How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (2024)

by Phil Williams | Nov 3, 2015 | Vocabulary, Words | 43 comments

  1. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (1)

    Majedon April 23, 2016 at 14:04

    I want to learn english

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (2)

      Esraaon December 8, 2019 at 19:21

      It was very helpful text . Thanks

      Reply

      • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (3)

        Sathishon July 3, 2021 at 15:19

        Why “resistance ” is ending with ance instead of ence. Any rules for it ?

        Reply

        • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (4)

          Phil Williamson July 5, 2021 at 08:55

          Hi Sathish,

          I don’t believe there are any really useful rules for such spellings, as it’s just how the language has developed over time. With endings like -ence and -ance the vowel is generally unstressed, making it the unpronounced schwa sound, so as the spoken language doesn’t heavily dictate one sound or another, we get variations in written spelling. Often, indeed, it’s the way pronunciation has changed over time that influences how spellings evolve, so they’re not really rule-based developments.

          Phil

          Reply

          • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (5)

            Bella Franchescaon October 26, 2023 at 02:28

            Hi what is the difference of a adverb and a verb?

          • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (6)

            Phil Williamson October 27, 2023 at 08:39

            Hi Bella, I have a few articles discussing different word types under Parts of Speech, but probably a good place to start is the Word Order guide, which discusses them separately: https://englishlessonsbrighton.co.uk/word-order-english-sentences/

        • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (7)

          Johnnyon May 2, 2022 at 00:52

          Want simple answer? ……Resistant ends on -ant hence the noun formed ends with -ance

          Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (8)

      ELB Headmakeron September 11, 2020 at 17:34

      you are a pro at everthing you do

      Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (9)

      MD.sanaullaon April 15, 2021 at 15:16

      It is an authentic system for learning English.

      Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (10)

      malakon March 11, 2023 at 07:49

      phil,
      can you tell me the noun of these (kind, sweet, fun, forget, mind,)
      love,
      lily

      Reply

      • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (11)

        Phil Williamson March 21, 2023 at 09:04

        Hi Lily,

        Sorry I missed this, there are various options for some depending on the meaning, but for example kindness, sweetness, forgetfulness and mindfulness; but mind and fun are also nouns.

        Phil

        Reply

  2. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (13)

    Mery Huber-Ortegaon January 7, 2019 at 22:36

    I want to learn English
    nice material, thanks

    Reply

  3. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (14)

    Jwala singhon January 29, 2019 at 01:50

    Nice to see that

    Reply

  4. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (15)

    Nofaon April 3, 2019 at 16:30

    Are nouns sometime form by adding a suffix such as -ment or -Ness to a verb or adjective such as greedy or astonish?

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (16)

      Phil Williamson April 3, 2019 at 16:38

      Hi Nofa, yes, as you’ve identified, ‘astonishment’ is another example of a noun formed from a verb with -ment, and ‘greediness’ would be a noun formed from an adjective with -ness.

      Reply

  5. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (17)

    Lydiaon April 5, 2019 at 03:36

    How would you make alter a noun?

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (18)

      Phil Williamson April 7, 2019 at 15:51

      Hi Lydia, the examples under points 1 and 6 are for forming nouns from adjectives and other nouns. You can also often form nouns using the present participles of verbs, for example, “Running is a sport.”

      Reply

  6. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (19)

    Dy Vathon May 14, 2019 at 06:26

    it is very useful to study, so I have question to you explaint such. How to create the word that ending with -ive -tle -g

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (20)

      Phil Williamson May 15, 2019 at 13:34

      -ive is quite a common one for creating adjectives usually from verbs (to have the quality of the action):
      to act – active
      to create – creative

      But -tle and -g are much more general, ‘tle’ is quite a common consonant cluster that you can find at the end of many nouns and adjectives without necessarily containing a common meaning. -g is a letter that doesn’t contain a meaning on its own.

      Reply

      • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (21)

        Kennyon October 7, 2020 at 20:02

        How can u change adjective and verb to noun example
        Verb: Arrived, continue, submit, break, drain.
        Adjective: Free, real, safe, inferior, tender

        Reply

        • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (22)

          Phil Williamson October 8, 2020 at 16:16

          The verbs will use various suffixes, in your example -al (arrival), -tion/-sion (continuation, submission and -age (breakage, drainage).
          The adjectives use some examples from the article, e.g. 2. -ity for reality, inferiority, and just -ty for safety., or 1. -ness for tenderness. Free is a different one, using -dom, which is a suffix I don’t think I included in the article – freedom, also used in words like kingdom and wisdom.

          Reply

          • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (24)

            Phil Williamson September 8, 2021 at 09:18

            Hi Bharat,
            Sorry for the slow reply as I was away – “impressive” (striking in appearance) is connected to the noun “impression” (a perceived appearance).
            Phil

  7. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (25)

    Ahmedon September 19, 2020 at 16:00

    Can you tell my the noun of this words ?

    special,creative,original,funny,incredible,serious,delightful.

