Common English Suffixes
The following information provides a list of suffixes which are common to the English language.
Suffixes are morphemes added to the end of a word to change its meaning or form a derivative. Common suffixes (word endings) are shown in the table below.
| Common Suffixes | ||
|---|---|---|
| -ant | -ise or -ize | -ful |
| -ent | -ist | -ness |
| -ible | -fy | -ism |
| -ing | -ly | -ment |
| -itis | -able | -ation |
Adding a suffix may change the spelling of the preceding word. If a word ends with Y, that is preceded by a consonant (e.g. happy, beauty), the Y changes to I.
- Happy > happiness
- Beauty > beautiful
But if Y is preceded by a vowel, then it remains. For example, ‘I envy your enjoyment of the situation.’ ‘It obviously caused you much merriment.’ If the original word ends in E, this is usually dropped. For example, ‘you are the most lovable but not at all sensible.’