Word formation: prefixes and suffixes
B2 語形成：接頭辞・接尾辞（〜的・〜化・〜性・〜っぽい・〜がち・〜だらけ・〜まみれ） 62 / 69
In short
Japanese builds new words by bolting small pieces onto a noun or a ます-stem, and each piece announces the word class of the result. 社会 + 的 (shakai + teki) gives a な-adjective; 国際 + 化 (kokusai + ka) gives a する-noun; 可能 + 性 (kanō + sei) gives an abstract noun; 子供 + っぽい (kodomo + ppoi) gives an い-adjective. Learn the suffix once and you can read hundreds of words you have never met.
The rule
At B2 the fastest way to grow your Japanese is not more grammar - it is morphology. Newspapers, manuals and business mail are full of words that are transparently built, and the builder pieces are few. Two things to track for every suffix: what it attaches to, and what class the result belongs to (noun? な-adjective? い-adjective? する-verb?), because that decides every particle and ending that follows.
Step 1 - The three big Sino-Japanese suffixes: 的, 化, 性.
〜的 (-teki) turns an abstract Sino-Japanese noun into a な-adjective meaning “-al, -ic, in terms of X”: 社会 (shakai, society) -> 社会的 (shakai-teki, social); 具体 -> 具体的 (gutai-teki, concrete); 積極 -> 積極的 (sekkyoku-teki, proactive). Because the result is a な-adjective, it takes な before a noun and に before a verb: 積極的な学生 / 具体的に説明します. The pattern 〜的には (-teki ni wa) frames a viewpoint - 個人的には賛成です (kojin-teki ni wa sansei desu, personally, I agree).
〜化 (-ka) names a process of becoming, and the result is a noun that is automatically a する-verb: 国際化 (kokusaika, internationalization), 高齢化 (kōreika, population ageing), 電子化 (denshika, digitization), 自動化 (jidōka, automation). Say 高齢化します／が進みます, never ×高齢化になります - the “becoming” is already inside 化.
〜性 (-sei) extracts an abstract property and gives a plain noun: 可能性 (kanōsei, possibility), 安全性 (anzensei, safety), 必要性 (hitsuyōsei, necessity), 危険性 (kikensei, riskiness). It is a noun and nothing more, so it lives with が, を, の.
Step 2 - The workhorse noun suffixes. These are heavily productive and mostly self-explanatory once seen: 〜製 (-sei, made of / made in - 日本製, 木製), 〜用 (-yō, intended for - 子供用, 業務用), 〜済み (-zumi, already done, from 済む - 予約済み, 使用済み), 〜上 (-jō, from the standpoint of - 法律上, 健康上の理由), 〜別 (-betsu, broken down by - 年齢別, 国別), 〜率 (-ritsu, rate - 成功率), 〜量 (-ryō, quantity - 仕事量), and the three people-suffixes 〜者 (-sha, a person in a role - 参加者), 〜家 (-ka, a practitioner or expert - 専門家, 音楽家), 〜員 (-in, a member of a body - 会社員, 銀行員 ginkō-in).
〜中 deserves its own line because it has two readings. ちゅう = in the middle of an ongoing activity: 会議中 (kaigi-chū), 工事中 (kōji-chū), 使用中. じゅう = throughout a whole span: 一日中 (ichinichi-jū, all day long), 世界中 (sekai-jū, all over the world), 夏中 (natsu-jū). Roughly: activity -> ちゅう, extent -> じゅう.
Step 3 - The evaluative suffixes: っぽい, がち, 気味. All three say “tends toward X”, and all three normally carry a mildly to strongly negative slant.
〜っぽい attaches to a noun, an adjective root or a ます-stem and produces an い-adjective: 子供っぽい (kodomoppoi, childish), 忘れっぽい (wasureppoi, forgetful), 白っぽい (shiroppoi, whitish), 安っぽい (yasuppoi, cheap-looking), 水っぽい (mizuppoi, watery). It carries a critical edge: 子供っぽい is not 子供らしい (kodomorashii), which is the approving “properly childlike”.
