Level 4 Affixes

Question 1

-al

Examples: national, personal, natural, educational.

Answer 1

Function: Makes adjectives from nouns.

Example:
- Parent (Noun): a person’s father or mother.
- Parental (Adj): connected with a parent or parents.

E.g.: The school requires parental permission for field trips.

Question 2

-ation

Examples: information, conversation, exaplanation, imagination

Answer 2

Function: Makes nouns from verbs.

Example:
- Continue (Verb): to keep happening without stopping.
- Continuation (Noun): An act or the state of continuing.

E.g.: This year saw a continuation in the upward trend in sales.

Question 3

-ess

Examples: princess, actress, goddess, manageress, lioness.

Answer 3

Meaning: Making ‘female nouns’

Example:
- Waiter > Waitress.

E.g.: I was working as a waitress.

Question 4

-ful

Examples: beautiful, wonderful, careful, useful, powerful.

Answer 4

Function: Makes adjectives from nouns.
Meaning: Adding the meaning “full of” to the nouns

Example:
- Hope (Noun): a feeling of wanting something to happen.
- Hopeful (Adj): Full of hope for something to happen.

E.g.: I feel hopeful that we’ll find a suitable house soon.

Question 5

-ism

Examples: nationalism, realism, tourism, perfectionism

Answer 5

Meaning: makes nouns, describing a way of thinking or belief.

Example:
- Critic (Noun): a person who expresses opinions about the good and bad qualities of something.
- Criticism (Noun): the act of expressing disapproval of somebody/something.

E.g.: Ben is very sensitive, he just can’t take criticism.

Question 6

-ist

Examples: artist, specialist, centrist, naturalist

Answer 6

Meaning: makes nouns, describing a person with a particular belief or job

Example:
- Perfection (Noun): The state of being perfect.
- Perfectionist (Noun): A person who likes to do things perfectly.

E.g.: He was a perfectionist in his art.

Question 7

-ity

Examples: security, responsibility, ability, possibility, reality.

Answer 7

Function: Makes nouns from adjectives.

Example:
- Suitable (Adj): Right or appropriate for a particular purpose or occasion.
- Suitability (Noun): The quality of being right or appropriate for a particular purpose or occasion

E.g.: There is no doubt about her suitability for the job.

Question 8

-ize

Examples: specialize, generalize, localize, hospitalize,

(British English also -ise)

Answer 8

Function: Makes verbs from nouns.

Example:
- Summary (Noun): a short statement that gives only the main points of something.
- Summarize (Verb): to give a summary of something.

E.g.: The students are asked to summarise the story.

Question 9

-ment

Examples: government, management, employment, agreement, movement

Answer 9

Meaning: Makes nouns from verbs.

Example:
- Enjoy (Verb): to get pleasure from something.
- Enjoyment (Noun): the pleasure that you get from something.

E.g.: I get a lot of enjoyment from my grandchildren.

Question 10

-ous:

Examples: dangerous, continuous, spacious, mountainous

Answer 10

Meaning: Makes adjectives from nouns.

Example:
- Fame (Noun): the state of being known by many people.
- Famous (Adj): known about by many people.

E.g.: Tiger Woods is one of the most famous names in golf.

Question 11

in-, im-, il-, ir-

Examples: inability, impossible, illegal, irregular

Answer 11

Meaning: Negative.

Example:
- Expensive -> inexpensive (not expensive);
- Perfect -> imperfect (not perfect);
- Logical -> illogical (not logical);
- Relevant -> irrelevant (not relevant).