Prefix and Suffix: Definition , Uses and Examples

 Prefixes and suffixes are words that change the meaning of the word just by adding two, three, or four alphabets at the beginning or at the end of the word. We can benefit from a brief study of prefixes and suffixes, known collectively as affixes. Prefixes and Suffixes are words that make antonym words; like- Fortunately and unfortunately. Here, ‘Un’ is a prefix. By adding the prefix we get an antonym of the word- Fortunately.

Prefixes

Prefixes come at the beginning of the word. These are usually two to three alphabets long. By using prefixes, it’ll change the word’s meaning. Some prefixes even combine with other prefixes to create words such as unpremeditated (un+ pre+ meditated). A prefix is a group of letters that is placed before the root of a word. For example, the word “disclose” consists of the prefix “dis-” [which means “not”] combined with the root (or stem) word “close”; the word “disclose” means “not to close or not to reveal.”

Let’s look at some common prefixes:

Prefix	Meaning	Examples
de-	from, down, away, reverse, opposite	decode, decrease, decent, descent
dis-	not, opposite, away, absence of, apart, or having a reversing force.	disagree, disappear, disoriented
ex-	out of, away from, lacking, former	exhale, explosion, extravagant, extra-curricular
il-	not	illegal, illogical, illegitimate
im-	not, without	impossible, improper, imperfect
in-	not, without	inaction, invisible, inappropriate, indefinite, incapable
mis- and mal-	bad, wrong, are sometimes used for negation	mislead, misplace, misguide, mishandle, misunderstood, misaligned, misfit, malfunction, malformed
non-	not	nonfiction, nonsense, non-prose, non-vegetarian
pre-	before	prefix, prehistory, prepone
pro-	for, forward, before	proactive, profess, program, proficient, professional
re-	again, back, doing things again	react, reappear, rework, redo, resume, recycle, reuse
un-	against, not, opposite	undo, unequal, unusual, unnecessary

Suffixes

Suffixes come at the end of the word. These are usually two to four alphabets long. By using suffixes, it’ll change the word’s meaning. A suffix is a group of letters that is placed after the root word of the word. For example- the word careless consists of the root word “care” combined with the suffix “-less” [which means “without”]; the word “careless” means “having no care.”

Let us look at some common suffixes: 

Suffix	Meaning	Examples
-able	able to, having the quality of	comfortable, portable, changeable
-al	relating to	Annual, comical, intellectual
-er	comparative	bigger, stronger, sharper, taller
-est	superlative	strongest, tiniest, tallest, bravest
-ful	full of	beautiful, grateful, careful
-ible	forming an adjective	reversible, terrible
-ily	forming an adverb	eerily, happily, lazily
-ing	denoting an action, a material, or a gerund	acting, showing, eating, cherishing, memorizing
-less	without, not affected by	friendless, tireless, careless
-ly	forming an adjective	clearly, hourly, weekly, monthly, stately
-ness	denoting a state or condition	kindness, wilderness, cleanliness, dirtiness
-y	full of, denoting a condition, or a diminutive	glory, messy, victory

How to use English Grammar Prefix and Suffix:?

We need to be careful how to use them. We might get confused in many words, like the word is ‘illogical’ but with the confusion, people might use it as ‘dislogical’ or ‘inlogical’, which is incorrect. Hence, while using it we should be very sure to use it correctly. Before using any word we must know the meaning of the word, and its prefix or suffix’s use.

Important points to note:

With the usage of prefixes, the start of the word will change. So, if the prefix ends with a vowel, for example- ‘e-‘, the root word starting with a consonant will remain as it is, for example- ‘’rework’’. But if the root word starts with a vowel, then the consonant is added in. With the usage of suffixes, the end of the word may change. If the word ends in the vowel ‘e’ then we do not use a double ‘e’, we only use one ‘e’. Also, if the word ends in a ‘y’ then we can replace the ‘y’ with an ‘’I’’, for example- ‘’happy’’ becomes ‘’happily’’ with the suffix ‘’ily’’.