Word formation - suffixes
Understanding the use and the meaning of some common (mostly Latin) suffixes increases your word building skills tremendously. Work your way through the introduction below, and then get more hands-on practice by using suffixes to see more examples and to form new words - | 1 | 2 | 3 |4| (Hover to see contents)
Suffixes and other word endings
Pay   payable payee payer payment payback paycheque payday paymaster payoff payout payroll payslip pay back pay cash pay claim pay cut pay envelope pay off pay out pay packet pay rate pay up pay-as-you-earn pay-as-you-go pay-per-view pay-phone
The word pay is both a verb and a noun: I want to pay my debt John wastes his pay on drink Using pay as a root, you can form new words in different ways. You can add a prefix, e.g. re-, as in repay, but here we want to concentrate on what you add to the end of the word. Above, you find four columns with examples. Let's take a look at the last three first. It is quite common that two or more words are joined together to form a new word. They are then usually written as one (compound) word.  Payback is a noun and pay back a verb phrase.  Both use "back" to modify the meaning of pay.  However, as you can see in the second last column, there are some new nouns that are written as two words. Which ones? Paypacket, pay-packet, or pay packet? It is difficult, even for native speakers, to know which compound words are written with a hyphen and which are written without a hyphen, and also when to use two separate words. There seems to be a trend towards writing compound nouns as one word. It'll be easier in a hundred years' time! Fo now, stick to these rules: Use hyphens in compound adjectives like ... Seven-year-old James died, but his sister survived a 14-storey fall. The new pay-as-you-earn tax system. Don't use hyphens in verb phrases ... pay back, pay cash, pay for, pay out, etc. If you are unsure about compound nouns, your best bet is to write them as one word; paypacket* * Search GOOGLE, and you will find that you get more hits for pay packet than for paypacket, but ... Don't spend too much time trying it sort out your hyphens! Use your time to sort out word classes (parts of speech) - nouns - verbs - adjectives.
Examples of productive suffixes
noun	verb	adjective		suffix
acceptance acceptability acceptor	accept	acceptant acceptable acceptive		-able -ance -ant -ity -ive
America American Americanism	Americanize	American		-an -ism -ize
attraction attractant attracter attractiveness attractor	attract	attractable attractive		-able -ant -er -ion -ive -ness -or
childhood		childish childless childly		-ish -hood -less -ly
creation creator criationist creativeness creativity creature	create	creative creationist		-ion -ist -ity -ive -ness -or -ure
crime criminal criminality criminology	criminalize	criminal		-al -ity -ize -ology
danger dangerousness	endanger	dangerous		en- (prefix) -ness -ous
dependant dependence	depend	dependent		-ant -ent -ence
economy	economize	economic economical		-ic -(ic)al -ize -y
electricity	electrify	electric		-ic -ify -ity
embarrassment	embarrass	embarrassing		-ing -ment
flexibility	flex	flexible		-ible -ity
hardness hardship	harden	hard hardy		-en -ness -y
harm	harm	harmful		-ful
length	lengthen	long lengthy		-en -y
paint painter painting	paint	paintable painterly painted		-able -ed -ing -ly
redness the red	redden	red reddish		-en -ish -ness
resistance	resist	resistant		-ance -ant
revolution	revolutionize	revolutionary		-ary -ion -ize
terminal terminality	terminate	terminal		-al -ate
water	water	watery		-y
woman womanizer	womanize	womanly		-ize -ly