Word Formation (3) : Noun Formation

Previously on adverb formation, we discussed how to form adverbs correctly. It looks a bit tricky sometimes but don't worry much. As time goes by, with a lot of practice our 'senses' and linguistic instinct are growing sharper. That is the core of language learning, "use it or lose it".

In this post, I am going to show us how to form a noun. The noun formation involves several endings or suffixes. With that said, listed below are some brief yet succinct guidelines for us to remember.

Add these suffixes to many verbs to form nouns:

• -er/-or / -ess (female) : activator, advisor/ adviser, womanizer, shepherdess
  
• -ment : arrangement, department, retirement
  
• -ation/-ion : examination, action, nationalization
  

Add these suffixes to many adjectives to form nouns:

• -ity : cruelty, oddity, solidity
  
• -ness : deafness, kindness,
  
• -hood : likelihood

There are many other suffixes that we can add to form nouns but here for the sake of simplicity, I prefer presenting some most frequently-used suffixes only. A lengthy explanation that leads to confusion is avoided here. Kindly tell me any other suffixes that you know but I didn't include yet.