ACTIVE VOCABULARY | Word building
A suffix added to the base form of a word can often indicate what class of word it is.
To form nouns we commonly use.
•-ism (tourism)
• -dom (freedom)
•-ment (government, entertainment)
• -sion/tion/cion (conclusion, suspicion, population, organisation)
•-ice (practice).
•-ity (equality, brutality)
•-ness (weakness)
• -ance/ence (defence, reliance)
To form verbs we commonly use,
• -ate (complicate)
• -ify (clarify)
• -ise (victimise)
• -en (shorten)
• -ute (commute, persecute) or the base form of the word To form adjectives we commonly use,
• -able/ible ( comfortable, flexible)
• -al (formal)
• -ful (useful)
•-ive (productive)
• -less (homeless)
• -ous (nervous)
• -ory (contradictory) → or the past participle form.
