The formation of nouns from adjectives

Besides nouns that exist on their own, we can form nouns from other parts of speech such as adjectives. The use of adjectives and their noun forms help to add variety in our essays.

The formation of nouns from adjectives can be done by:

a) adding 'ness'

e.g. fair --> fairness

good ---> goodness

thick --> thickness

b) adding 'ness' after - y + i

e.g. happy -->happiness

ready --> readiness

c) adding 'th' and minus 'e'

e.g. true ---> truth

wide --> width

d) changing its spelling + 'th'

e.g. long --> length

strong --> strength

broad --> breadth

e) adding ‘y’ or ‘ty’

e.g. difficult --> difficulty

royal --> royalty

f) changing their spelling

e.g. high -->height

g) adding ‘ship’

e.g. hard --> hardship