Meaning & use
adjective suffixes
Last updated
“adjective suffixes” is a form of “adjective suffix”.
Meaning
nounpluraltechnical
Word endings added to nouns, verbs or other words to make adjectives, such as -ful in helpful or -ous in dangerous.
Grammar: Plural of adjective suffix; the endings themselves are written with a hyphen, as in -ful.
Patterns
- add an adjective suffix to something
- form an adjective with a suffix
Adding -less is one of the adjective suffixes that turns hope into hopeless.
The teacher gave the class a list of adjective suffixes such as -able and -ish.
Learning adjective suffixes helps you guess the meaning of new words.
Word forms
| singular | adjective suffix |
|---|
Common combinations
- common adjective suffixes
- Common adjective suffixes include -ful and -ous.
- add adjective suffixes
- Add adjective suffixes to nouns to describe qualities.
- learn adjective suffixes
- Students learn adjective suffixes in grammar lessons.
- list of adjective suffixes
- She kept a list of adjective suffixes in her notebook.
- identify adjective suffixes
- Identify the adjective suffixes in these words.
Synonyms and how they differ
- word endings
- Word endings is a plain, everyday phrase and also covers endings that do not form adjectives.
- affixes
- Affixes is wider, since it also includes prefixes added at the start of words.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: adjective suffixes or adjective prefixes?
adjective suffixes vs adjective prefixes
A prefix goes at the start of a word, as in unhappy, while a suffix goes at the end, as in happily.
Practice
Which word is formed by adding an adjective suffix to a noun?
Choose one answer.
Hopeful is the noun hope plus the adjective suffix -ful. Hopefully is an adverb, and hoping and hoped are verb forms.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “adjective suffixes”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.