Building Words from Basic Parts

Many English words can be broken into three basic parts: base words, prefixes, and suffixes. 

A base word is a word upon which many words are built.

Kind is a base word upon which the words kindly, kindness and unkind are built.

A prefix is a syllable or syllables placed before a base word to form a new word.

Return is composed of the prefix re + the base word turn which means “to come back or go back”

A suffix is a syllable or syllables placed after a base word to form a new word.

Read is a base word; reader is composed of the base word read + the suffix er, meaning “one who reads.”

Prefixes with only one meaning

1. ben – good
2. circum – around
3. equi – equal
4. extra – outside
5. non – not
6. intra – within
7. intro – into

Prefixes with more than one meaning

1. dis – opposite, away from
2. im, in, ir, il – not, into
3. mal, mis – bad, wrong
4. pre – instead of, before, in favor of
5. re – back, again
6. sub – under, below
7. un – opposite of, not

Here are the three spelling rules that will help you when you add suffixes to words.

When you add a suffix (including verb endings) to a word that ends in silent e, drop the final e if the suffix begins with a vowel.

1. come – coming
2. love – lovable
3. believe – believing
4. believe – believable

When you add a suffix to a word ending in a consonant and y, change the y to i unless the suffix itself begins with i.

1. fly – flier    but    fly – flying
2. dry – drier  but   dry – drying

When you add a suffix to a short word or monosyllable like dip, which ends in one vowel and one consonant, double the consonant.

1. stop – stopping
2. bet – betting
3. sit – sitting
4. let - letting

Tags: Communication Skills, English, language, prefixes, suffixes, using prefix, using suffix, words

Category: Communication Skills