Suffix

Learning a language is an art at its best form. If you are a native English speaker, then you would probably already know much about the language and its grammar. But if you are an English learner like so many others, then you will take in the language step by step.

In today’s article, I choose the topic suffix and would shed some light on what suffixes are. If native speakers take a walk down the memory lane to their elementary school English class, they will probably see an image of their elementary school English teacher giving a lecture on prefixes and suffixes. For everyone else, consider this a lecture on English at your elementary school.

Prefixes and suffixes are terms that refer to letters that appear before or after words and change their meanings. If you would like to know more about prefixes, then you should refer to my previous article on Prefixes.

Suffix

The term suffix refers to a single letter or a group of letters that are added at the end of a specific word of English language and they bring about change in the meaning of the original word.

In other words, a suffix is added to the end of a word and leads to the formation of a new word with a new meaning.

Example:

Use (original word)

Useful (new word)

See that both the words use and useful and very different meanings and the suffix full gave rise to a new word from an old one. Full changes the noun use to an adjective useful.  

Example:

Terminate (original word)

Termination (new word)

This example made use of the suffix ion to changes the meaning of the new word that is formed by the old one. Ion changes the verb terminate to noun termination.

When adding a suffix to a word make sure that you make the necessary modifications in its spellings. Notice that the –e at the end of both original words of the examples were omitted before adding the suffix and making a new word.

Some commonly used suffixes in English language include: