sufixul

Sufixul is a linguistic term referring to a morpheme that attaches to the end of a word stem to alter its meaning or grammatical function. It is a type of affix, distinct from prefixes (at the beginning) and infixes (inside). Suffixes are a common mechanism for word formation and grammar across many languages.

Suffixes can be derivational or inflectional. Derivational suffixes create new words or shift the word class, such as turning an adjective into a noun or a noun into an adjective. Inflectional suffixes signal grammatical information—such as tense, number, gender, case, mood, or aspect—without changing the word’s core meaning. In some languages, a single suffix can encode multiple grammatical features, a pattern known as fusional morphology.

Languages vary in how heavily they rely on suffixes. In English, common suffixes include -ed (past tense), -ing (present participle/gerund), -s (plural or third-person singular), -ness (states or qualities), and -ly (manner or degree). In Romanian, the definite article is also expressed as a suffix attached to the noun, as in om (man) becoming omul (the man). This illustrates how suffixes can function not only to form new words but also to mark grammatical relations within a sentence.

Morphophonology affects suffix use: suffixes may have allomorphs, or change form for phonological harmony and neighboring sounds. In agglutinative languages, sequences of suffixes can build long word forms that express complex information.