    Please

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (26)

      Phil Williamson September 20, 2020 at 11:08

      Hi Ahmed,

      If you use a good dictionary, when you look up each word you will find adv, noun, verb variations. The online ones do this now. This may be useful because there won’t just be one noun form for these, depending on your needs – for example ‘special’ can be a specialist, specialism or specialty. In other cases the noun is a bit different in meaning to the adjective, for example ‘fun’ is an enjoyable activity while ‘funny’ is amusing.
      Creative can be the same for a noun (as a person) or creativity.
      These are more simple:
      Original – originality
      Serious – seriousness
      Delightful – delight / delightfulness

      Reply

  8. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (27)

    Srion October 8, 2020 at 15:58

    Please tell me noun form of the words “deny”and”bury”

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (28)

      Phil Williamson October 8, 2020 at 16:19

      These both use the suffix -ial, denial and burial.

      Reply

  9. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (29)

    Evaon October 14, 2020 at 21:25

    when looking at the word chemical, what is the word formation process from the word chemical as an adjective to the word chemical as a noun

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (30)

      Phil Williamson October 15, 2020 at 11:48

      They are hom*onyms, i.e. the same word.

      Reply

  10. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (31)

    Lillianon November 11, 2020 at 14:38

    Ooooh so interesting

    Reply

  11. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (32)

    Shizukaon November 19, 2020 at 15:18

    Hi Phil,

    While your article is mainly on converting adjectives or verbs to nouns, I suppose the use of suffixes (i.e. the addition of group of letters to the end of a “root” word) also allows us to change nouns to adjectives/verbs as well as verbs to nouns/adjectives and so on/so forth, correct?

    Also, while I noticed that suffixes often allow us to convert adjectives/verbs to nouns, or verbs/nouns to adjectives, there appears to much fewer examples of nouns/adjectives to verbs. Would you be able to list a few examples of such cases (i.e. converting nouns/adjectives to verbs though the use of suffixes)?

    Thanks!

    Regards,
    Shizuka

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (33)

      Phil Williamson November 19, 2020 at 16:02

      Hi Shizuka,

      Absolutely, suffixes can change many different word types into other word types (and we can on occasion have chains where a verb created by from a noun then can form a different noun, for example).

      I suppose converting nouns and adjectives to verbs probably is less likely, as a lot of language for actions originates from behaviour rather than objects. Examples would most likely come from tool-related actions, though often these don’t use suffixes but rather the same word; e.g. to sail / a sail, to book / a book. I’ll have a think if I can get some other examples.

      Best,

      Phil

      Reply

  12. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (34)

    VIVAN X. WHITEHOODon April 27, 2021 at 08:24

    If you want to change a noun into an adjective in a sentence ,will the sentence change too.

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (35)

      Phil Williamson April 27, 2021 at 15:56

      Hi Vivan,

      This really depends – do you have a specific example in mind? But it is likely to change the sentence structure where the noun is a subject or the verb is active. With state verbs that use a noun as a complement, however, the structure of the sentence might stay the same, but it will still change the meaning. At the very least, you’ll have to pay attention to determiners.

      Phil

      Reply

  13. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (36)

    Yessieon May 7, 2021 at 03:19

    could you give us a complete list of this adjetives and nouns?

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (37)

      Phil Williamson May 7, 2021 at 14:28

      I’m afraid I don’t have one handy myself as there are a great many that can be made, but I will look into following this up with a bigger list of some sort.

      Reply

  14. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (38)

    Darlingtonon August 1, 2021 at 00:37

    How can we identify the correct suffix for a noun in adjectives that ends with ‘al’. Eg, infinitesimal, paternal etc. What suffix is proper to make it a noun?

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (39)

      Phil Williamson August 2, 2021 at 09:46

      Hi Darlington, I’m afraid to my knowledge there’s no simple rule to get to the noun there – except to say that actually you are removing a suffix rather than adding one (-al itself being a suffix).

      In many cases it may simply be the case of removing “-al” or the last two syllables when “-al” does not connect easily to the root noun (e.g. with infinitesimal, the root noun is “infinte” – “infiniteal” would not work, so “-simal” is added). But unfortunately not all such adjectives are taken from the most common noun forms, such as your other example, “paternal” – the root “pater” refers to a father but is not used in modern English; whereas with “parental” we do use the root in English, “parent”.

      Reply

  15. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (40)

    Abiha Hamidon September 12, 2022 at 21:30

    This is such an informative blog/article. Thank you Phil. You’re a good addition to this world.

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (41)

      Phil Williamson September 14, 2022 at 12:00

      Thanks, I’m glad it was helpful!

