The Suffix -ish in British English - Develop your English Vocabulary

You have probably noticed the suffix ¬-ish at the end of many English words. The suffix -ish is actually in the words English and British, and consequently Britlish, too. A suffix is a tag that we add to the end of words to change their meaning slightly. In the case of -ish we add it to the ends of nouns and adjectives to form adjectives which mean approximately, somewhat, or like. Take the word English, for example. It was originally Anglish meaning like the Angles, a tribe who colonised the east of the country after the Romans left. Before the Angles or the Romans came, the islands were populated by the Britons from who we get things that are like the Britons, or are British. It’s a very old suffix which Old English inherited from the Germanic. Common uses of the suffix -ish are colour words like blueish, greenish, reddish, brownish. Other common uses talk about the size of things; tallish, shortish, smallish, biggish, fattish, thinnish. We also use -ish when talking about the temperature of things as in coldish, coolish, warmish, hottish. Other adjectives describing qualities also use -ish to form adjectives like softish, hardish, wildish, wettish. The suffix -ish is often added to numbers and time to indicate approximation as in “I’ll see you at sevenish.” A woman might well claim to be thirtyish when she is, in fact, nearer fifty. So common is the use of -ish in English that in more recent times it has even become a word in its own right. You might ask someone if they are hungry to be met with the reply, “Ish”, which will tell you that they are not starving hungry but might be persuaded to eat something. There is more to learn about the suffix -ish in the Britlish Library at . The Britlish Library is not cheapish, it’s completely free of charge. I look forward to seeing you there soon. There are hundreds of British English Lessons in the Britlish Library free for you to use at Created by an experienced British English teacher, the lessons in the Britlish Library will help you improve all areas of your English skills from writing and speaking, to listening and reading. The British English lessons in the Britlish Library are full of multimedia content in the form of videos, audio files, animations, and engaging image files. This multimedia content makes learning British English much more fun and engaging than simply reading text in a book. Unlike the video English lessons on the Britlish YouTube channel, the British English lessons in the Britlish Library at help you to activate your English skills by giving you plenty of interactive exercises to help you learn, remember, and use the language you acquire. New British English lessons are regularly added to the Britlish Library so there is always something new to learn. The lessons are categorised in the Britlish library at into the following categories: English in use lessons, exams and tests lessons, grammar lessons, humour lessons, idioms lessons, information lessons, literature lessons, phrasal verbs lessons, Sounds British pronunciation lessons, spelling lessons, vocabulary lessons, writing lessons, Sounds Rude lessons, and more. There is a complete British English pronunciation course in the Britlish Library at which will teach you all you need to know about the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) and the 44 IPA sounds and symbols of British English pronunciation. Most importantly, all of the lessons in the Britlish Library are free to use for everyone. There is a vocabulary memorisation system developed to make sure you never forget any new English vocabulary. The system is cloud-based and works on any device. Another great service is the most common vocabulary memoriser which will help you to learn, remember, and use more than 4,000 of the most commonly used British English words. Master these 4,000 vocabulary items and you will be able to understand 90% of British English whether spoken or written. This service is also free to use. If you want to take your English to the next level, visit the Britlish Library at today.