Suffixes

Try to think of words ending in ship, as friendship; in ling, as duckling; ful, as beautiful; less, as fearless; ly, as manly; in some, as gladsome; in ish, as boyish; in er or or, as flier, actor; and in ent or ant, as student, assistant. When you have thought of several words formed with each suffix, think what the suffix means.

It is easy .to find the force of a suffix by using it in several words. Thus, ness in goodness, freshness, fineness, greatness, means the state or quality of the adjective to which it is suffixed. In the ly that forms so many adverbs we have the word like worn down by much use to ly: cleverly is cleverlike; goodly is goodlike.

Some of these suffixes are old Saxon inflections that have been kept; as the en in oxen and in children is an old plural.

The th in truth, strength, wealth, is an old inflection. In such words as wisdom, freedom, the dom is an old Saxon word meaning judgment, so these words are old compounds.

Use each of the above suffixes in at least two sentences.

The suffixes here used are only a few of the many that are found in the language.

Make lists of prefixes and of suffixes as you find them in new words.

In consulting the dictionary, form the habit of studying the derivation of words. In this way you will soon come to recognize the stems, the prefixes, and suffixes, derived from the different languages.

Make lists of words using the stems and the prefixes already given.

When you have made all the words you can from any one stem, write ten sentences using one or more of the words in each sentence.