English Word Formation: Noun, Adjective & Verb Suffixes with Prefixes and Common Collocations
Noun and Adjective Suffixes
Nouns from Adjectives
-ance: abundant → abundance; elegant → elegance; important → importance
-cy: deficient → deficiency; fluent → fluency; decent → decency
-ence: violent → violence; resident → residence; present → presence
-ity: creative → creativity; secure → security; productive → productivity
-ness: happy → happiness; ill → illness; sad → sadness
Nouns from Verbs
-al: bury → burial; refuse → refusal; survive → survival
-ance: enter → entrance; perform → performance; accept → acceptance
-ation: vary → variation; found → foundation; explain → explanation
-ing: feel → feeling; drive → driving; write → writing
-ion: educate → education; invent → invention; create → creation
-ment: retire → retirement; develop → development; excite → excitement
Common Collocations
Make and Do
Make: the bed, a noise, a mistake, a phone call, a visit, an offer
Do: exercise, sport, a test, your homework, harm, good
Idiomatic Comparisons
As brave as a lion, as cold as ice, as red as a rose, as good as gold.
Negative Prefixes
Dis-: disagree, dislike, disorder
Il-: illegal, illegible, illogical
Im-: immature, imperfect, impossible
In-: informal, injustice, invisible
Non-: non-smoker, non-stop, non-verbal
Un-: unable, unreal, unusual
Phrasal Verbs
Get up: levantarse
Go down: bajar
Go off: salir (sonar, explotar)
Take out: sacar
Take after: parecerse a
Come along: venir
Get at: llegar a
Get into: subir al coche
Go with: ir con
Look like: parecerse a
Verbs Followed by the Gerund
Gerund (-ing) after verbs: admit, consider, fancy, give up, it's worth, practice, stop, avoid, deny, feel, go on, keep, resent, suggest, can't help, dislike, like, imagine, mind, miss, resist, can't stand, enjoy, finish, involve, need, risk.
Uses of the Gerund
The gerund can follow prepositions, work as the subject of a sentence, and express prohibitions.
Adjectives Formed from Nouns and Verbs
-able: profit → profitable; use → useable; accept → acceptable; drink → drinkable
-al: globe → global; logic → logical; music → musical; region → regional
-ful: colour → colourful; help → helpful; peace → peaceful; pain → painful
-ible: convert → convertible; divide → divisible; horror → horrible; sense → sensible
-ing: disgust → disgusting; interest → interesting; amuse → amusing
-ive: action → active; mass → massive; product → productive
-y: dirt → dirty; rain → rainy; sun → sunny; sand → sandy; fun → funny