Adjective Suffixes: How to Turn a Noun or Verb Into an Adjective
To turn a noun into an adjective, English usually adds a suffix: danger → dangerous, hope → hopeful, nation → national, child → childish, rain → rainy. The common adjective suffixes are -ful, -less, -ous, -al, -ic, -ive, -able/-ible, -y, -ish, -ly, -ent/-ant and -ary. Each one adds a meaning of its own, and the spelling of the base word sometimes changes.
There is no single rule that tells you which suffix a word takes: beauty becomes beautiful, but duty becomes dutiful and dutiable, and fame becomes famous. Learn the meaning of each suffix below, then check new words in a dictionary.
The main adjective suffixes
| Suffix | Usually means | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| -ful | full of, having | hopeful, careful, painful, colourful, useful, peaceful |
| -less | without | hopeless, careless, painless, homeless, useless, fearless |
| -ous / -ious / -eous | having the quality of | dangerous, famous, nervous, curious, furious, courageous |
| -al / -ial | relating to | national, musical, natural, cultural, financial, presidential |
| -ic / -ical | relating to, like | heroic, poetic, athletic, historic, economic, magical |
| -ive / -ative | tending to, doing | creative, active, attractive, talkative, protective |
| -able / -ible | can be done; worth | readable, washable, comfortable, visible, flexible, reasonable |
| -y | full of, like, covered with | rainy, sunny, salty, messy, sleepy, dusty |
| -ish | like (often negative); roughly | childish, foolish, selfish, reddish, fortyish |
| -ly | having the qualities of | friendly, lovely, costly, motherly, weekly |
| -ent / -ant | doing, being | different, confident, dependent, pleasant, important |
| -ary / -ory | relating to | imaginary, legendary, customary, satisfactory |
| -en | made of | wooden, golden, woollen |
| -esque | in the style of | picturesque, Kafkaesque |
Noun to adjective: common pairs
| Noun | Adjective | Noun | Adjective |
|---|---|---|---|
| beauty | beautiful | danger | dangerous |
| success | successful | fame | famous |
| care | careful / careless | courage | courageous |
| nature | natural | mystery | mysterious |
| culture | cultural | poison | poisonous |
| history | historic / historical | child | childish / childlike |
| hero | heroic | friend | friendly |
| science | scientific | gold | golden |
| comfort | comfortable | wood | wooden |
| sun | sunny | health | healthy |
| anger | angry | hunger | hungry |
| difference | different | importance | important |
| confidence | confident | silence | silent |
| ambition | ambitious | caution | cautious |
| person | personal | emotion | emotional |
| energy | energetic | economy | economic / economical |
Verb to adjective
Verbs take some of the same suffixes, especially -ive, -able and -ent/-ant:
- create → creative, attract → attractive, act → active, talk → talkative
- read → readable, rely → reliable, accept → acceptable, enjoy → enjoyable
- depend → dependent, differ → different, please → pleasant, observe → observant
Verbs also become adjectives through their participles: bore → boring / bored, break → broken. That is a separate topic, covered in -ed and -ing adjectives and participial adjectives.
Spelling changes
- Final -y after a consonant becomes -i: beauty → beautiful, mystery → mysterious, envy → envious, vary → variable. But keep the y before -ish/-ing and after a vowel: play → playful, enjoy → enjoyable.
- Silent -e is usually dropped before a vowel suffix: fame → famous, create → creative, value → valuable. It stays before a consonant suffix: care → careful, hope → hopeless. A few words keep it to protect a soft sound: courage → courageous, notice → noticeable, change → changeable.
- A final consonant may double: sun → sunny, fun → funny, fog → foggy (short vowel + single consonant, before -y).
- -ful has one l: hopeful, never hopefull. Adding -ly gives hopefully.
- Endings can change inside the word: space → spacious, vice → vicious, nation → national, but explain → explanatory and pronounce → pronounceable.
- -able or -ible? -able is far more common and is the one used for new words. -ible mostly appears with Latin roots that are not English words on their own (visible, possible, terrible).
Pairs with different meanings
Some nouns make two adjectives that do not mean the same thing. These are frequent errors:
| Pair | Difference |
|---|---|
| historic / historical | historic = important in history (a historic win); historical = relating to the past (historical records) |
| economic / economical | economic = about the economy (economic growth); economical = saving money (an economical car) |
| childish / childlike | childish = immature (criticism); childlike = innocent, fresh (usually praise) |
| classic / classical | classic = a typical or excellent example; classical = of ancient Greece and Rome, or of classical music |
| sensible / sensitive | sensible = practical; sensitive = easily affected, or aware of feelings |
| respectful / respectable | respectful = showing respect; respectable = deserving respect |
| valuable / invaluable | both praise: invaluable means extremely valuable, not “without value” |
-ly words that are adjectives, not adverbs
Most -ly words are adverbs (quickly), but when -ly is added to a noun, the result is an adjective: friendly, lovely, lonely, costly, lively, ugly, silly, elderly, motherly, cowardly, daily, weekly. They cannot take another -ly: you cannot say friendlily. Use a phrase instead: in a friendly way. The difference is explained in adjective vs adverb.
Prefixes change meaning, not word class
Prefixes such as un-, in-, im-, dis-, non- attach to adjectives that already exist (happy → unhappy, possible → impossible). They make opposites, but they do not turn a noun into an adjective. See opposite adjectives for how they work.
Practice
A. Make an adjective from the word in brackets.
- The road is ________ after the storm. (danger)
- She gave a ________ answer. (thought)
- It was a ________ day at the beach. (sun)
- He is very ________ about his new job. (enthusiasm)
- The museum has a ________ collection of coins. (value)
- Don’t be so ________; share the toys. (self)
- That sofa looks ________. (comfort)
- The town has a ________ festival every May. (culture)
Answers: 1 dangerous; 2 thoughtful; 3 sunny; 4 enthusiastic; 5 valuable; 6 selfish; 7 comfortable; 8 cultural.
B. Choose the right word.
- The election was a (historic / historical) moment for the country.
- A small car is more (economic / economical) to run.
- Her (childlike / childish) joy at the snow was lovely to watch.
Answers: 1 historic; 2 economical; 3 childlike.
For the bigger picture, start with what is an adjective; to use a noun as a modifier without changing it (a stone wall), see nouns as adjectives.
Checked against Merriam-Webster, the Chicago Manual of Style and the AP Stylebook. Spotted an error? Tell us — see our editorial policy.
