Adjective suffixes: Noun or verb + suffix

Suffixes change word class, e.g. from verb to noun or noun to adjective, but they can also change meaning (see sections B and C below).

Noun or verb + suffix

Noun or Verb	Suffix	Adjectives
danger, fame	-ous	dangerous, famous (= well-known)
music, politics industry, economics	-al	musical, political, industrial, economical (= saves you money)
cloud, fog, sun, dirt	-y	cloudy, foggy, sunny, dirty (not clean)
attract, create	-ive	attractive (= pretty, nice to look at); creative (= ableto produce new ideas; with imagination)

Note: Sometimes there is a spelling change. Here are common examples:

double the consonant,

• sun/sunny,


• fog/foggy

leave out the final 'e',

• create/creative,


• fame/famous

leave out the final's' before 'al',

• politics/political;
  


• economics/economical

change 'y' to 'i' before 'al',

• industry/industrial

-able /abl/

This suffix (also -ible in some words) is used to form many adjectives from nouns or verbs:

• enjoyable
  


• comfortable
  


• knowledgeable (= knows a lot)
  


• suitable (= right/correct for a particular situation)

Quite often, -able (and -ible) has the meaning 'can be done'.

• Something that is washable 'can be washed'.
  


• drinkable


• comprehensible (= can be comprehended or understood)


• reliable (= can be relied on or trusted, e.g. a car or other machine that never goes wrong or breaks down).

Words ending -able quite often express the opposite meaning by adding the prefix un-:

• undrinkable


• unreliable


• unbreakable (= cannot be broken)


• unsuitable


• uncomfortable

Words ending -ible add the prefix in-:

• incomprehensible


• inflexible (somebody who is inflexible has a fixed idea about something and cannot change quickly or easily; an inflexible timetable cannot be changed easily)


• inedible (= cannot be eaten).

-ful and -less

The suffix -ful often means 'full of + the meaning of the adjective:

• careful, you are full of care


• if you are helpful you are full of help.


• painful (= hurts a lot)
  


• useful


• thoughtful (= someone who is thoughtful is kind and always thinks about others; a thoughtful action shows care for others)

The suffix -less means 'without' + the meaning of the adjective:

• if you are careless, you do something 'without care'.


• painless, useless (= has no use or function) thoughtless, jobless and homeless (= with nowhere to live)

Note: You can see that -ful and -less are often used with the same words to form opposites. This is not always true: a person with a home is NOT homcful.