We can form adjectives from nouns by adding the following suffixes .
-ous e.g fame – famous
-ive e.g aggression - aggressive
-ful e.g beauty – beautiful
-y e.g boss- bossy
-ly e.g friend – friendly
We can also form adjectives from nouns by adding –ing, -ed, -less
e.g. interest – interesting, talent – talented, care -careless.
We use the following suffixes to form adjectives from verbs.
-able e.g. love – loveable
-ive e.g. impress – impressive
We usually form adverbs by adding –ly to the adjective. (quick-quickly)
Adjectives ending in consonant + y drop the –y and take -ily (easy-easily)
Adjectives ending in –l take –ly (careful-carefully)
Adjectives ending in –ic usually take –ally (specific-specifically)
Adjectives ending in –le drop the –e and take –y (probable-probably)
Adjectives ending in –e take –ly (polite-politely BUT: true-truly)
We use the following prefixes to form opposites.
dis- (honest –dishonest)
il- (before l) (legal-illegal)
in- (dependent-independent)
im- (before m, p) (possible -impossible)
un- (happy-unhappy)
ir- (before r) (responsible –irresponsible)
BUT: realistic-unrealistic, reliable-unreliable, reasonable-unreasonable
Nouns referring to people
We can form nouns that refer to people by adding –er, -or, -ee to the verb.
Build- builder, sail-sailor, employ-employee
- Noun/verb/adjective + -ist (type-typist)
- Noun+ an/ian (music-musician)
- Verb + ant/ent (serve-servant)
We form nouns from adjectives by adding:
-ance e.g. arrogant-arrogance
-ence e.g. intelligent-intelligence
-ness e.g. polite-politeness
-ity e.g. active-activity
- ty e.g. cruel-cruelty
- y e.g. jealous-jealousy
We can form nouns from verbs by adding these suffixes.
-al propose-proposal
-ation relax-relaxation
-ion revise-revision
-ment agree-agreement
-sion decide-decision (verbs ending in –d/-t sound)
-tion describe-description
