Parts of Speech and Suffixes

The Parts of Words: Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes

Words can be broken into two pieces: the root of the word, the part which conveys the meaning, and any potential affixes. You are probably more familiar with the name of the two different types of affixes in English: prefixes, which are added before the root of the word, and suffixes, which are added after the root of the word.

For example, in the word bicycles, bi- is the prefix, cycle is the root, and -s is the suffix.

Types of Suffixes

Inflectional

Inflectional suffixes do not change the part of speech of the word that they are added to. Instead, they fill a specific number of roles. In fact, there are only eight different inflectional suffixes in English. See the chart below to see those eight inflectional endings.

Suffix	Function	Example Sentence
-s	Noun Plural	Jeremy’s family owns ten bicycles. –
-s	Noun Possessive	Each bicycle’s wheels are a different color. –
-s	Verb Present Tense	Jeremy rides his bicycle, the one with purple wheels, every afternoon. –
-ed	Verb Past Tense	Yesterday, Jeremy wanted to bake instead of riding, but his sister baked his cake for him. –
-en	Verb Past Participle	Jeremy had beaten the eggs before he went for his ride. –
-ing	Verb Present Participle	That afternoon, he saw a turtle while riding. –
-er	Adjective Comparative	The turtle walked faster than Jeremy expected. –
-est	Adjective Superlative	In his family, Jeremy is the fastest rider.

Derivational

Unlike inflectional suffixes, derivational suffixes create new words when added to a word root. (They derive new words from the root word.) Often, derivational suffixes change a word’s part of speech. Derivational suffixes follow a specific pattern—certain kinds of suffixes, when added to one part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, or adverb), form a specific new part of speech. See below for key examples of those suffix patterns.

To Form Nouns:

Original Part of Speech	Derivational Ending	Change in Meaning	Example Word
Verb	-er	person or thing who does _____	teacher
Verb	-ment	condition of _____	argument
Verb	-ation	state of being/doing	admiration
Adjective	-ity or –ty	having the quality of _____	oddity
Adjective	-ness	state of being	darkness
Noun	-ist	person who promotes _____	communist
Noun	-ism	doctrine or belief	feminism

To Form Adjectives:

Original Part of Speech	Derivational Suffix	Change in Meaning	Example Word
Verb	-able	adds a sense of possibility	doable
Verb	-ed or -en	adds a sense of completion	risen
Verb	-ing	adds a sense of continuation	shining
Verb	-ious	characterized by _____	rebellious
Verb	-ive	characterized by _____	creative
Noun	-y	characterized by _____	dirty
Noun	-ic	pertaining to _____	atomic
Noun	-al	pertaining to _____	instrumental
Noun	-ical	pertaining to _____	biological
Noun	-ful	having the quality of _____	careful
Noun	-less	lacking the quality of	careless

To Form Verbs:

Original Part of Speech	Derivational Suffix	Change in Meaning	Example Word
Noun	-ize	becoming/making sth/so	standardize
Noun	-ify	making sth/so	personify
Adjective	-ize	becoming/making sth/so	normalize
Adjective	-ify	making sth/so	*purify*

To Form Adverbs:

Original Part of Speech	Derivational Suffix	Change in Meaning	Example Word
Adjective	-ly	describing how	slowly

Resources/Practice:

The resources below will help you practice the skills explained in this webpage, one per each section. The “Word Families Practice” is a worksheet in which you can practice adding both kinds of suffixes to root words, creating word families. The “Inflectional Suffixes Practice” is an online Flippity escape room in which you identify the word with a certain inflectional suffix in a sentence. The “Derivative Suffixes Practice” is an online Flippity manipulative in which you can add derivative suffixes and identify changes in speech.