PRACTICE YOUR ENGLISH

Recognizing personal nouns and terms of origin can improve your understanding and build your vocabulary. A "personal" noun names a person. A common suffix (ending) for personal nouns is -er. Other suffixes can also be used to form personal nouns:

-ian
-ant
-ist
-ent
-ete
-ic
-or

The suffixes may show the activity or work that a person does. For example, a person who walks is a walker, a person who studies biology is called a biologist.

-or : actor
-ent : respondent
-ian : technician
-ist : economist
-ian : comedian
-ant : attendant
-ic : critic
-ete : athlete

Suffixxes can also show nationality, the country where someone or something comes from or languaes. They can be used to form descriptive words (adjectives)
e.g :

• Turkey (Place name), The Turks (Personal noun), Turkish (Language noun), a Turkish custom (adjective)
• China (Place name), The Chinese (Personal moun), Chinese (Language noun), a Chinese city (Adjective)