Suffix

In linguistics, a suffix (also sometimes called a postfix or ending) is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Particularly in the study of Semitic languages, a suffix is called an afformative, as they can alter the form of the words to which they are fixed. In Indo-European studies, a distinction is made between suffixes and endings (see Proto-Indo-European root).

Suffixes can carry grammatical information (inflectional suffixes). (derivational suffixes). An inflectional suffix is sometimes called a desinence.

Some examples in European languages:


 * Girls, where the suffix -s marks the plural.
 * He makes, where suffix -s marks the third person singular present tense.
 * It closed, where the suffix -ed marks the past tense.
 * De beaux jours, where the suffix -x marks the plural.
 * Elle est passablement jolie, where the suffix -e marks the feminine form of the adjective.

Many synthetic languages—Czech, German, Finnish, Latin, Hungarian, Russian, Turkish, etc.—use a large number of endings.

Suffixes used in English frequently have Greek, French or Latin origins.

Inflectional suffixes
Inflection changes grammatical properties of a word within its syntactic category. In the example:
 * The weather forecaster said it would clear today, but it hasn't cleared at all.

the suffix -ed inflects the root-word clear to indicate past tense. Some inflectional suffixes in present day English:
 * -s third person singular present
 * -ed past tense
 * -ing progressive/continuous
 * -en past participle
 * -s plural
 * -en plural (irregular)
 * -er comparative
 * -est superlative
 * -n't negative

Derivational suffixes
In the example:
 * "The weather forecaster said it would be clear today, but I can't see clearly at all"

the suffix -ly modifies the root-word clear from an adjective into an adverb. Derivation can also form a semantically distinct word within the same syntactic category. In this example:
 * "The weather forecaster said it would be a clear day today, but I think it's more like clearish!"

the suffix -ish modifies the root-word clear, changing its meaning to "clear, but not very clear".

Some derivational suffixes in present day English:
 * -ian
 * -ize/-ise
 * -fy
 * -ly
 * -ful
 * -able/-ible
 * -hood
 * -ness
 * -less
 * -ism
 * -ment
 * -ist
 * -al
 * -ish