Learn the suffix ~OUS and Increase your vocabulary (2021)

The English suffix -OUS

Increase your vocabulary by learning the English suffix ~OUS. Turn nouns that you already know into adjectives by adding the suffix OUS to the end of the word.

• dangerous
• poisonous
• adventurous
• famous
• mountainous
• wondrous
• joyous
• miraculous

Watch the video at the end of this post to review and improve your English listening skills.

In July of 2017, some dangerous ants were found in Oi, a port in Tokyo. The ants are called ‘fire ants’ and they are poisonous. I thought this story would be a great way to introduce the English suffix – OUS.

ant [noun] a small insect that lives in highly organized groups. 

port [noun] a place where ships load and unload goods
 or shelter from storms

Learn how to use the Modal Verbs Can-Could-May-Might like a native speaker.

From this news, we used 2 adjectives with the suffix ~ous. Dangerous and poisonous.

dangerous -- likely to injure or harm somebody, or to damage or destroy something

poisonous -- causing death or illness if swallowed or absorbed into the body

(All definitions in this post come from Oxford Learner’s Dictionaries)

A simple way to think of these 2 adjectives is to look at the root word, this means the part of the word that comes before the suffix ous.

danger (ous) If a situation has danger it is dangerous.

poison (ous) If something has poison it is poisonous.

More examples

Many adjectives that use the suffix ~ous have this basic meaning. 

adventurous -- (of a person) willing to take risks and try new ideas; enjoying being in new, exciting situations ~ ready for adventure

“For the more adventurous tourists, there are trips into the mountains with a local guide.”

fame [noun] -- the state of being known and talked about by many people
“She went to Hollywood in search of fame and fortune.”
famous –  known about by many people
~ A famous person is someone who has fame.

“After years of hard work she became a famous actress.”

When I was 22 I toured the mountainous region of New Zealand. It was beautiful. (The area has many mountains)

More English suffix -ous examples:

If something is full of joy we can call it joyous.

The children’s birthday party was full of joyous laughter.

If something happened that seems like a miracle, or was completely unexpected and very lucky we can use the adjective miraculous to describe it.

The fact that he survived the accident with no permanent injury is miraculous.

Watch the video below to review the grammar and improve your English listening skills!

Special thanks to SpellZone for giving me example ideas for this blog post.
https://www.spellzone.com/word_lists/list.cfm?wordlist=122

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