This document summarizes common suffixes in the English language and their meanings. It discusses suffixes such as: -er, -or, -ist, and -ian which describe people and their occupations (e.g. teacher, actor, artist). It also discusses suffixes like -ation, -sion, -ion, and -tion which indicate an act or process (e.g. information, decision, creation). Additionally, it covers suffixes like -ary, -ery, -y, -ty, and -ity which indicate a state or condition (e.g. boundary, bribery, purity). The document provides numerous examples for each suffix discussed.

1. SUFFIXES

2. 1. -er, -or, -ist and -ian
These common noun suffixes, added to nouns or
verbs, describe people and their occupations.
Notice the common spelling changes: translate –
translator, economy – economist, psychology –
psychologist.
a. -er, for instance, dance – dancer, sing – singer,
teach – teacher, lead – leader, write – writer.
b. -or, for example, act – actor, direct – director,
operate – operator, sail – sailor
c. -ist, for instance, art (N) – artist, journal (N) –
journalist, dent (N) – dentist, piano (N) - pianist
d. -ian, for example, Canada (N) – Canadian,
physics (N) – physician, magic (N)- magician

3. 2. -ation, -sion, -ion and –tion mean
act of
• -ation
tempt – temptation (something that you want to do).
inform – information (giving someone facts)
administer – administration (the work of organizing or arranging the
operation of something.
organize – organization (an official group of people who work together
for the same purpose)
•
- sion
decide – decision , discuss – discussion, conclude – conclusion, admit –
admission, divide – division, explode – explosion.
•
-ion
delete – deletion, edit – edition, create – creation, elect – election, collect
– collection, execute – execution.
•
-tion
introduce – introduction, attend – attention, describe – description,
reduce – reduction

4. 3. –ary, -ery, -y, -ty, and –ity mean condition of
• -ary, -ery, -y
bound – boundary (a line that divides two
areas), bribe – bribery, deliver – delivery,
discover – discovery, injure – injury, recover –
recovery, rob – robbery
• -ty, -ity
pure – purity (the quality of being pure),
similar – similarity, safe – safety (being safe),
probable - probability, stupid – stupidity, clear
– clarity

5. 4. –ment means result of, act of
• manage – management, judge – judgment,
improve – improvement, agree – agreement,
encourage – encouragement, punish –
punishment, govern - government
5. –en means pertaining to, of the
nature of.
golden, wooden (made of wood)

6. 6. -able, -ible
These suffixes can form many adjectives from nouns or verbs:
enjoyable, comfortable, knowledgeable (knows a lot) adaptable,
forcible, manageable, understandable, noticeable.
Often, -able and –ible have the meaning “can be done.” For
example, something that is washable “can be washed.” Other
examples include: drinkable, comprehensible (can be
comprehended or understood).
Words ending with –able quite often express the opposite meaning
by adding the un-: undrinkable, unbreakable (cannot be broken),
uncomfortable.
Words ending with –ible add prefix in-: incomprehensible, inflexible
(somebody who is inflexible cannot change quickly or easily);
inedible (cannot be eaten)

7. 7. –ful and -less
• The suffix –ful often means “full of”; if you are careful,
you are full of care; if you are helpful, you are full of
help. Other examples are: painful (hurts a lot), useful,
and thoughtful (someone who is thoughtful is kind and
always thinks about others).
• The suffix –less means “without”: If you are careless,
you do something “without care.” Other examples are:
painless, useless (has no use or function), thoughtless,
hopeless, and homeless (with nowhere to live)
• Note: You can see that –ful and –less are often used
with the same words to form opposite. But this is not
always true: A person with a home is not “homeful.”

8. 8. –ous, -ious, -eous mean like, full of.
• Joyous (extremely happy), laborious (very
difficult and need a lot of effort), nauseous (if
you feel nauseous, you feel like you might
vomit), dangerous (if someone or something
is dangerous, they could harm you)
9. -y means in the manner of
sunny (behaving in a happy way), foggy (with
fog), dirty

9. 10. –dom means state, condition
dignity, office
• Freedom (state; when someone is no longer a
prisoner), boredom (when you are bored),
kingdom (a country with a king or a queen),
11. –ee means the object or receive of
action.
Employee, payee, refugee (someone who has
been forced to leave their country), testee,
examinee, referee

10. 12. –ize and –ise mean to make like or
affect with
• Minimize (to make the amount of something
that is unpleasant or not wanted as small as
possible), maximize (to increase something as
much as you can), economize ( to use less of
something because you want to save money),
generalize, itemise, (UK) (to list thing
separately, often including detail about each
thing), destabilise (UK) (to cause change in a
country or government so that it loses its
power and control)