-ify 4 Word formation Longman dictionary In English there are many word beginnings (prefixes) and word endings (suffixes) that can be added to a word to change its meaning or its word class. The most common ones are shown here, with examples of how they are used in the process of word formation. Many more are listed on the pages that follow. Verb formation The endings -ize and -ify can be added to many nouns and adjectives to form verbs, like this: American legal modern popular Americanize legalize modernize popularize -ize They want to make the factory more modern. They want to modernize the factory. beauty liquid pure simple beautify liquefy purify simplify These tablets make the water pure. They purify the water. Adverb formation The ending -ly can be added to most adjectives to form adverbs, like this: easy main quick stupid easily mainly quickly stupidly -ly His behaviour was stupid. He behaved stupidly. Noun formation The endings -er, -ment, and -ation can be added to many verbs to form nouns like this: drive fasten open teach -er driver fastener opener teacher John drives a bus. He is a bus driver. A can opener is a tool for opening cans. amaze develop pay retire amazement development payment retirement -ment Children develop very quickly. Their development is very quick. admire associate examine organize -ation admiration association examination organization The doctor examined me carefully. He gave me a careful examination. The endings -ity and -ness can be added to many adjectives to form nouns, like this: cruel odd pure stupid -ity -ty cruelty oddity purity stupidity Don’t be so cruel. I hate cruelty. dark deaf happy kind -ness darkness deafness happiness kindness It was very dark. The darkness made it impossible to see. Adjective formation The endings -y -ic -ical -ful and -less can be added to many nouns to form adjectives like this: bush dirt hair smell bushy dirty hairy smelly -y There was an awful smell in the room. The room was very smelly. atom biology grammar poetry atomic biological grammatical poetic -ic -ical This book contains exercises on grammar. It contains grammatical exercises. pain hope care painful hopeful careful -ful His broken leg caused him a lot of pain. It was very painful. pain hope care painless hopeless careless' -less The operation didn’t cause her any pain. It was painless. . The ending -able can be added to many verbs to form adjectives, like this: !. wash love debate break washable lovable debatable breakable -able You can wash this coat. It’s washable. Opposites The following prefixes can be used in front of many words to produce an opposite meaning. Note, however, that the words formed in this way are not always EXACT opposites, and may have a slightly different meaning. un- happy fortunate wind block unhappy unfortunate unwind unblock I'm not very happy. In fact I'm very unhappy. in- im- i1- ir- efficient possible literate regular inefficient impossible illiterate irregular It's just not possible to do that. It's impossible dis- agree approve honest disagree disapprove dishonest I don’t agree with everything you said. I disagree with the last part. de- centralize increase ascend inflate decentralize decrease descend deflate Increase means to make or become larger in amount or number. Decrease means to make or become smaller in amount or number. non- sense payment resident conformist nonsense nonpayment nonresident nonconformist The hotel serves meals to residents (= people who are staying in the hotel) only. Nonresidents are not allowed in.