What is a suffix

The younger brother asks him to explain what the suffix is, and you have doubts about the answer? It's time to recall the lessons of the Russian language. The suffix is ​​the morpheme (the significant part of the word), which stands after the root and serves to form new words. The task of highlighting the suffix in a word will seem easy if you follow the following scheme.

You will need

A piece of paper, a pencil, a morpheme dictionary of the Russian language for self-testing

Instruction manual

one

Write on the sheet the word you want, for example: space. From the definition, we know that the suffix is after the root, so for starters it is necessary to select the root of the word, choosing the same root words: cosmos-onaut, cosmos-odrom, micro-cosmos, cosmic (root-cosm-). The root is the minimum part of a word that is repeated in all root words.

2

Now find the suffix, remembering that it follows the root: cosm-ich-i-suffix-ich-. Note that the suffix does not include an ending (in this case, the -th). To highlight the ending, change the word until it becomes clear which part of the word remains unchanged. Everything except her is the ending: cosmic, cosmic, cosmic, cosmic, cosmic, cosmic, etc. (ending).

3

Try to find words with the same suffix and think what common meaning for these words this suffix can have. Note also that in Russian the number of suffixes is limited, so almost all of them are repeated from word to word. For example: cosmic, acoustic, artistic, symbol, hygiene, etc. The suffix -ich- will form an adjective from the noun and has the meaning of being related or related to the fact that this original noun means (cosmic - connected with the braid related to the cosmos).

note

There can be more than one suffix in one word. For example, in the word "efficiency" there are two (-ovit-, -ost-), ​​and in the word "productivity" - three (-i-, -body-, -ost-).

Conversely, the word may not have a single suffix: hand (root -ruk-, ending -a).

Useful advice

If you are at a loss, refer to the morphemic or derivational dictionary.

• Academic grammar of the Russian language
• Dictionary morphemic division of words