Nouns, Adjectives and Verbs

BT. The ways in which nouns and adjectives, e.g. fix, simple, solid, drama and dead can be made into verbs by use of the suffixes ate, ify etc..

Into verbs (ate, en, ify, ise)	Into nouns (tion, ity, ness)
pollen – pollinate	educate – education
note – notify	dictate – dictation
elastic – elasticate	create – creation
medicine – medicate	simple – simplicity
apology – apologise	able – ability
standard - standardise	pure – purity
length - lengthen	stupid – stupidity
deep  -deepen	hard – hardness
dead – deaden	happy - happiness
pure - purify	mad - madness

·         One of the functions of a suffix is to change a part of speech; in this case a noun or an adjective into a verb or adjective into a noun.

·         The main suffixes are listed above; others are: efy (liquefy) and esce (effervesce)

·         Most words just add the suffix

·         When the root word already has a suffix, or it ends in e or y, it has to be removed before the new suffix can be added.  Watch out, however, for words ending in y if you are adding ness – the y changes to i.  Fortunately, the i is clearly pronounced.

  Homework - to revise these rules and to write down 10 examples of verbs changing into nouns, and 10 examples of nouns changing into verbs for next Monday.

Mrs T,