About suffixes

Jaylee asks whether the plural endings -s and -es are considered suffixes.

The short answer is yes.

A suffix is a letter or group of letters added to the end of a word or root to change the word. A suffix can change the part of speech, as in these examples:

• exist (verb) + ence = existence (noun)
• wire (noun) + less = wireless (adjective)

or form the plural of a noun:

• college (singular noun) + s = colleges (plural noun)

or change the tense of a verb:

• elect (present tense) + ed = elected (past tense)

Because of the way meanings evolve over time, a word + suffix combination can have a meaning that is very different from the meaning of the word without the suffix, as in this example:

• organ (a noun meaning "a part of the body") + ize = organize (a verb meaning "arrange or plan")

I hope this helps.