Suffix facts for kids

A suffix is a group of letters added to the end of a word. When you add a suffix, it often changes the word's meaning or its job in a sentence. For example, it can turn a verb into a noun or an adjective into an adverb.

Suffixes are a type of affix, which is a general term for letters added to words. They are very important in English because they help us create many different forms of words from a single base word.

What Are Suffixes?

Suffixes are like small building blocks that you attach to the end of a word. Think of the word "walk."

• If you add -ed to "walk," you get "walked." This tells you the action happened in the past.
• If you add -er to "walk," you get "walker." This tells you about a person who walks.
• If you add -ing to "walk," you get "walking." This shows an action happening right now.
• If you add -s to "walk," you get "walks." This is used when someone else walks, like "He walks."

These small changes make a big difference in how we use words!

How Suffixes Change Words

Suffixes can change a word in a few main ways:

Changing Word Type

One common way suffixes work is by changing a word from one type (like a verb) to another (like a noun or adjective).

• Verb to Noun:
  • -er (as in "teach" to "teacher")
  • -tion (as in "act" to "action")
• Adjective to Noun:
  • -ness (as in "kind" to "kindness")
• Noun to Adjective:
  • -ful (as in "beauty" to "beautiful")
• Verb to Adjective:
  • -able (as in "read" to "readable")

Changing Meaning or Tense

Suffixes can also adjust the meaning or show when something happened.

• Past Tense: The suffix -ed is used for regular verbs to show an action happened in the past, like "played" or "jumped."
• Comparing Things:
  • The suffix -er is used to compare two things, like "easier" (meaning more easy).
  • The suffix -est is used to compare three or more things, like "easiest" (meaning the most easy).
• Making Plurals: The suffix -s or -es is added to most nouns to show there is more than one, like "cats" or "boxes."

Suffixes vs. Prefixes

It's easy to get suffixes mixed up with prefixes, but they are different!

• A suffix goes at the end of a word.
• A prefix goes at the beginning of a word.

For example, "un-" in "unhappy" is a prefix. It changes the meaning of "happy" to its opposite. Both suffixes and prefixes are important for building new words and understanding language.