Use of “ish” in English
An ESL student recently asked me “When I can use ‘ish’ in English?” Such a great question! I looked for a single article to answer her question but didn’t find one. So I thought I’d share a succinct explanation in case it’s helpful.
#1 Suffix used to form adjectives from nouns:
babyish; girlish; mulish, bookish; freakish
Source/further study: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/-ish
#2 Suffix added to adjective to mean “somewhat”
oldish; reddish; sweetish
Source/further study: http://www.dictionary.com/browse/-ish
#3 Added to numbers, times and quantities to indicate an approximation:
Ok, I’ll come and pick you up from your house at seven-ish.
He looks about 40-ish. Maybe older.
Source/further study: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/word-formation/ish-and-y
#4 Can be used by itself to mean “Kind of” or “sort of”:
Would you say that movie had a happy ending? Yeah, ish. [happy-ish]
Is everyone excited? I am — ish. [excited-ish]
Will the weather be nice tomorrow? I think so, ish. [nice-ish]
Source/further study: http://www.slate.com/culture/2018/03/nba-player-curses-in-salt-lake-city-utahns-cant-believe-their-ears.html
Please note, this is an American English explanation. An English speaker in another country might have some other uses for “ish” or might not use these.
2018년 5월 2일