SUFFIXES     … when the word ends in “y”????

An English word can consist of three parts: the root, a prefix, and a suffix. The root is the part of the word that contains the basic meaning, or definition of the word. The prefix is a word element placed in front of the root, which changes the word's meaning or makes a new word. A suffix is a word element placed after the root, which changes the word's meaning as well as its function.

When adding a suffix to a word ending in y, if there is a vowel before the y, just add the suffix. For example, obey + -ed becomes obeyed. If there is a consonant before the y, we will usually change the y to an i before adding any suffix (except -ing and -ish.) For example, angry + ly becomes angrily, and baby + -ing becomes babying, carry +ed= carried.

Common Suffixes

Suffixes	Meaning	Example
-er	doer	I work as a computer programmer.
-able	able	These glass bottles are recyclable.
-ous	full of	Driving on the freeway can be dangerous.
-ness	state of being	At night, the earth is covered in darkness.
-ful	full of	The witness gave an honest and truthful testimony.
-ly or -y	like	James whistled happily on his way home from school.
-ment	state of	Mary sighed with contentment.

For nouns ending in the letter y, to form the plural replace the ending y with ies. For example: (change the y to I and add es) such as in:

Examples:   baby/babies, story/stories, poppy/poppies, baby/babies, daisy/daisies, spy/spies, lady/ladies

Note that for words ending in y preceded by a vowel (a complex vowel sound), an s is simply added, as usual. For example:

day/days,  toy/toys, essay/essays, turkey/turkeys, chimney/chimneys, play/plays, joy/joys, valley/valleys, alley/alleys, volley/volleys