suffixes

Suffixes and Parts of Speech

Learning something about how suffixes function in the English language can help you improve general reading comprehension; suffixes help you use context and etymological clues to make educated guesses about the meaning of unfamiliar words. Knowledge of parts of speech can be very useful in graduate and professional school entrance exams -- especially the GRE. This list is not exhaustive. Many important uffixes do not appear here (I will update the list from time to time). In addition, the functions I list do not cover all the possibilities for every suffix. I have tried to include those that are more common and/or more likely (in my experience) to appear on the GRE.
Note: The fourth column "Function or Characteristic Usage" indicates the part of speech (noun, verb, adjective, adverb) of words with this suffix. Notations with an arrow between two parts of speech (noun ® adjective) indicate that the suffix also functions to alter the part of speech to which a word belongs. An example would be the suffix ish, which may change a noun to an adjective. Thus, the fourth column will contain the following: noun ® adjective. useful information, because it alerts you to the existence of other (perhaps unfamiliar) forms of the word.