〜がち attaches to a ます-stem or a noun and behaves as a な-adjective/noun: 休みがち (yasumi-gachi, apt to be absent), ありがち (ari-gachi, all too common), 遅れがち, 病気がち, 曇りがち. It is about frequency, and the tendency it reports is normally an unwelcome one - ×成功しがち sounds wrong. A few fixed words are neutral (遠慮がち enryo-gachi, reserved; 曇りがち, mainly cloudy), so read “usually negative”, not “never positive” - but do not coin cheerful ones yourself.
〜気味 (-gimi) attaches to a ます-stem or a noun and reports a slight degree of something: 風邪気味 (kaze-gimi, a touch of a cold), 遅れ気味, 疲れ気味, 太り気味. Dictionaries class it as a noun used as a suffix, so before another noun it takes の (上がり気味の相場, a market trending up), and な only before ので／のに: 風邪気味なので.
Step 4 - Coverage and manner: だらけ, まみれ, ずくめ, ぐるみ, 並み, ぶり, めく. These sit next to each other in dictionaries and are not interchangeable. All but めく attach to a noun and produce a noun, so they take です, の before a noun, and になる; めく is a verb, and ぶり takes a ます-stem as well as a noun.
- 〜だらけ - the surface is littered with lots of one unwanted thing, countable or not: 間違いだらけ (machigai-darake, full of mistakes), 泥だらけ, 借金だらけ, 傷だらけ.
- 〜まみれ - the surface is coated in a liquid or a powder, physically: 汗まみれ (ase-mamire), 血まみれ, ほこりまみれ, 泥まみれ. 大辞泉 adds a second, figurative sense - buried in a bad situation - which is why 借金まみれ (shakkin-mamire, up to the neck in debt) is standard; outside that handful of fixed words, keep まみれ physical.
- 〜ずくめ - entirely composed of. The suffix itself is neutral (黒ずくめ, kuro-zukume, dressed all in black), but it is the one member of this family that takes good bases just as readily: いいことずくめ (ii koto zukume, nothing but good news), 結構ずくめ (kekkō-zukume).
- 〜ぐるみ - the whole unit takes part: 家族ぐるみ (kazoku-gurumi, as a whole family), 会社ぐるみ, 町ぐるみ.
- 〜並み - on a par with: プロ並み (puro-nami, professional-level), 例年並み (reinen-nami, about the same as an average year).
- 〜ぶり - after a time span, the first time in that long: 十年ぶりに会いました. After a ます-stem or an activity noun, the manner of doing: 話しぶり (hanashiburi, way of speaking), 仕事ぶり.
- 〜めく - take on the air of; this one is a 五段 verb, so it conjugates: 春めく -> 春めいてきました (harumeite kimashita, it has started to feel like spring), 謎めいた話.
Step 5 - Prefixes. The four negatives are the ones that matter, and the trap is that each word takes one specific prefix - you cannot choose:
不 (fu-) = not, un-, the default (不便, 不安, 不可能). 非 (hi-) = non-, outside the category (非常識, 非公開, 非科学的). 未 (mi-) = not yet (未完成, 未経験, 未成年). 無 (mu-) = without, -less (無料, 無関係, 無理) - and it is read ぶ in a small set: 無事 (buji), 無愛想 (buaisō).
The others are additive: 再 (sai-, re- : 再利用, 再確認), 超 (chō-, ultra- : 超高速, and in casual speech 超おいしい), 大 (dai- or ō- : 大成功 daiseikō, 大雨 ōame), 真 (ma-, utterly : 真っ赤 makka, 真っ白 masshiro, 真ん中 mannaka).
Step 6 - Productivity: what you may coin, and what you must check. 的, 化, 性, 用, 中, 別, 率, 者 are freely productive over Sino-Japanese nouns - if the base noun is a two-kanji abstract word, you can build and be understood. っぽい, がち, 気味 are freely productive in speech. But まみれ, ずくめ, ぐるみ, めく and the negative prefixes are lexically fixed: they live in a small set of established collocations, and a coinage will sound wrong. Recognise them; look them up before you write them.
