STAR TS Translation Services Blog

The following information provides a list of suffixes which are common to the English language.

Suffixes are added to the end of a word to change its meaning.  Common Suffix word endings are:

-ant                                -ise                           -ful

-ent                                -ist                            -ness

-ible                               -fy                             -ism

-ing                                -ly                              -ment

- ize                              -able                          -ation

Adding a suffix may change the spelling of the preceding word. If a word ends in a y that is preceded by a consonant (happy, Beauty), the y changes to i:

happy               happiness

beauty             beautiful

But if the y is preceded by a vowel, the y remains: I envy your enjoyment of the situation.  It obviously caused you much merriment. And if the original word ends in an e, this is usually dropped: You are the most lovable but not at all sensible.

Abuse/Misuse/Disabuse

To abuse something means to treat it so badly that you damage it.

To misuse something means to use it wrongly.

To disabuse someone or something means to show them that their thinking is wrong.

Affect/Effect

Affect is a verb and effect is a noun. So you affect something by having an effect on it.  (The exception is if you effect a change; that is, cause a change to happen.)

USEFUL MNEMONIC:

RAVEN , that is: Remember Affect Verb Effect Noun

Among/Between

Use between for two things; among for more than two.

Between you and me, there’s no way we can divide these five loaves and two fishes among our five thousand guests.

Useful mnemonic:

beTween = Two

aMong = Many

Pluralizing words isn’t always a simple matter of adding an s on the end, and switching a word from masculine form to feminine form isn’t always a matter of adding -ess.

• The words alms, amends, cattle, clothes, doldrums, ides, pants, pliers, scissors, shorts, smithereens, and trousers are all plural but have no singular form.

Many words are both singular and plural.  Here are a few: Scissors, Species, you, pants, deer, moose, and sheep, are spelled and pronounced the same way in both their singular and plural forms.    Example: “There stands a sheep” and plural as in, “Look at that flock of sheep.”  More interesting words with this property are congeries, kudos, premises, shambles, series, and species. Fish can be both singular and plural, yet fishes is also a correct pluralization of the word.

• The words bourgeois, chassis, corps, faux pas, gardebras, précis, pince-nez, and rendezvous all have plurals spelled the same way but pronounced differently.

Dangling Modifiers, Misplaced modifiers are all expressions that grammarians toss into the conversation on purpose to confuse and embarrass the rest of us.  So what do they mean? Well consider a sentence such as:

Walking down the high street, the new shoe shop caught her eye.

We all probably know what is meant, but grammatically what this sentence says is that the shoe shop was walking down the street.  The participle is dangling (or misplaced or misrelated) because it seems to relate to the wrong part of the sentence.  As she was walking down the high street, the new shoe shop caught her eye is correct and unambiguous.  As is Walking down the high street, she was thrilled to notice the new shoe shop.

RULE 1:

The (unexpressed subject of the participle clause – that is, the person or thing that is walking down the high street – should have the same subject as the (expressed) subject of the main clause: she.

RULE 2:

The modifying clause or phrase (walking down the high street) should always come as near as possible to the noun or pronoun it modifies.

Careless positioning of all sorts of modifiers can cause amusement, confusion or actions for libel:

• John still attends his local church where he was married regularly.
• We will continue to sell goods to people in plastic wrapping.
• She was taken to hospital after being bitten by a spider in a bathing suit.
• The bride was given away by her father wearing her mother’s wedding dress
• Q: Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people? A: All my autopsies are performed on dead people.

Another great example that I personally love is:

‘I once shot an elephant in my pyjamas. How he got into my pyjamas I’ll never know.’

I had a quick read through The Irish Independent and I came across an interesting article on William Safire’s rules for improving your English. William Safire writes columns for the New York Times and in one of those columns he drew up a list of rules for writers. Each rule is self-contradictory, That is, it violates the thing it tells the reader to avoid. Here are some that have stood the test of time.

