Suffix · forms nouns
Names a relationship, skill or condition: friend becomes friendship.
Written by Bryan López, English teacher · Updated
The suffix -ship creates nouns that name relationships between people, skills or conditions. From "friend" you get "friendship"; from "leader" you get "leadership"; from "partner" you get "partnership". It is one of the oldest suffixes in English and appears in very high-frequency vocabulary across professional, personal and social contexts.
1. Personal relationships: friendship, partnership, companionship. 2. Skills and roles: leadership, craftsmanship, sportsmanship. 3. Conditions and states: hardship, citizenship, membership, ownership. The common thread is that -ship always names something abstract that exists between people or that defines a position or condition.
Unlike -ism or -ity, -ship does not map to a fixed Spanish ending. It depends on the word. friendship = amistad leadership = liderazgo citizenship = ciudadanía membership = membresía hardship = dificultad The most effective strategy: learn the most common -ship words directly as vocabulary, without looking for a translation pattern.
-ship joins mainly nouns that name people or roles.
-ship is more productive than -hood but not as free as -ness. It works well with words that name people or roles. If the base is an adjective or a verb, it generally does not work.
-ship/ʃɪp/ · sounds like the word 'ship'
Tap the button to hear how the ending sounds. Each word in the table has its own audio.
The correct word for friendship is "friendship". Neither -hood nor -ness works here.
"leadership" is the abstract noun. The person who leads is "leader".
member + ship = membership. One p.
A trick to remember it
"-ship" carries the idea of a journey (like a "ship"). Picture the "voyage" of becoming something: friend + ship = the journey of friendship, leader + ship = the journey of leadership.
Exercise 1 · Form the word
Exercise 2 · Pick the right one
What does "membership" mean?
Exercise 3 · Pick the right one
"hardship" means...
The suffix -ship names a relationship, skill or condition: friend becomes friendship. In Spanish it usually maps to -dad / -azgo / state of.
The ending -ship is pronounced /ʃɪp/ · sounds like the word 'ship'. For example, "friendship".
"friend" becomes "friendship". It is a typical example of the -ship suffix.
-tion, -ness, -ful, -ly, -able... every ending you need to understand thousands of words at once.