-ment e –tion are added to verbs to form abstract nouns:

• to develop > development
• to represent > representation

There can be variation with the latter

- sion > decision, persuasion
- ion > regression, discussion

the suffixes –er, -or are used for jobs and social roles: painter, ambassador.

To indicate sex:
- ess > actor > actress
- ette > usher > usherette
- man/woman > policeman, policewoman

Now – person has replaced –man/woman

- person > barman/barwoman >> barperson

-ful added to nouns means ‘full of’

• skill > skilful

-less has the opposite meaning

• doubt > doubtless

-type is used to dente something which looks or behave like something else

• tent-type cameras

But there are also:

-like > lifelike
-style > Worhol –style photgrphy

They are usually added to nouns and are used when suffix –y or –ly is not possible.

Suffixes –able or –ible are used to denote the idea of ‘being able to’, or ‘subject to’ and are added to verbs to form an adjective:

• Decipher > decipherable

The Suffix –en is added to adjectives or nouns to form verb: The verb means ‘to make something be’ like that particular adjective or noun:

• Black > blacken (the silver nitrate blackened in the sun)
• Hard > harden (the material hardened in the exposure)

The suffix –hood is added to nouns to form an abstract noun which means ‘the state of being’
:

• Child > childhood

Prefixes to denote negation:

Un- > uncertainty, unlike
In-: independent, infinite
Non-: non-linear, non-sequential

Ir-: responsible – irrisponsible
Il-: illegal
Im: impossible

Non- is used with a noun or an adjective and is generally connected with a hyphen, though this is not always so:

Non-interventionist, nonsense

Mis- is used with adjectives, nouns, and verbs and gives the meaning of ‘badly’, ‘wrongly’:

Place> misplace
Understand> misunderstand

Here is the tendency to leave out the hyphen.

- ship is added to noun to form an abstract noun and gives the meaning of ‘the state of being’:

leader > leadership
It is also used to tlak about a skill:

Workman >> workmanship (draftmanship)

From: Appendix 2, Prefixes and Suffixes, in Frederika Gebhardt, English for the Arts, CaFoscarina Venezia 2000, pag 288.