properties of words.

For example, when we add the suffix -ed to the root word ‘laugh’, the present tense ‘laugh’ becomes the past tense ‘laughed’.

What distinguishes inflectional suffixes from derivational suffixes is that adding an inflectional suffix to the root word does not change the syntactic category (or word class) of the word. In other words, if a word is a verb and has an inflectional suffix added to it, it cannot change word class eg. if we add the inflectional suffix -ing to the verb 'sleep', this can't then be made into an adverb ('sleepingly') as it won't make sense. In other words, we can only add one inflectional suffix at a time.

Below are examples of inflectional suffixes belonging to different syntactic categories:

NOUNS:

VERBS:

ADJECTIVES/ADVERBS:

As you can see, inflectional morphemes maintain the word class of a word. 'Flower' and 'flowers' both remain as nouns whilst 'jump' and 'jumped' remain as verbs.

Fig 2. The suffix '-ing' shows that planning is a current action

Derivational Suffixes

Derivational Suffixes create new words that ‘derive’ from the original root word.

Adding a derivational suffix to the root word often changes the syntactic category (or word class) of the word. For example, we can add the suffix -ation to the verb ‘derive’ to make it a noun ('derivation'). We can then add another suffix, -al, to make this word an adjective ('derivational')! These are examples of class-changing suffixes.

However, this is not always the case. The suffix -ist often maintains the root word’s syntactic category eg. 'classist' is a noun that is derivative of the noun 'class'. Another noun, 'pianist', is derivative of the noun 'piano'. The suffix -ist is an example of a class-maintaining suffix.

Here are some examples of both class-changing suffixes and class-maintaining suffixes:

Class Changing suffixes:

Class Maintaining suffixes:

The Importance of suffixes in English

Let's look at the place of suffixes in English and why they are so important.

Suffixes as morphemes

Suffixes and prefixes are types of affixes.

• An affix is a type of morpheme, which is the smallest unit of meaning.

• More specifically, it is a bound morpheme, a type of morpheme that has to be part of a larger expression. They attach (or 'bind') to a root word.

• Affixes are not words themselves, they must be attached to a root word to be used.

What are the benefits of using suffixes?

• Expands our vocabulary, helping to improve our overall language use.

• Helps to make a sentence more concise.

• Trains learners to construct/deconstruct words and alter a word’s grammar or syntactic category eg. learning to convert nouns to verbs, nouns to adjectives, adjectives to adverbs, etc., helps us to understand sentence construction.

• Can reveal a lot of extra information about a word, such as tense, word class, plurality, the meaning of the word as a whole, etc.

Suffixes are a big part of English grammar and an understanding of suffixes is essential for more varied language use.