Suffixes
are bound morphemes. They are parts of words which
go at the end of another morpheme, usually a free morpheme (an independent
word) to make a new, compound word (= a word made of two or more parts).
Suffixes can change the lexical categories
(nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs) of the words they go with. Here are six free
morphemes:
NOUNS: child, color
ADJECTIVES: happy, stupid
VERBS: employ, stop
And here are six suffixes (bound morphemes):
NOUN
SUFFIXES go with nouns: -ish, -ful
ADJECTIVE
SUFFIXES go with adjectives: -ness, -ity
VERB
SUFFIXES go with verbs: -er, -able
When we put these together, we get new compound words.
1 The noun child + the noun suffix -ish
make an adjective: childish
 |
| childish (morphological tree diagram) |
2 The noun color + the noun suffix -ful
make an adjective: colorful
 |
| colorful (morphological tree diagram) |
3 The adjective happy + the adjective suffix
-ness
make a noun: happiness
 |
| happiness (morphological tree diagram) |
4 The adjective stupid + the adjective suffix
-ity
make a noun: stupidity
 |
| stupidity (morphological tree diagram) |
5 The verb employ + the verb suffix
-er
make a noun: employer
 |
| employer (morphological tree diagram) |
6 The verb stop + the verb suffix -able
make an adjective: stoppable
 |
| stoppable (morphological tree diagram) |
