Many English verbs consist of the suffix -en. This suffix usually combines with adjectives, but in certain cases with nouns. Here is a list of verbs:
blacken
brighten
darken
deafen
deepen
flatten
freshen
frighten
harden
lighten
redden
ripen
sadden
sharpen
shorten
soften
straighten
strengthen
sweeten
thicken
threaten
weaken
whiten
widen
worsen
The suffix -en usually combines with adjectives, but in a few cases the root is a noun. This is the case with strengthen and threaten.
The root never ends in a nasal or in a vowel. For example, the roots of blacken, deepen and deafen all end with consonants. The root often ends with the sound [t] as in bright, flat, fright, light, short, straight, sweet, threat and white.
In many cases only one word in a pair of opposites occur. For example, the word sick combines with the suffix -en to form sicken, but the suffix doesn't combine with healthy. Wide combines with the suffix to form widen, but not with the word narrow.
The colours black, red and white combine with the suffix to form blacken, redden and whiten, but this isn't the case with other colours such as green, pink and yellow.
The suffix -en combines with adjectives and nouns to form verbs. The root always ends in a consonant to the exclusion of nasals. Opposite pairs can be formed such as darken and lighten, but in certain cases such as thicken, only one word in the pair combines with the suffix -en.
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2 comments:
This is great!
How would one be able to draw the distinction between the below four words while keeping its lemma or context if considering removing (or adding) the EN suffix in respect to syllabic characteristics/exceptions in grammar rules?
1. list vs LISten (leaving List & Listen as they have different meanings)
2. less vs LESsen (removing EN as Less & Less[en] are similar in context)
[I'm not sure if the stress is on LESsen or lesSEN as I'm profoundly deaf)
For doubling consonants i.e. Red to Redden via the Consonant-Verb-Consonant rule (and also adding ED or ING for verbs), how would one be able to justify why 'Happen' should remain as such as opposed to Hap (which is an old English term, I think)?
The word "listen" doesn't have the affix -en like in "brighten", "sweeten", "thicken", etc. There is no connection between "list" and "listen" like there is between "sweet" and "sweeten". To give another example, in the word "under", it's clear that the un is not the same un as in "unhappy", "unkind", "unlikely", etc.
The pairs less/lessen are a good example of the -en suffix. We can categorize "less" as an adjective- "less time", "less energy", "less traffic".
In the word "lessen", the stress is on the first syllable. With words that have the affix -en, always put the stress on the base, the part of the word that comes before the affix.
The d is doubled in the word "redden" to preserve the vowel quality in the word "red". With "happen", we have a word that is related to "perhaps". The word "perhaps" simply means "may happen". As in the case with "listen", "happen" is not classified as a word with the -en affix. Regarding the spelling, we need the double p to ensure that the vowel of the a is like in "happy" and not like in "ape."
I hope this information helps to answer your interesting questions.
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