how to spell: building words with suffixes - part 1

With love from howtospell.co.uk In this third video in the Building Words with Prefixes and Suffixes series we're looking at Building Words with Suffixes - part 1.
In this part we'll look at how suffixes change the meaning and grammar of words (and then in part 2 we'll look at suffixes in spelling rules.)

Can you remember what a suffix is ?

Suffixes are little words added to the end of a root word to change the meaning or grammar.
study + ing
electrician
writes
smallest

Let's look at suffixes that change the grammar not the meaning


Suffix Word with suffix
-s plural computers
-en plural (irregular) children
-s 3rd person present simple He/She/ It writes
-ed past tense /past participle (regular) walked
-en past participle fallen
-ing continuous/progressive studying
-er comparative adjective smaller
-est superlative adjective smallest
-ly adverbs slowly

2. Making verbs.
Some suffixes change a word to a verb (but the new meaning is related to the old meaning)

Suffix
-ise
or
-ize

modern
modernise / modernize

-en wide
widen

-ate participant - participate
-ify simple - simplify


3. We can make a noun that describes people, things or jobs:
-er teach - teacher
-or act - actor
-is art - artist
-cian electric - electrician
-ee employ - employee
-ant assist - assistant


4. We can make a noun or verb into an adjective
-al accident - accidental
-ary imagine - imaginary
-able tax - taxable
-ly love, friend - lovely, friendly
-y ease - easy
-ful beauty - beautiful (check the only use full when full video)
-ish self - selfish
-less use - useless
-ous fame - famous

5. We can make verbs and adjectives into nouns.

-ation

-ation imagine - imagination
-ment develop - development
-ness happy - happiness
-age bag - baggage

If you'd like to go deeper into spelling patterns then check out my Spelling Patterns and Pronunciation Masterclass howtospell-letterpatterns.co.uk/

Thanks for watching and listening