Suffixes – An Overview for KIDS

Hi, and welcome to this video lesson about common word suffixes.

As you might know, a suffix is ending placed upon words to slightly change their meaning.
Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs, such as -ing or -ed, which makes a word like fish, fishing, or fished.

Let’s look at a few examples that are a bit different:

-able, -ible : capable of. Example words: available, invisible.
-ance, -ence : quality or process. Example words: resistance, independence.
-er, -or : person who. Example words: writer, contactor.
-ful : full of. Example word: thoughtful.
-ion, -tion : condition or action. Example words: narration, evolution.
-ism : belief. Example word: socialism.
-ist : person or member. Example word: internist.
-ment : condition. Example word: enjoyment.
-ness : state or condition. Example word: emptiness.
-ship : state of being connected. Example word: relationship.
-y : state or condition. Example word: windy.

These are some of the more common endings you’ll see. Keep an eye out for words you don’t understand or are new to you, and see if they have any of these endings to help you figure our their meanings.

I hope that helps. Thanks for watching this Video Lesson. Until next time, happy studying!