H O M E

The Suffixes
-ful & -less

I'll introduce you to this lesson in terms of groups to make it easy for you to differentiate between different categories...

CATEGORY I

*_ A person who helps people is "described as helpful, but the one who doesn't help people is simply referred to as Unhelpful. Adjectives like this one are :

Faithful#Unfaithful
Successful#Unsuccessful
Truthful#Untruthful

CATEGORY II

*_ Other adjectives in "-ful" have as opposites adjectives in "-less" e.g. :
N.B.: The suffix -less means "without".

Powerful#powerless
Painful #painless
Thankful#thankless
Thoughtful#thoughtless
Careful#careless
Fearful #fearless
Harmful #harmless
Useful #useless
Colourful#colourless
Meaningful #meaningless
Fruitful #fruitless

CATEGORY III

*_ Some other adjectives (derived from nouns) take the suffix "-less" but never the suffix "-ful". e.g. :

ADJECTIVE MEANING
Brainless : stupid, mindless, unintelligent.
Homeless :someone who doesn't have a house to live in
Pointless :futile, senseless, meaningless.
Speechless :wordless, astonished, unable to utter a word.
Valueless :without value or importance.
Scoreless :in a football match for instance the score is ZERO goals for each team
Toothless :a baby or a very old man. Without teeth.
Childless :a couple with no children.
Jobless :unemployed, without a job.
Penniless :very poor, without a penny.
Worthless :not important, valueless.
Hairless :bold, without hair.
Senseless :without sense or simply nonsense.
Mindless :brainless, stupid, unintelligent.

CATEGORY IV

*_ Some nouns, this time, take the suffix "-ful" but never the suffix "-less". e.g. :

Nouns Meaning
Bucketful Anything the bucket can contain: e.g.: a bucketful of oranges.
Handful As much or as many as the hand will grasp = a small quantity or number.
FistfulThe amount that can be held within a fist : e.g. A fistful of grains.

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