follows the noun, the final syllable remains, but the meaning may also change: , meaning "large woman") ("good") → → (masculine) ("good man"; the final vowel remains in , with no accompanying change in meaning) Adverbs ("so much") → ("so") → ("so beautiful") Cardinal numbers ("one, a, an") → → ("a child") ("hundred") → → ("One hundred years of solitude") Ordinal numbers ("first") → → ("first prize") ("third") → → ("third place") ("final") → → ("final day") See also Abbreviation Acronym and initialism Apheresis (linguistics) Clipping (morphology) Contraction (grammar) Elision Syncope (phonetics) References Crowley, Terry. (1997) An Introduction to Historical Linguistics. 3rd edition. Oxford University Press. External links World Wide Words: Apocope Abbreviations Figures of speech Phonology