1. A preposition is something never to end a sentence with.
2. Avoid run-on sentences they are hard to read.
3. Don’t use no double negatives.
4. Use the semicolon properly, always use it where it is appropriate; and never where it isn’t
5. Reserve the apostrophe for its proper use and omit it when its not needed
6. Proofread carefully to see if you words out.
7. Avoid commas, that are not necessary
8. Don’t over use exclamation marks!!!
9. Hyphenate between sy-?llables and avoid un-necessary hyphens.
10. Write all adverbial forms correct.
11. Don’t use contractions in formal writing.
12. If any word is improper at the end of a sentence, a linking verb is.
13. Take the bull by the hand and avoid mixing metaphors.
14. Never, ever use repetitive redundancies.
15. “Avoid overuse of ‘quotation “marks.””
16. Avoid clichés like the plague; They’re old hat; seek viable alternatives
17. Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.
18. Don’t be redundant; don’t use more words then necessary; it’s highly superfluous.
19. Be more or less specific.
20. capitalise every sentence and remember always end it with a full stop

The incorrect use of “lay” instead of “lie” is becoming increasingly common, but no less humorous. Unfortunately it seems that no one told Bob Dylan the correct usage.

-To lie means to recline.

-To lay is to put or place, and it is always followed by an object.

Remember, you lie in bed and a hen lays eggs. The past tense and past participle can cause problems, however.

To lie

• The present tense of lie (to recline) is lie or lying. I am lying on the beach. I lie on the beach.

• The past tense of lie (to recline) is lay. Yesterday, I lay on the beach.

• The past participle tense (have, has, had) of lie (to recline) is lain. I have lain on the beach for  hours. He has lain on the beach for hours. He had lain on the beach for hours.

Everyday and every day are frequently confused in English. Here is a short explanation of the difference between the two:

Everyday (adjective) means ordinary or normal.

-She chose to wear her everyday clothes to the funeral.

Every day (determiner + noun)  means “each day.”

-He is late for work every day.

Effect and affect can each be used as both a noun and a verb. They are easily confused as they sound similar and the two main usages are associated with something being changed or altered.

If you’re not sure which to use, a good rule of thumb is that effect is more often used as a noun and affect as a verb. This holds true for almost all situations in Standard English.

The two more common words
-Effect (Noun): A result or impact, something caused by something else.
“The new teacher had a positive effect (impact) on the school.”

-Affect (Verb): To alter or change (or have an effect on)
“The new teacher affected (altered) the way the school was run.”

The two less common words
-Effect (Verb): To cause something to happen or occur.
“The new teacher effected (brought about) curricular and disciplinary change.”

-Affect (Noun): A psychology term for an external display of emotion.
“The new teacher noticed that the boy had flat affect (showed no emotion).”

Which English plural word is changed to a singular word when you add an ‘s’ ?
Answer at the bottom of post.

Whilst you are thinking about this little puzzle you might like to consider the correct usage of Less and Fewer, Amount and Number

These words cause problems for many native speakers of English.

The incorrect usage can be seen everywhere, from car advertisements to supermarkets. A classic example would be the “10 items or less” signs in supermarkets, which should read “10 items or fewer” or better still “Fewer than 10 items”.

How do you know which to use? Here is a simple explanation.

Less:
The word “less” is used for items that cannot easily be counted: “We have less milk than we thought”; “The balloon contains less air than yesterday”; “The cleaning took less time than I expected”. These things can be measured, but not counted as such.

Fewer:
“Fewer” is for things that can be counted: “The milkman delivered fewer bottles of milk than we requested”; “There are fewer balloons now than yesterday as some have burst”; “I have to clean fewer rooms now that I live in a smaller house”.

The words “amount” and “number” work in exactly the same way.

Amount:
“Amount” is used for items that can’t be counted e.g “He tries to eat only a small amount of cheese”;”He bought a huge amount of food for the party”; “She only spends a small amount of money on cleaning products” .

Number:
“Number” is for things that can be counted: “She works with a large number of cheese makers”; “He invited a small number of people to his birthday”; “She prefers not to use a large number of cleaning products.”

Answer:
Princes, the plural of prince. When you add an ‘s’ it becomes princess, a singular word.