GUIDE ENGLISH GRAMMAR BOOK

c
d
e
PAGE 371
Verb + ant/ent:
Noun + an/ian:
Noun + ess:
applicant, assistant, inhabitant, servant, student
republican, electrician, historian, musician
For nationalities, e.g. Brazilian, • 288.
waitress, actress, hostess, stewardess, princess
285 Suffixes
a Most nouns for people can mean either males or females, so friends, students, doctors,
motorists etc include both sexes. If we need to say which sex, we say e.g. her boy-friend,
female students, women doctors. Some words to do with family relationships are different
for male/female : husband/wife, father/mother, son/daughter, brother/sister, uncle/aunt. We
also normally make a difference between male/female with waiter/waitress and the other
examples with ess above. But some other words with ess are less usual and are now seen as
sexist. A manager can be male or female, so there is usually no need for the pair manager/
manageress.
b There is also a suffix man /m n/, which has a female equivalent woman, e.g. 'postman/
'postwoman. Also policeman, businessman, chairman, salesman, spokesman. Some of these
are now seen as sexist, especially in a business context, and we can say business executive,
chairperson/chair, salesperson/sales representative, spokesperson, although the suffix person
is still not accepted by everyone.
f Verb + ee:
employee, payee, interviewee
This suffix usually has a passive meaning. Compare er and ee.
The company is the biggest employer in the town. It has two
thousand employees/workers.
4 Verbs
a
b
Adjective + ize:
Adjective + en:
modernize, popularize, privatize, centralize, legalize
There are many such verbs formed from abstract adjectives.
shorten, widen, brighten, harden, loosen
These verbs are formed from concrete adjectives.
5 Adjectives
a Noun + al:
b Noun + ic:
national, industrial, cultural, additional, original
heroic, artistic, photographic, energetic
c
d
e
Verb/Noun + ive:
Noun + ful:
Noun + less:
active, effective, exclusive, informative, expensive
careful, hopeful, peaceful, beautiful, harmful
NOTE These adjectives end with a single l, but the adverbs have
two, e.g. carefully.
careless, hopeless, worthless, powerless
f
Noun + ous:
g Noun + y:
Less means 'without'. Painful and painless are opposites.
dangerous, luxurious, famous, courageous
salty, healthy, thirsty, wealthy, greedy