Do you know what a suffix or affix is? This article will provide you with all of the information you need on suffixes and affixes, including its definition, usage, example sentences, and more!
-
Kevin
-
November 16, 2021
-
Common Questions
Your writing, at its best
Compose bold, clear, mistake-free, writing with Grammarly's AI-powered writing assistant
What is a suffix and affix?
According to Collins English Dictionary, a suffix is a letter or group of letters that is added to the end of a word in order to form a different word, new word, or part of speech. Affixes are a general term for a set of letters generally added to the beginning or end of a root word or base word to modify its meaning and includes prefixes and suffixes.
A list of common suffixes is il, im, ify, ir, ial, ance, es, ent, est, ence, graph, ical, ation, fy, and more in English. A list of common prefixes includes vid, vis, para, sub, ex, wuto, micro, de, anti, mis, dis, re, and more. You can see suffixes on many words like internship, friendship and ownership, dancer, helper or volunteer, geology or biography, abandonment, revision, depth, or compulsion. You see prefixes on words like submarine, thermometer, biology, autobiography, tripod, intranet, ex-president, antifreeze, perimeter, subtitle, paramedic, tricycle, unicycle, bicycle, parachute, and more. These are often of Latin roots.
Many different languages also contain words that mean suffix. You may notice that some of these translations of suffix look and sound similar to one another. These are called cognates, which are words and phrases in different languages that likely have the same root or language of origin, causing them to sound the same. The below list of translations of suffix is provided by Word Sense.
- Asturian: sufixu (masc.)
- Latin: suffixum, affixum
- Galician: sufixo (masc.)
- Persian: پسوند (pasvand)
- Thai: ปัจจัย
- Georgian: სუფიქსი, ბოლოსართი
- Scottish Gaelic: iar-leasachan (masc.), iar-mhìr (masc.) (f)
- Swedish: suffix
- Polish: przyrostek (m-in)
- Maori: pīmuri, kūmuri
- Italian: suffisso (masc.)
- Japanese: 接尾辞 (せつびじ, setsubiji)
- Finnish: jälkiliite, takaliite, suffiksi, pääte
- Welsh: olddodiad (masc.)
- Nynorsk: suffiks (neut.)
- Catalan: sufix (masc.)
- Interlingua: suffixo
- Serbo-Croatian: sufiks (masc.), dometak (masc.)
- Icelandic: viðskeyti (neut.)
- French: suffixe (masc.)
- Mongolian: залгавар
- Crimean Tatar: suffiks
- German: Suffix (neut.) (Suffixum (neut.), Affix (neut.) (narrow sense), Affixum (neut.)), Postfix (neut.), Nachsilbe (fem.), Anhängsilbe (fem.)
- Romanian: sufix (neut.)
- Mandarin: 後綴, 后缀 (hòuzhuì), 尾綴, 尾缀 (wěizhuì)
- Armenian: վերջածանց
- Macedonian: на́ставка (fem.), су́фикс (masc.)
- Aragonese: sufixo (masc.)
- Latvian: piedēklis (masc.), sufikss (masc.)
- Bulgarian: суфи́кс (masc.), наста́вка (fem.)
- Spanish: sufijo (masc.)
- Ukrainian: су́фікс (masc.)
- Tamil: பின்னொட்டு
- Bokmål: suffiks (neut.)
- Czech: přípona (fem.)
- Arabic: لَاحِقَة (fem.)
- Ido: sufixo
- Portuguese: sufixo
- Tagalog: hulapi
- Russian: су́ффикс (masc.)
- Turkish: sonek
- Dutch: achtervoegsel (neut.), suffix (masc.), aanhangsel (neut.)
- Kazakh: жұрнақ
- Esperanto: sufikso
- Greek: επίθημα (neut.)
- Volapük: poyümot
- Belarusian: су́фікс (masc.)
What are examples of suffixes?
Suffixes can be used in many different contexts in the English language. Trying to use a word or grammatical technique in a sentence is one of the best ways to memorize what it is, but you can also try making flashcards or quizzes that test your knowledge. Try using this term of the day in a sentence today! Below are a couple of examples of suffixes that can help get you started incorporating this tool into your everyday use. Take a look at these suffix examples from Your Dictionary and see how many you can identify the suffix in!
- -y – made up of or characterized by
- -ary – of or relating to
- -ing – verb form/present participle of an action
- -ic – relating to
- -er – action or process, making an adjective comparative
- -wise – in relation to
- -ant – inclined to or tending to
- –ion – the action or process of
- -en – become
- -ist – person who does or thinks something
- -ed – past-tense version of a verb
- -ment – the action or result of
- -ity – the state or condition of
- -th – state or quality
- -ism – theory, act or belief
- -ious, -ous – having qualities of
- -tion – forms a noun
- -ly – in what manner something is being done
- -ize, -ise – to cause or to become
- -ee – individual does something
- -er – someone who performs an action
- -ship – position held
- -ive – quality or nature of
- -less – without something
- -al – pertaining to
- -or – a person who is something
- -eer – engaged in something, associated with something
- -ful – full of or notable of
- -able, -ible – capable of being
- -ness – a state or quality
- -ish – sort of
- -ward – in a certain direction
- -sion – state or being
What are other literary techniques and devices?
There are many different literary and grammatical techniques and devices that you might see when you are reading prose or poetry. It is important to recognize these terms because they are always used for some purpose. Knowing these devices can help readers understand the author’s deeper meaning and why they are using such a device. Take a look at the below list of grammatical devices from OED and see how many you know! Then try researching ones that are unfamiliar to you.
- feminine
- suffix
- object | direct object | indirect object
- main clause
- non-referential
- indirect object
- collective noun
- participial adjective
- relative
- dual
- cognate object
- indirect speech
- concrete
- progressive
- direct speech
- mass noun
- predicative
- person
- prepositional phrase
- accusative
- direct object
- indirect passive
- demonstrative
- superlative
- intensifier
- compound | compounding
- agree | agreement
- third-person
- article
- subjective
- attributive
- premodify | premodifier
- reflexive
- protasis
- indicative
- possessive pronoun
- apposition
- parasynthetic
- objective
- impersonal (impers.)
- anticipatory
- indirect question
- subjunctive
- possessive
- complementary
- copular verb | copula
- element
- unmarked genitive
- adverb (adv.)
- gender
- possessive adjective
- mood
- combination
- apodosis and protasis
- conditional
- transitive
- present participle
- abstract
- singular
- personal pronoun
- finite
- perfect
- cataphoric
- intransitive
- quasi-
- plural
- participle | past participle | present participle
- verbal noun
- count noun
- nominal relative | nominal relative clause
- absolute (absol.)
- periphrasis | periphrastic
- declarative
- locative
- noun (n.)
- direct question
- prepositional passive
- part of speech
- prefix
- construed (const., constr.)
- double object
- subject
- dative
- zero
- construction
- phrasal verb
- adjective
- adverbial | adverbially
- simple
- that-clause
- pleonasm | pleonastic
- nominative
- bare infinitive
- case
- collocation | collocate
- similative
Overall, a suffixes are added to the end of words to alter their meaning. Affixes include suffixes and prefixes.
Sources:
