Grammatical Suffixes in English

Grammatical Suffixes

• Suffixes are added to word roots to create parts of speech like adjectives and nouns.
• Examples of suffixes include: -ac, -al, -ar, -ary, -eal, -ic, -ior, -ous, -tic, -ia.

Adjective Suffixes

• -ac: pertaining to (e.g., cardiac - pertaining to the heart)
• -al: pertaining to (e.g., neural - pertaining to a nerve)
• -ar: pertaining to (e.g., muscular - pertaining to muscle)
• -ary: pertaining to (e.g., pulmonary - pertaining to the lungs)
• -eal: pertaining to (e.g., esophageal - pertaining to the esophagus)
• -ic: pertaining to (e.g., thoracic - pertaining to the chest)
• -ior: pertaining to (e.g., posterior - pertaining to the back)
• -ous: pertaining to (e.g., cutaneous - pertaining to the skin)
• -tic: pertaining to (e.g., acoustic - pertaining to hearing)

Example Word Analysis

• cardi/ac (KAR-de-ak): pertaining to the heart
• cardi: heart
• neur/al (NU-ral): pertaining to a nerve
• neur: nerve
• muscul/ar (MUS-kū-lär): pertaining to muscle
• muscul: muscle
• pulmon/ary (PUL-mō-nĕr-ē): pertaining to the lungs
• pulmon: lung
• esophag/eal (e-sof-ā-jē-ăl): pertaining to the esophagus
• esophag: esophagus
• thorac/ic (thō-răs-ik): pertaining to the chest
• thorac: chest
• poster/ior (põs-tē-rē-or): pertaining to the back
• poster: back, behind, posterior
• cutane/ous (kū-tā-nē-ŭs): pertaining to the skin
• cutane: skin
• acous/tic (a-kōōs-tik): pertaining to hearing
• acous: hearing

Noun suffixes

• -ia: condition (e.g., pneumonia - lung condition)