Nouns ending in -er, -or, and -ar
Nouns ending in -er
This ending is the most common. It's usually added to verbs to make nouns with the meaning ‘a person or thing that does something’, for example: builder, farmer, sprinkler, or beeper.
The -er ending can also be used to form nouns meaning:
- ‘a person or thing that has a particular quality or form’, for example:double-decker, two-wheeler, skyscraper
- ‘a person belonging to a particular place or group’, e.g. foreigner, prisoner
- ‘a person concerned with a particular thing', e.g. jeweller, lawyer, treasurer, mariner
Nouns ending in -or
Like -er, the ending -or is added to verbs to make nouns meaning ‘a person or thing that does something’, e.g. investigator, decorator, escalator, ventilator.
There are no hard and fast rules as to when these nouns have an -orending and when they are written -er, but what we can say is that there are fewer such words ending in -or! Here's a list of some of the most important:
accelerator
councillor
investigator
projector
actor
counsellor
investor
protector
administrator
decorator
legislator
radiator
auditor
dictator
mediator
refrigerator
calculator
director
narrator
sailor
collector
editor
navigator
spectator
commentator
educator
objector
supervisor
competitor
elevator
operator
surveyor
conductor
escalator
oppressor
survivor
conqueror
governor
orator
translator
conspirator
indicator
perpetrator
vendor
constructor
inspector
processor
ventilator
contractor
inventor
professor
visitor
There's a smaller group of nouns ending in -or that don't come from verbs:
ambassador
chancellor
janitor
solicitor
ancestor
creditor
major
sponsor
author
debtor
mayor
successor
aviator
doctor
pastor
suitor
bachelor
emperor
predecessor
tailor
benefactor
equator
proprietor
tenor
captor
impostor
rector
tractor
censor
jailor
senator
victor
Some nouns can be spelled with either an -er or an -or ending, for example adviser/advisor, propeller/propellor, and converter/convertor. Always check in a dictionary if you aren't sure.
No comments:
Post a Comment