      Reply

  16. How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (42)

    Sasha K.on February 26, 2023 at 07:16

    Are there any suffixes in English that you can add to an adjective to make it mean “A person who is this adjective”? Like if someone is “big”, or “funny”, or “loquacious”, is there a noun they can be called derived from those words? Are there any linguistic terms for this sort of thing?

    Reply

    • How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (43)

      Phil Williamson February 27, 2023 at 09:29

      Hi Sasha, interesting question, I’m not sure of something specific off the topic of my head but I’d suggest that goes more into the area of compound nouns than suffixes; in that area, we could do this mostly using ‘man’ or ‘woman’ after something (or with more informal similar words like guy, gal, lad, lass, dude). So we do commonly say things like ‘big man’ or ‘funny man’ though not necessarily as one word (‘funnyman’ is one you may find has become more readily adopted, through frequent use). Otherwise we do have suffixes like ‘-ian’ or some specific ones like ‘-naut’ which refer to people doing a certain job/role, e.g. comedian, statistician, astronaut, but these generally relate to nouns rather than adjectives.

      Reply

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How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs - English Lessons Brighton (2024)

FAQs

How to use suffixes to create nouns from adjectives and verbs? ›

To turn some verbs into nouns, we can use the suffix -er, -ment or -ation. Drop the -e and add the suffix. Some adjectives can also become nouns with suffixes -ity or -ty. We can also use the suffixes -ist or -ism to make other nouns.

How do you convert nouns or adjectives into verbs using suffixes? ›

You can change nouns and adjectives into verbs by adding the suffixes -ate, -ise, and -ify. Remember, the usual spelling rules apply: For words ending in 'y' change to 'i' before adding the ending. For words ending in 'e' remove the 'e' before adding the ending.

What suffixes are used to change adjectives to nouns? ›

The suffix ness is used to change many adjectives (describing words) into nouns (naming words). If the adjective ends in 'y' then it needs to be changed to 'i' before ness is added. The suffix ity can also be used to change adjectives into nouns.

What suffix do you use to change a verb to a noun? ›

Add "-tion" or "-sion.".

The suffixes "-tion" and "-sion" are found at the end of many nouns. A wide variety of verbs turn into nouns with these suffixes.

How do you derive nouns from verbs using suffixes? ›

Derivational suffixes that change verbs into nouns In order to change verbs into nouns, the following derivational suffixes can be used: -al, -ure, -y, -ment, -ance/-ence, -sion/-tion/-ion, -or/-er/-ar/-ent.

Which uses of suffixes will create nouns? ›

The new word is most often a different word class from the original word. In the table above, the suffix -ful has changed verbs to adjectives, -ment, and -ion have changed verbs to nouns. If you see a word ending in -ment, for example, it is likely to be a noun (e.g. commitment, contentment).

How to convert verb to noun? ›

In order to convert a verb into a noun, you usually add the appropriate suffix. These suffixes range from a simple '-y', like in 'honesty', to more complicated ones like '-tion', like in 'sophistication'. Let's look at our options one by one: a) decision - This word is grammatically correct.

How do you make adjectives by using suffixes? ›

Suffixes like '-y' , '-able' , '-ous' , '-al' , '-ful' , '-ic' , '-less' , '-ing' and '-ive' can be added to verbs to form adjectives. Some examples of adjectives formed from verbs used in sentences: Switzerland is a very scenic place. Arvind is a very annoying person.

How to convert nouns and adjectives into verbs using suffixes? ›

You can change nouns and adjectives into verbs by adding the suffix –ise. Again, the root sometimes changes before the suffix is added. hypnotic + ise = hypnotise Example: Through adding the suffix -ise we have changed the adjective 'capital' into the verb 'capitalise'.

How do you form nouns from adjectives and verbs? ›

Add –ance or –ence to form nouns from adjectives or verbs

The suffix –ance (or –ence) can be added to either adjectives or verbs to form nouns. This is particularly used for adjectives ending in –ent or –ant (where the spelling changes to replace t with -ce) and various verbs.

Which suffix turns into a noun? ›

-tion and -sion: Suffixes that describe the action taking place changing the verb into a noun. Example: We can add the suffix -tion to the verb observe by dropping the -e creating the word observation. An observation is a noun, whereas observe is a verb.

How do you convert a verb into a noun and adjective? ›

A standard way to turn a verb into a noun is to add -ing to form a gerund. A standard way to turn a verb into an adjective is to add -ing to form a present participle. Another way is to use the past participle of a transitive verb to modify a noun.

What are the suffixes we use to make nouns? ›

Nouns. The most common prefixes used to form new nouns in academic English are: co- and sub-. The most common suffixes are: -tion, -ity, -er, -ness, -ism, -ment, -ant, -ship, -age, -ery.

What is a suffix that turns an adjective into a noun? ›

When you add "-ness" to an adjective, it becomes a noun. The suffix "-ness" means "state : condition : quality" and is used with an adjective to say something about the state, condition, or quality of being that adjective.

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