List of Suffixes: 26 Important Suffixes in English for ESL Students

List of Suffixes!!! In this lesson, we learn the List of Suffixes in English with meaning for ESL Learners.

List of Suffixes with their Meaning

Below is a list of Suffixes plus meaning and examples you should know…

Noun Suffixes

1. -er

• Meaning: A person
• Words: helper, teacher, preacher, dancer (Jobs Vocabulary)

2. -or

• Meaning: A person who is something
• Words: distributor, investigator, translator, conductor

3. -ment

• Meaning: The action or result of
• Words: movement, retirement, abandonment, establishment

4. -ness

• Meaning: A state or quality
• Words: fondness, awareness, kindness, darkness

5. –ion

• Meaning: A process, state or result
• Words: decoration, celebration, opinion, decision, revision

6. –age

• Meaning: A process, action or result
• Words: wreckage, breakage, passage

7. –ance

• Meaning: An action or state
• Words: importance, hindrance, tenancy

8. -ee

• Meaning: A person
• Words: referee, assignee, grantee, lessee

9. -ence

• Meaning: An action or state
• Words: difference

10. –ery

• Meaning: A type or place of work
• Words: bakery

11. –ess

• Meaning: Makes a feminine form
• Words: waitress

12. -ism

• Meaning: A belief or condition
• Words: Judaism

Adjective Suffixes

1. -able

• Meaning: Able to be
• Words: inflatable, preventable, adaptable, predictable

2. -ant

• Meaning: Inclined to or tending to
• Words: vigilant, defiant, brilliant, reliant

3. -ful

• Meaning: Full of or notable of
• Words: grateful, beautiful (Pretty Synonyms), wonderful, fanciful

4. -ous

• Meaning: Having qualities of
• Words: joyous, humorous, fabulous

5. -less

• Meaning: Without
• Words: hopeless, faultless, fearless, restless

6. -ible

• Meaning: Ability
• Words: flexible, accessible, collapsible, credible

7. -like

• Meaning: Similar to, like
• Words: lifelike

8. -some

• Meaning: A tendency to
• Words: quarrelsome

9. -ish

• Meaning: A little
• Words: greenish

Verb Suffixes

1. -en

• Meaning: Become
• Words: soften, fasten, lengthen, strengthen

2. –ing

• Meaning: Verb form/present participle of an action
• Words: laughing, swimming, driving, writing

Adverb Suffixes

1. -ly

• Meaning: In a manner
• Words: quickly

2. -ward

• Meaning: Shows direction
• Words: forward

3. -ways

• Meaning: Shows direction
• Words: sideways

List of Suffixes in English | Infographic