Language Arts Grade Four

Unit Seventeen, Lesson Four: Suffixes: -ful, -ous, -er, -or

  1. address
  2. drought
  3. drop
  4. drill
  5. dream
  6. drain
  7. children
  8. drink
  9. sonic
  10. boom
  1. center
  2. figure
  3. agree
  4. moment
  5. script
  6. travel
  7. settlement
  8. tourist
  9. goggle
  10. freeway
Suffixes: -ful and -ous

The suffix -ful means "to be full of" or "having the quality of." Consider the following examples: 


  NOUN	 	SUFFIX	ADJECTIVE	MEANING
  hope	  +	ful	hopeful		full of hope
  beauty  + 	ful	beautiful	full of beauty
  waste	  + 	ful	wasteful	full of waste
  peace   +	ful	peaceful	having the quality of peace
  mercy   +	ful	merciful	full of mercy
Here's a sample sentence: 

  Jill was hopeful that the Mudrats would win the game.
The suffix -ous also means "to be full of" or "having the qualities of." Consider the following examples: 

  NOUN	 	SUFFIX	ADJECTIVE	MEANING
  poison	ous	poisonous	having the qualities of poison
  outrage	ous	outrageous	having the qualities of an outrage
  humor		ous	humorous	full of humor
  fame		ous	famous		having the qualities of fame
Here's a sample sentence: 

  Jill avoided the poisonous snake.

Click here to go to next page