Forms & patterns
The three big Sino-Japanese suffixes - note the class of the result:
| Suffix | Attaches to | Result class | Example | Romaji |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 〜的 | abstract SJ noun | な-adjective | 社会的な問題 / 具体的に | shakai-teki na mondai / gutai-teki ni |
| 〜化 | SJ noun | noun + する-verb | 国際化する | kokusaika suru |
| 〜性 | SJ noun / adj. root | plain noun | 可能性がある | kanōsei ga aru |
Noun-forming suffixes to recognise on sight:
| Suffix | Sense | Example | Romaji |
|---|---|---|---|
| 〜製 | made of / made in | 日本製 | Nihon-sei |
| 〜用 | intended for | 子供用 | kodomo-yō |
| 〜中 (ちゅう) | in the middle of | 会議中 | kaigi-chū |
| 〜中 (じゅう) | throughout | 一日中 | ichinichi-jū |
| 〜済み | already done | 予約済み | yoyaku-zumi |
| 〜上 | from the standpoint of | 法律上 | hōritsu-jō |
| 〜別 | broken down by | 年齢別 | nenrei-betsu |
| 〜率 | rate | 失業率 | shitsugyō-ritsu |
| 〜量 | quantity | 仕事量 | shigoto-ryō |
| 〜者 | person in a role | 参加者 | sanka-sha |
| 〜家 | expert, practitioner | 専門家 | senmon-ka |
| 〜員 | member of a body | 銀行員 | ginkō-in |
The three “tends to” suffixes:
| 〜っぽい | 〜がち | 〜気味 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Attaches to | noun, adj. root, ます-stem | ます-stem, noun | ます-stem, noun |
| Result class | い-adjective | noun / な-adjective | noun / な-adjective |
| Says | looks like / is prone to | happens too often | a slight degree of |
| Tone | critical | usually negative | mild, understated |
| Example | 忘れっぽい wasureppoi | 休みがち yasumi-gachi | 風邪気味 kaze-gimi |
| Inflects | 子供っぽかった | 休みがちでした | 遅れ気味の人 |
Coverage and manner - noun + suffix -> noun (めく is the exception: it is a 五段 verb):
| Suffix | Core meaning | Typical bases | Example | Romaji |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 〜だらけ | littered with one unwanted thing | 間違い, 泥, 借金, 傷 | 間違いだらけ | machigai-darake |
| 〜まみれ | coated in a liquid or powder | 汗, 血, ほこり, 泥 | 汗まみれ | ase-mamire |
| 〜ずくめ | entirely composed of (neutral; good bases fine) | 黒, いいこと, 結構 | 黒ずくめ | kuro-zukume |
| 〜ぐるみ | the whole unit together | 家族, 会社, 町 | 家族ぐるみ | kazoku-gurumi |
| 〜並み | on a par with | プロ, 例年, 世間 | プロ並み | puro-nami |
| 〜ぶり | interval / manner | 十年, 話し, 仕事 | 十年ぶり | jūnen-buri |
| 〜めく | takes on the air of (五段 verb) | 春, 謎, 皮肉 | 春めく | harumeku |
Prefixes:
| Prefix | Sense | Examples | Romaji |
|---|---|---|---|
| 不 | not, un- (default) | 不便, 不安, 不可能 | fuben, fuan, fukanō |
| 非 | non-, outside the category | 非常識, 非公開 | hijōshiki, hikōkai |
| 未 | not yet | 未完成, 未経験, 未成年 | mikansei, mikeiken, miseinen |
| 無 | without, -less (ぶ in a few) | 無料, 無理, 無事 | muryō, muri, buji |
| 再 | again, re- | 再利用, 再確認 | sairiyō, saikakunin |
| 超 | ultra-, super- | 超高速 | chōkōsoku |
| 大 | big, great | 大成功, 大雨 | daiseikō, ōame |
| 真 | utterly, dead- | 真っ赤, 真ん中 | makka, mannaka |
Examples
- これは社会的に大きな問題です。 (Kore wa shakai-teki ni ōkina mondai desu.) - This is a socially significant problem.
- もう少し具体的に説明していただけますか。 (Mō sukoshi gutai-teki ni setsumei shite itadakemasu ka.) - Could you explain it a little more concretely?
- 日本では高齢化が急速に進んでいます。 (Nihon de wa kōreika ga kyūsoku ni susunde imasu.) - Population ageing is advancing rapidly in Japan.
