Suffixes · Year 3
A suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a word. It can change the meaning (hope → hopeless) or the word class (the adjective kind becomes the noun kindness or the adverb kindly). The word you start with is the root word.
Key facts
- -ful means full of and -less means without: careful, careless; helpful, helpless. Both make adjectives.
- -ness makes nouns from adjectives: dark → darkness, kind → kindness.
- -ment and -tion make nouns from verbs: enjoy → enjoyment, invent → invention.
- -ly makes adverbs from adjectives: quick → quickly. -er can make a person: teach → teacher.
- -ing and -ed change the form of a verb: jump → jumping, jump → jumped. -er and -est compare: fast → faster → fastest.