1.3.5

Rules for Suffixes: '-ous' 2

Test yourself

Suffixes - 'ous'

You have already learnt that adding '-ous' to a noun turns the noun into an adjective. But sometimes you can't just add 'ous' and you need to drop or change a letter. Let's look at what you do when the word ends in 'our'...

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Words ending in 'our'

  • If you want to add 'ous' to a noun ending in 'our', you need to drop the 'our' at the end of the word and add 'or' before adding 'ous'.
  • This sounds confusing. So let's walk through some examples...

Recap: Rules for Adding 'ous'

Adding 'ous' to the ends of nouns turns them into adjectives. Let's recap the rules for adding 'ous'...

Illustrative background for Nouns ending in 'e'Illustrative background for Nouns ending in 'e' ?? "content

Nouns ending in 'e'

  • When you add 'ous' to a noun ending in 'e', you need to drop the 'e' at the end of the word.
Illustrative background for Nouns ending in 'y'Illustrative background for Nouns ending in 'y' ?? "content

Nouns ending in 'y'

  • When you add 'ous' to a noun ending in 'y', you need to change the 'y' at the end of the word to an 'i'.
Illustrative background for Nouns ending in 'our'Illustrative background for Nouns ending in 'our' ?? "content

Nouns ending in 'our'

  • When you add 'ous' to a noun ending in 'our', you need to drop the 'our' and add 'orous'.

Jump to other topics

1Spelling

1.1Spelling

1.1.1Hard 'U' & 'I' Sounds

1.1.2Words Ending in '-sure', & '-mure'

1.1.3Words Ending in '-sion'

1.1.4'Ei', 'Eigh' & 'Ey' Spellings

1.1.5Spelling Words with 'Ch'

1.1.6Spelling Words with 'Sc'

1.1.7Silent Letters

1.1.8i Before e Rule

1.1.9Hard & Soft 'c' Sounds

1.1.10End of Topic Test - Spelling

1.2Prefixes

1.2.1'Anti-' & 'Auto-'

1.2.2Not & 'Inter-'

1.2.3'Mis-', 'Dis-' & 'Re-'

1.2.4'Sub-' & 'Super-'

1.3Suffixes

1.3.1Vowel Suffixes

1.3.2Short Vowel Suffixes

1.3.3Suffixes: '-ous'

1.3.4Rules for Suffixes: '-ous'

1.3.5Rules for Suffixes: '-ous' 2

1.3.6Suffixes: '-ly'

1.3.7Suffixes: '-ation'

1.3.8Suffixes: '-ation' 2

1.3.9Spelling: '-tion' Endings

1.3.10Spelling: '-sion' Endings

1.3.11Spelling: '-ssion' Endings

1.3.12Spelling: '-cian' Endings

1.3.13End of Topic Test - Prefixes & Suffixes

1.4Making Words Plural

1.4.1Plurals

1.5Homophones

1.5.1Accept & Except

1.5.2Affect & Effect

1.5.3Ball & Bawl

1.5.4Berry & Bury

1.5.5Brake & Break

1.5.6Fair & Fare

1.5.7Grate & Great

1.5.8Groan & Grown

1.5.9Hear & Here

1.5.10Heal, Heel & He'll

1.5.11Knot & Not

1.5.12Mail & Male

1.5.13Main & Mane

1.5.14Meat & Meet

1.5.15Medal & Meddle

1.5.16Missed & Mist

1.5.17Peace & Piece

1.5.18Plain & Plane

1.5.19Rain & Reign & Rein

1.5.20Scene & Seen

1.5.21Weather & Whether

1.5.22Whose & Who's

1.5.23End of Topic Test - Homophones

1.6Word Meanings

1.6.1Homonyms

2Punctuation

2.1Punctuation

2.1.1Full Stops

2.1.2Capital Letters

2.1.3Commas

2.1.4Commas 2

2.1.5Using Apostrophes with Regular Plurals

2.1.6Using Apostrophes with Irregular Plurals

2.1.7Question Marks & Exclamation Marks

2.1.8Brackets

2.1.9Dashes

2.1.10Colon

2.1.11Semi-Colon

2.1.12Direct Speech

2.1.13Indirect Speech

2.1.14Hyphens

2.1.15Ellipses

2.1.16End of Topic Test - Punctuation

2.1.17End of Topic Test - Punctuation 2

2.2Writing Structure

2.2.1Paragraphs

2.2.2Headings & Subheadings

2.2.3Columns

2.2.4Bullets

2.2.5Tables

3Grammar

3.1Word Classes

3.1.1Nouns

3.1.2Pronouns

3.1.3Verbs

3.1.4Adjectives & Adverbs

3.1.5Qualifiers & Quantifiers

3.1.6Determiners

3.1.7Prepositions

3.1.8Synonyms & Antonyms

3.1.9End of Topic Test - Word Classes

3.2Conjunctions

3.2.1Coordinating Conjunctions

3.2.2Subordinating Conjunctions

3.3Writing Coherently

3.3.1Building Cohesion in Writing

3.3.2Avoiding Ambiguity in Writing

3.4Verbs

3.4.1Subject-verb Agreement

3.5Modal Verbs

3.5.1Modal Verbs

3.5.2Can & Could

3.5.3May & Might

3.5.4Should & Shall

3.5.5Will & Would

3.5.6Must & Have To

3.6Phrasal Verbs

3.6.1Phrasal Verbs

3.7Subjunctive Verbs

3.7.1Subjunctive Verbs

3.7.2End of Topic Test - Verbs

3.8Sentences

3.8.1Subject of a Sentence

3.8.2Object of a Sentence

3.8.3Main & Subordinate Clauses

3.8.4Simple Sentences & Compound Sentences

3.8.5Complex Sentences

3.8.6Relative Clauses

3.8.7Relative Clauses Without Relative Pronouns

3.8.8Participle Clauses

3.8.9Run-on Sentences

3.8.10Sentence Functions

3.8.11End of Topic Test - Sentences

3.9Tenses

3.9.1Present Tense

3.9.2Past Tense

3.9.3Past Tense Using Have

3.9.4Future Tense

3.9.5Present vs Past vs Future

3.9.6Continuity of Tenses

3.9.7End of Topic Test - Tenses

3.10Adverbials

3.10.1Adverbial

3.10.2Saying Where & When

3.10.3Saying How Often

3.10.4Saying How & Why

3.10.5Using Commas for Fronted Adverbials

3.11Language Techniques

3.11.1Figurative & Emotive Language

3.11.2Active & Passive Voice

3.11.3Idiomatic Expressions

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Rules for Suffixes: '-ous'

Suffixes: '-ly'