What Is A Suffix

What is a suffix?

It is the bit that is added onto a base word for example ing, ed, ful, ly, ness to change it’s meaning.

Suffix rule 1
Doubling the final consonant.

When a singlesyllable word has one vowel (short vowel sound); before a single final consonant, double that consonant before adding the ending:

Example:
Shop shopping shopped
Swim swimming swimmerWin winning winner
Skip skipping skipped
Chop chopping chopped
Pin pinning pinned
Chat chatting chatter

You will notice that within all of these words the vowel is short.

Suffixrule 2
When a word ends in silent ‘e’ drop the e before adding the ending when the suffix begins with a vowel.

Example:
Hope Hoping hoped
Dive Diving diver
Crease Creasingcreased
Use Used using
Share sharing shared

Suffix rule 3
When a word ends in silent ‘e’ , keep the e if the ending (suffix) begins with a consonant, such as:

ly ness ful sless ment some ty

Keep the ‘e’ and just add the ending.

Example:
Hope hopes hopeful
Lone lonely lonesome
Age ages ageless
Tire tirelesstiresome
Like likely
Love lovely

Suffix rule 4
Words ending in ‘ce’ or ‘ge’ keep the ‘e’ or change it to ‘i’ to keep the ‘c’ or ‘g’ soft ( ‘s’, ‘j’ ) when it is followed by ‘a’or ‘o’.

Example:
Peace Peaceable
Notice noticeable
Manage manageable
Change changeable
Enlarge enlargeable
Charge chargeable
Advantage advantageousReplace replaceable

Note
We also keep the ‘e’ in the following words when adding ‘ing’, otherwise they would lose their middle /j/ sound:

Fringe fringeing
Singesingeing

Suffix rule 5
When a word ends in ‘y’, it usually changes to ‘i’ before adding the ending:

Example:
Baby babies
Copy copies
Happy happiness...