Prefixes and Suffixes

One of the easiest and quickest way to memorize the spelling of any given word is to study their prefix/suffix. Most words derived from other languages contain prefixes and suffixes, and they all have its own meaning. Knowing the meaning of a pre/suffix can open up to you an approximate definition, part of speech, language of origin, and more.

A prefix is a letter or a group of letters that attaches to the beginning of a word and helps to indicate or modify its meaning. An easy example would be the word ‘prefix’ itself! It begins with the prefix pre-, which means ‘before’.

In linguistics, a suffix is an affix which is placed after b the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns, adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. An inflectional suffix is sometimes called a desinence or a grammatical suffix or ending.

It is quite important to understand what different prefixes mean as they can help to understand the meanings of any new vocabulary that you learn. However, you do need to be careful, as sometimes a prefix can have more than one meaning!

For example, the prefix pre in prefix means before. The definition of prefix is a part of a word that comes before the main or suffix. Below is a list of prefixes and suffixes. Note that not all existing prefixes and suffixes will be included here; if you want a full list, you should probably go here.

 Prefixes: 


 * Un ~ Definition: not, reversal of ~ Example: uncover
 * Re ~ Definition: again ~ Example: recycle
 * Mis ~ Definition: wrong ~ Example: mistaken
 * Anti ~ Definition: against, opposed ~ Example: antidote, antibiotics
 * Co ~ Definition: with ~ Example: co-worker, co-pilot
 * De ~ Definition: off, down, away from ~ Example: devalue, demotivate
 * Ex ~ Definition: out, out of ~ Example: extract
 * Extra ~ Definition: beyond, more than ~ Example: extraordinary, extracirriculars

 Suffixes: 


 * Er ~ Definition: one who performs an action ~ Example: dancer, teacher
 * Ist ~ Definition: one who performs an action ~ Example: artist, psychologist
 * S, es ~ Definition: more than one (plural) ~ Example: bushes, teaches, computers
 * Ly ~ Definition: how (becomes adverb) ~ Example: safely
 * Tion ~ Definition: quality, action ~ Example: caution, intention
 * Able, ible ~ Definition: able to be ~ Example: irreversible, agreeable
 * ing ~ Definition: doing something at the moment ~ Example: walking, punishing