Vocabulary: 7 English words that can be suffixes

TRANSCRIPT

Now, first of all, what is a "suffix"? A "suffix" is a piece of something that you add to the end of a word. It's a word ending. Right? Now, most of you might be familiar, for example, with if I add "ly" to the end of an adjective, I can change it into an adverb; or if I add "ment" to the end of a word, I make it a noun. Now, these suffixes change words in terms of parts of speech. I change a verb to a noun or a noun to a verb, etc. What these do... what these specific suffixes do is they change the meaning of a word completely.

Now, the reason it's important to know these and the reason I mentioned writing is because these are not used enough by writers; especially those of you taking tests, like IELTS, TOEFL, CAE, etc. - you need to have your vocabulary range. Right? That's one of the things they're scoring you on. You want to have nice words, but nice words don't have to be big words; they just have to be words that are not commonly used. And a lot of people do not use words that include these suffixes, and they're very useful words. Okay? So we're going to look at some of them.

So, when I add "hood" to the end of a word, for example... now, the word "hood" by itself, if you have a hoodie, if you have a sweatshirt with a hood that goes over your head; or if you think about in your kitchen you have a... you have your stove, and above it you have a hood with a fan to take all the steam and oil, or whatever you're cooking - the smells. Your car, the front of your car, over your engine has a hood. So, think of a "hood" as covering everything. But as a suffix, it's basically the state, condition, or quality of something.

So, now, for example, when I speak of "childhood", I'm talking about the whole time of being a child and everything that is included in that. So, "childhood" includes going to school and having friends, and playing outside, and having toys, and having... playing video games, and innocence. All of the ideas we think of: "What is a child?" are included in the childhood; so it's a period of time where you're a child. The opposite: "adulthood" - the time of being an adult; of having a job, and having a family, and responsibilities. Okay?

A "neighbourhood" is the area where all the people are neighbours; where all the neighbours live together and share a small community. Okay? "Likelihood". "Likely" means probably will happen. The "likelihood" means the chance of something being likely; the chance of it being... or the condition of it being likely. So, the likelihood of this guy winning the presidency is very low. But turns out that the likelihood was not as low as everybody expected, for example. Right?

Now, the reason I mentioned these: I've seen so many IELTS and TOEFL essays that do not use this word that should use this word. Right? People say: "Oh, the time that a person is a child... the time a person is a child", right? You have seven words when you could have said all of that with one word. If you can use one word, don't use seven words. Okay? So now we're talking about coherence and cohesion, which includes brevity. These suffixes give you a lot of range in terms of vocabulary. Learn how to use them properly. Lots of words like this. If you Google: "Words that end in 'hood'", you'll see a whole bunch of them. Okay?

"Like". So, "like" has many meanings, but the one we're going to look at is similar to; so something is like something else. But I don't have to separate it into a whole sentence; I can use this as a suffix. I can talk about things, attitudes, behaviours, but you have to be a little bit careful. Okay? Now, if somebody is "childlike" means he is like a child. But what does that mean? It doesn't mean that he's small or whatever; it means he behaves like a child or he thinks like a child. So, we're not talking about physical; we're talking about mental or even personality-wise. And we're going to talk about "wise" in a second. […]

[Goshawk]

One of the best lessons on here. Teaching people to use "minimal words". I am a native English speaker & when growing up, we were taught to use minimal words. Well done. Pity you can't spell though. "Neighborhood" is spelt with a "U". Neighbourhood. We use British English in NZ. In using an international website, it should be reflected.

[vivianagambetta]

It was an excellent lesson!! Thank you very much

[tech-talks-with-ali]

learned much in 13 minutes. you are awesome!

[nawarnawar]

Hi Adam
While studying English I don't focus on suffixes or prefixes.
I just learn the word as it is.
After learning so many vocabulary, I'm able to know how a word is formed, such as the word " vital", which is an adjective, we can add " ize" to make it a verb and then add a " tion" to make it a noun " vitalizetion". We can also add the prefix " re" to be " revitalization" or " revitalise"
I noticed that adding " ize" to some words also make them verbs.
So many words of English vocabulary can be formed by suffixes and prefixes
We also, for example, have " ness" to form a noun from an adjective, such as: happy to be happiness etc
Forming nouns, verbs and adjectives in English is like music once you know the rout of the word.
I tried to leave a comment after doing the quiz but I couldn't.
How can I leave a comment ?

[ariap]

lovely Adam, I have seen your older videos, you are as young as ten years ago, no change, that is perfect, Love you

[spacey-qe]

*_Amazing sir keep making such influential videos_*

[JANATH]

Adam is the best English teacher i have ever met in my life.

[mohamedelfadli]

I can't thank you enough for all this helpful lessons. I do enjoy learning from you.

[stevethavisack]

I like the way he teach, he’s a best teacher

[alexandretoledo]

Many many thanks, Adam, for your great contribution to our learning!
Your way to teach is really magnificent!
Thanks once again!
My kindest regards.

[MrYusif]

Your lessons very understandable for me. Your pronunciation so clear, I can hear and understand all what you are saying, all the words. Thanks a lot.
Sometimes it is hard in youtube, specially when I'm listening news in English..

[maryammaryam]

I am very grateful to you Adam. Thank you so much. You are amazing.

[beytullahyayla]

Adam you're an absoulutely awesome teacher . I appreciate you

[ТимурЧернышев-шц]

Adam, thanks for the clear and wholesome explanation of these rare but interesting terms. You did it with brevity. These words will help you to improve your skills.
I'm sort of realized everything. I'll try to use it occasionally. Respect from Russia.

[apollonghts]

It is so nice to watch you and understand almost all the words. You pronunciation is very clear. Thank you and
greetings from Russia, dear teacher <3

[valentinmauricioleye]

Love this handsome man and love the good way he teaches us

[aminemohamed]

thank you for your effort M. Adam it's very helpful.
i need a course of tenses and when we use ech of it

[terttualavuokila]

Thank you Adam once again for and interesting and well planned lesson. 👍🌸

[Gilbertodrumond]

Adam, thank you for your very nice classes.

[ricardocampos]

He's so smart. It would be cool if he explains more about pronunciations