Quiz-Tree

Suffixes for Action Verbs and Descriptive Adjectives

Adjectives do the heavy descriptive work in SAT passages, and three of the  suffixes here — -ous/-ious, -al/-ial, and -ic/-ical  — specialize in building them. The verb-forming suffixes -ate and  -en round out the set. After this quiz, you will be able to decode  unfamiliar adjectives and identify the quality or relationship they express.

Question 1 of 10
0 of 10 answered Score: 0%
Question 1
The suffix -ate appears in verbs like generate and evaluate. What does this suffix mean when it forms a verb?
🔒 Answer question 1 to unlock
The suffix -en appears in verbs like strengthen and darken. What does this suffix mean?
🔒 Answer question 2 to unlock
The suffix -ous appears in words like glorious and ambiguous. When the root ends in certain consonant clusters, the suffix appears as -ious, as in tenacious. What does this suffix mean?
🔒 Answer question 3 to unlock
The word ceremonial contains the suffix -ial. Before most roots, this suffix appears in its base form -al, as in logical and seasonal. How does -ial shape the meaning of ceremonial?
🔒 Answer question 4 to unlock
The words historic and historical both use forms of the suffix -ic/-ical. How do their meanings differ?
🔒 Answer question 5 to unlock
The word golden ends in -en. A student expects golden to be a verb meaning "to make something gold," by analogy with darken and strengthen. What does golden actually mean, and what does that reveal about -en?
🔒 Answer question 6 to unlock
The word remedial contains the suffix -ial. How does -al/-ial shape the meaning of this word?
🔒 Answer question 7 to unlock
The suffix -ate appears in exacerbate. The root acerb- comes from Latin meaning "harsh" or "bitter." What does exacerbate most likely mean?
🔒 Answer question 8 to unlock
The suffix -ious appears in loquacious. The root loqu- comes from Latin meaning "to speak." What does loquacious most likely mean?
🔒 Answer question 9 to unlock
The suffix -ic appears in prolific. The root prolif- relates to Latin proles (offspring) and the idea of producing. What does prolific most likely mean?
correct answers
💡Tip: Want to see new SAT Vocabulary quizzes?
Make sure the "Notify me about new quizzes" is enabled in your Dashboard.

Did you find this quiz useful?