Unit 29 - Spelling the word endings ous and us


	ous as in poisonous	us as in cactus

This unit examines the weak schwa sound in a final syllable: /Əs/.

Luckily, there is a clear rule which tells us whether to use ous or us (which can be applied most of the time):

If the word is an adjective (describes the qualities of a noun), use ous:

poisonous

dangerous

If the word is a noun (people, places or things), use us:

cactus

octopus

If you are unsure about nouns and adjectives, click here for help.

Some examples:

ous as in venomous

us as in octopus

Adjectives:
adventurous anonymous bigamous boisterous cancerous disastrous enormous fabulous famous frivolous generous hazardous intravenous jealous joyous ludicrous	luminous marvellous (US marvelous) miraculous mischievous momentous monstrous mountainous nervous numerous ominous prosperous ravenous ridiculous tremendous zealous

Nouns:
circus crocus focus discus exodus fungus surplus bonus sinus rumpus chorus virus census cactus lotus status	abacus consensus exodus genius impetus prospectus stimulus syllabus terminus tetanus thesaurus uterus apparatus asparagus brontosaurus hippopotamus

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Learn the Words: Adjectives ending in ous

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	These words are all spelled with -us but do not always follow the rules (depending on their function within a sentence:
1) bogus (an adjective not a noun) 2) versus (a preposition not a noun) 3) minus (can be a noun but is mostly used as a preposition or an adjective)

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Unit 29 - Spelling the word endings ous and us

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