Cover of the textbook Cutting Edge Upper-Intermediate - Student's Book

The key answer of exercise Grammar 1

The key to exercise solutions in chapter 02 - Language focus 2 for the textbook Cutting Edge Upper-Intermediate - Student's Book with authors Sarah Cunningham, Peter Moor and Jonathan Bygrave from Pearson Education

Question

  1. Look at the noun suffixes in the table below. Add at least one example of each noun suffix in exercise 1 and exercise 4a. Then add one example of your own for each suffix.
  2. Which three suffixes are usually used for people?

Answer

a)

-ness

  • loneliness
  • happiness
  • kindness
  • madness
  • -ness is probably the most common noun suffix in English, and one which English native speakers may add to almost anything to form a noun (often colloquially).

-ion / -sion / -tion / -ation

  • exhaustion
  • stimulation
  • religion
  • confusion
  • competition

-ity / -iety / -y

  • security
  • variety
  • family
  • curiosity
  • anxiety

-ment

  • excitement
  • unemployment
  • disappointment
  • improvement

-ance / -ence

  • confidence
  • allowance
  • independence
  • patience

-our / -iour

  • behaviour
  • colour
  • saviour

-ism

  • criticism
  • racism
  • communism
  • capitalism
  • -ism usually refers to an ideology or way of thinking.

-age

  • marriage
  • average
  • courage
  • -age is usually used with abstract nouns.

-ship

  • friendship
  • relationship
  • membership
  • citizenship

-er

  • employer
  • teacher
  • driver
  • cleaner
  • -er is used for people, as the 'doer' of an action.

-ee

  • employee
  • trainee
  • interviewee
  • -ee describes someone who 'receives' an action or service.

-ist

  • non-conformist
  • artist
  • capitalist

b)

  • -er
  • -ee
  • -ist