- 成功する可能性は高いと思います。 (Seikō suru kanōsei wa takai to omoimasu.) - I think the possibility of success is high.
- 今は会議中ですので、後で電話します。 (Ima wa kaigi-chū desu node, ato de denwa shimasu.) - I’m in a meeting now, so I’ll call later.
- 弟は忘れっぽくて、いつも鍵をなくします。 (Otōto wa wasureppokute, itsumo kagi o nakushimasu.) - My younger brother is forgetful and always loses his keys.
- 最近、彼は会社を休みがちです。 (Saikin, kare wa kaisha o yasumi-gachi desu.) - Lately he tends to miss work.
- 少し風邪気味なので、早く帰ります。 (Sukoshi kaze-gimi na node, hayaku kaerimasu.) - I have a touch of a cold, so I’ll go home early.
- 子供たちは泥だらけになって帰ってきました。 (Kodomo-tachi wa doro-darake ni natte kaette kimashita.) - The children came home covered in mud.
- 十年ぶりに高校の友達に会いました。 (Jūnen-buri ni kōkō no tomodachi ni aimashita.) - I met a high-school friend for the first time in ten years.
Common mistakes
- もう少し具体的な説明してください。 (Mō sukoshi gutai-teki na setsumei shite kudasai.) -> もう少し具体的に説明してください。 (Mō sukoshi gutai-teki ni setsumei shite kudasai.) - 〜的 makes a な-adjective, so it is な before a noun and に before a verb. The following word is the verb 説明する, so it must be に.
- 日本は高齢化になっています。 (Nihon wa kōreika ni natte imasu.) -> 日本は高齢化しています。 (Nihon wa kōreika shite imasu.) - 〜化 already means “becoming”, and the noun it makes is a する-noun. Adding になる says “becomes a becoming”.
- 弟は子供っぽいな人です。 (Otōto wa kodomoppoi na hito desu.) -> 弟は子供っぽい人です。 (Otōto wa kodomoppoi hito desu.) - 〜っぽい produces an ordinary い-adjective. It never takes な, and it inflects: 子供っぽくない, 子供っぽかったです.
- このノートは間違いまみれです。 (Kono nōto wa machigai-mamire desu.) -> このノートは間違いだらけです。 (Kono nōto wa machigai-darake desu.) - まみれ needs a real liquid or powder sticking to a surface (汗, 血, 泥, ほこり) - its only common abstract use is the fixed 借金まみれ. Scattered countable things take だらけ.
- この計画は非可能です。 (Kono keikaku wa hikanō desu.) -> この計画は不可能です。 (Kono keikaku wa fukanō desu.) - the negative prefix is fixed per word, not chosen by meaning: 不可能, 非常識, 未経験, 無関係. Learn the prefix together with its noun.
Tips
- 〜的 is the single fastest upgrade to formal Japanese. Almost any two-kanji abstract noun in a report can become a modifier this way - 経済的, 一般的, 基本的, 効率的, 精神的 - and 〜的には is the standard way to frame a viewpoint (個人的には, 基本的には). If you learn one suffix from this lesson, learn this one.
- The three “tends to” words differ in what they measure. っぽい judges a quality (“has a childish air”), がち counts frequency (“is absent too often”), 気味 measures degree (“slightly late”). And do not confuse 〜っぽい with 〜らしい (lesson 49): 子供っぽい is a complaint about an adult, 子供らしい is praise for a child.
- だらけ is mess, まみれ is wet. If you could wipe it off with a cloth, it is まみれ (汗まみれ, 血まみれ); if you would have to pick the things up one by one, it is だらけ (ごみだらけ, 間違いだらけ). The one abstract word that goes with まみれ anyway is 借金まみれ - learn it as a unit. ずくめ is the odd one out - it is the only member of the family that is not inherently negative, so good bases are fine (いいことずくめ, 結構ずくめ).
- 中 has two readings and they mean different things. ちゅう freezes an activity in progress (会議中, 工事中, 準備中 - the words on shop doors), じゅう spreads over a whole span (一日中, 世界中, 一年中). Reading the wrong one changes the sentence, so check which kind of noun is in front.