• 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

Please open the exercise to continue.

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