The English agentive suffix is -er or -or. The majority of words are formed with -er, but there are also many formed with -or. The suffix -er is used with words of Germanic origin, and -or is used with words derived from Latin.
Many words are formed with the suffix -er. They include baker, shoemaker, teacher, painter and farmer. In German, these words are Bacher, Schuhmacher, Lehrer, Mahler and Bauer. Notice that they have the same suffix.
With words of Latin origin, -or is used. Examples include professor, actor, director, conductor and narrator. To compare, these words in Spanish are profesor, actor, director, conductor and narrador. They are words of Latin origin.
A few words can combine with either -er or -or. Examples of such words are counseller/counsellor and adviser/advisor.
Many English words are formed with the agentive suffix -er or -or. Though most of these words are combined with -er, a significant number are formed with -or. The words formed with -er are of Germanic origin. This is not only the case in English but also in the Germanic languages of German, Dutch, Danish and Norwegian. A few words can be formed with either -er or -or.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
-
The opera Turandot features an Asian princess who many men wish to marry. However, if they wish to do so, they must answer three riddles c...
-
Most English compound nouns are endocentric. This means that the central meaning of the compound is carried by the head. The head of English... -
All English sentences can be classified as canonical and non-canonical clauses. Canonical clauses are the most basic sentences we can constr...
No comments:
Post a Comment