[Germanic] Suffixes

Ever wanted to turn an adjective into a noun? Of course you have. But how do we extract the coolness from something cool? Use a suffix!

[English]

-ness
kind - kindness
-ship
friendly - friendship
-hood
child - childhood
-dom
free - freedom

[Dutch]

-nis
kennis - knowledge
-schap
vriendschap - friendship
-heid
gezondheid - health
-dom
eigendom - property

[German]

die... -nis
die Erkenntnis - the realisation, the recognition
die... -schaft
die Freundschaft - the friendship
die... -heit
die Gesundheit - the health
das ... tum
das Eigentum - the property

[Danish]

-skab
venskab - friendship
-hed

sundhed - health 

lejlighed - apartment, flat, opportunity, occasion
-dom
visdom - wisdom

[Norwegian]

-skap
kunnskap - knowledge
-het
 nyhet - a piece of news
-dom
sykdom - sickness

[Swedish]

-skap
vänskap - friendship
-het
sundhet - health
egenhet - eccentricity, peculiarity. This has a meaning similar to English "ownness".
-dom
egendom - property

[Proto-Germanic]

These 6 languages use the same suffixes, because they are all descended from 4 Proto-Germanic words.

1) Proto-Germanic: *-nassuz 
English: -ness
Dutch: -nis
German: -nis

2) Proto-Germanic: *-skapiz
English: -ship
Dutch: -schap
German: -schaft
Danish: -skab
Norwegian: -skap
Swedish: -skap

3) Proto-Germanic: *haiduz 
English: -hood
Dutch: -heid
German: -heit
Danish: -hed
Norwegian: -het, -heit
Swedish: -het


4) Proto-Germanic: *-dōmaz
English: -dom
Dutch: -dom
German: -tum
Danish: -dom
Norwegian:  -døme, -dømme
Swedish: -dom, -döme

 

[Worked example]

If you follow patterns like this, you can create new words to express yourself when you don't remember the actual vocabulary. Native speakers will be able to understand you, because people do this with language all the time!

Let's say you can't remember how to say "the strength" (die Stärke) in German. But you know the adjective "stark" (strong). You could say "die Starkheit". This is technically incorrect, but it will convey the meaning of "strong-ness", because the adjective has been marked as a noun.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this article.