Uno dei vantaggi della lingua inglese è che ha un’incredibile capacità di formare nuove parole. La formazione delle parole (Ing. word formation) si ottiene con l’aggiunta e la sottrazione di prefissi e suffissi (es. quick-quickly), con l’accoppiamento di due parole (es. breakfast + lunch = brunch), con le parole composte (ad es. girl + friend = girlfriend) con la conversione (es. “import” può essere in funzione di un sostantivo o un verbo), con troncamento (es. laboratory-lab), la duplicazione (fifty-fifty) attraverso onomatopee (imitando suoni naturali: burp, tintinnio) e l’elenco dei processi di formazione delle parole (word formation) potrebbe ancora andare avanti.
Nelle sottosezioni troverete tabelle che mostrano la formazione delle parole (word formation). Il vocabolario è suddiviso in ordine alfabetico.
Alcuni suffissi comuni con esempi:
Sostantivi
–ance entrance, importance, advance, performance, reliance
–ence residence, patience, confidence, silence, dependence, violence
–er, -or actor, selector, computer compiler, instructor, senator, adaptor, elector
–ist, -yst artist, analyst, biologist, egoist, pianist,
–((a)t)ion selection, action, admiration, destination, conclusion, celebration, conversion
–ness happiness, kindness, nervousness, blindness
–ment compliment, measurement, development, treatment
–ity ability, brevity, pity, electricity, stability, variety
–ian civilian, electrician, agrarian, pedestrian
–ism alpinism, mechanism, hedonism, realism
–ship hardship, relationship, battleship, friendship
–ive fugitive, initiative, additive, objective, archive
–acy accuracy, literacy, legacy, poignancy
Aggettivi
–able breakable, comfortable, reliable, loadable, remarkable, available
–ible flexible, possible, terrible, compatible, responsible, feasible
–(ic)al critical, magnetic, mystical, electric, musical, electrical
–(i)ous envious, previous, curious, dangerous
–ful colorful, careful, playful, helpful
–less painless, careless, penniless, helpless
–ish boyish, reddish, selfish, Polish, snobbish, English
–ate adequate, articulate, chocolate, confederate
–ary scary, elementary, voluntary, binary, military, secondary
–ive active, generative, alive, productive, attentive, objective
–y happy, worthy, foggy, fuzzy, cosy, busy
Verbi
–ate allocate, calculate, speculate, create, terminate, activate
–en darken, worsen, lengthen, harden
–fy defy, simplify, clarify, unify
–ize socialize, realize, summarize
–ish abolish, accomplish, furnish