Adjective and Verb suffixes for B2

Adjective and Verb suffixes

Adjective suffixes

• -FUL: colour (n) - colourful (adj), success (n) - successful (adj)

• -LESS: home (n) - homeless (adj), use (n) - useless (adj)

• -ABLE: misery (n) - miserable (adj), inflate (v) - inflatable (adj)

• -Y: fun (n) - funny (adj), mess (n) - messy

• -OUS: poison (n) - poisonous (adj), mystery (n) - mysterious (adj)

• -AL: region (n) - regional (adj), accident (n) - accidental (adj)

• -IVE: cooperate (v) - cooperative (adj), support (v) - supportive (adj)

• -IBLE: sense (n) - sensible (adj), reverse (v) - reversible

• -ICAL: magic (n) - magical (adj), history (n) - historical (adj)

• -IC: athlete (n) - athletic (adj), base (n/v) - basic (adj)

• -LY: friend (n) - friendly (adj), day (n) - daily (adj)

• -ISH: fool (n) - foolish (adj), self (n) - selfish (adj)

Verb prefixes / suffixes

• EN: large (adj) - enlarge (v), trust (n) - entrust (v)

• IFY: simple (adj) - simplify (v), intense (adj) - intensify (v)

• ISE/IZE: private (adj) - privatise/privatize (v), critic (n) - criticise/criticize (v)

• EN: wide (adj) - widen (v), sweet (adj) - sweeten (v)

Negative prefixes

• UN: do (v) - undo (v), attractive (adj) - unattractive (adj)

• IN: complete (v/adj) - incomplete (adj), ability (n) - inability (n)

• IM: practical (adj) - impractical (adj), mature (adj) - immature (adj)

• DIS: agree (v) - disagree (v), honest (adj) - dishonest (adj)

• IR: regular (adj) - irregular (adj), rational (adj) - irrational (adj)

• IL: logical (adj) - illogical (adj), literate (adj) - illiterate (adj)

Special word formation changes

• deep (adj) - depth (n)

• high (adj) - height (n)

• long (adj) - length (n)

• strong (adj) - strength (n)

• warm (adj) - warmth (n)

• weigh (v) - weight (n)

• wide (adj) - width (n)

General spelling rules

• For adjectives ending in -y, change the y to an i (happy-happily)

• With suffixes beginning with a vowel (e.g. -ation, -able), drop the final e (prepare- preparation)

• For some words you need to make other spelling changes (e.g. freeze (v) - frozen (adj), repeat (v) - repetition (n), describe (v) -description (n), speak (v) - speech, see (v) -sight (n), give (v) - gift (n), believe (v) -belief (n), solve (v) - solution (n) , permit (v) -permission (n), save (v) - safety (n), prove (v) - proof (n), lose (v) - loss (n), choose (v) - choice (n), die (v) - dead (adj) - death (n)

​Let's check your instinct!