- Suffixes are endings that appear on many words. They show meaning, such as part of speech.
- Students often study prefixes and suffixes to help them with vocabulary. For example, “-ly” suffixes are usually used for adverbs.
- However, understanding suffixes can also help students with spelling, listening, and pronunciation. Suffixes usually don’t follow regular pronunciation rules. Instead, they have different (but regular) pronunciation patterns.
Common suffixes
| -tion | nation, caption, information (used for nouns) |
“shun” |
| -sion | passion, television, evasion (used for nouns) |
“shun” or “zhun” |
| -cian | musician, beautician, physician (used for jobs) |
“shun” |
| -ture | picture, nature, rapture (used for nouns) |
“chur” |
| -tive | native, captive, furtive (used for adjectives or nouns) |
“tiv” |
| -ly | quickly, suddenly, occasionally (used for adverbs) |
“lee” |
| -al, -cal, -mal, -dal, -ral, etc. | local, normal, sandal, funeral (used for adjectives or nouns) |
“ull”, “kull”, “mull”, “dull”, “rull”, etc. |
| -le, -ble, -ple, -gle -kle, -dle, -tle, etc. | table, apple, bugle, ankle, cradle, mantle (used for nouns, verbs or adjectives) |
“ull”, “bull”, “pull”, “gull”, “kull”, “dull”, “tull”, etc. |
Exercise
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