Love is a verb.
I love chocolate!
To turn it into an adjective we add ‘able’.
Love + able = loveable
Puppies and kittens are loveable animals!
’loveable’ is an adjective describing something which deserves love or is easy to love.
If you are unsure about parts of speech like ‘noun’, ‘verb’, ‘adjective’ etc, then this site can help you.
Exercise 1
Are These words Nouns, Adjectives or Verbs?
Click below to see our introduction to different suffixes.
- Agriculture (noun) + al = agricultural (adjective)
- Tradition (noun) + ally = traditionally (adverb)
- Create (verb) + ion = creation (noun)
- Rare (adjective) + ity = rarity = (noun)
- Enjoy (verb) + ment = enjoyment (noun)
A suffix can have a different effect on different words.
For example, Agriculture (noun) + al = agriculture (an adjective).
But refuse (verb) + al = refusal (noun).
So –al can turn a noun into an adjective, and turn a verb into a noun.
-ally can turn adjectives into adverbs.
-ion can turn adjectives and verbs into nouns.
-ity can turn adjectives into nouns.
-ment can turn verbs and adjectives into nouns.
Exercise 2
Add suffixes to the words in the brackets ()
1. | The wheel was one of the most important of our early history. (invent) |
2. | Some people say the of the economy is the most important issue in poorer countries. (develop) |
3. | More and more businesses these days are becoming friendly. (environment) |
4. | I love the architecture in southern Greece. (tradition) |
5. | Young people all around the world like to express their by dressing as they like and listening to pop music. (individual) |
6. | A teacher must always give clear or the students are likely to fail the task. (instruct) |
7. | There are many differences in accent and slang vocabulary of English spoken in the UK. (region) |
8. | The report was not received well as many scientists questioned the of the results. (valid) |
9. | The of the president’s own family members in the corruption case cause a huge scandal. (involve) |
10. | I would like to talk about the importance of fire safety at home. (specific) |
When you learn a new word in the future, think about whether it has a suffix, and how the suffix changes the meaning and use of the word.
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