Word formation

As you've probably noticed, there are a lot of words in English that are in fact combinations of two or more words (bus stop, mother-in-law, passer-by), or combinations of words and prefixes (prehistoric) or suffixes (information). In this way you can make nouns from verbs (building) or adjectives (happiness), adjectives from nouns (successful), adverbs from adjectives (recently), or verbs from adjectives (brighten).

Some of the most common noun suffixes are:

• ness (darkness)

• ion / tion / sion / ation / ition (production)

• ty / ity (security)

ment (agreement)

er / or (driver)

Some of the most common adjective suffixes are:

• able / ible (comfortable)

• al (professional)

• ic (scientific)

• ive (creative)

• ful (hopeful)

• less (hopeless)

• ous (dangerous)

• y (sandy)

ly (friendly)

For a list of more examples, go here or here.

You can enrich your vocabulary here, here or here.