Prefixes, Roots, and Suffixes
Vocabulary
 In English, vocabulary words include short words like
run as well as longer word such as bibliography.
 Short words such as speak and solve are called base
words.
Base Words
 Base words cannot be reduced to smaller parts.
 Other words can be added to them to produce longer
words that create various meanings.
 Prefixes or suffixes can be added to these words but
base words are not made up of multiple parts.
Roots and Affixes
 There are two kinds of word parts: roots and affixes.
That means a word may have multiple parts.
 A root is a word part that comes from another
language, such as Greek or Latin.
 An affix is a word part (specifically a prefix or a suffix)
that can be attached to either a root or a base word to
create a new word.
Why is it important to learn
word parts?
 When you can learn the meanings of various word
parts, you will grow your vocabulary and learn to
identify word meanings based on word part
knowledge.
 Prefixes, roots, and suffixes, the parts that make up our
words, come from many languages.
Origins of the English Language
 Most words in the English language are based on Latin
and Greek words.
 Other words come from a wide variety of other
languages, including French, German, Spanish, and
Italian.
 If you can teach yourself to recognize word origins you
may be able to better recognize word part meanings as
well 
 How do you do this? Pay attention to spellings.
Roots
 The main part of a word is the root.
 THINK LIKE A TREE: a tree grows from its roots, a word
grows from its root as well
 Many roots are complete words. You can add a prefix or a
suffix to a root to change its meaning.
 Some roots need a prefix or a suffix to make them complete
words.
 Some examples of roots and their meanings are: audio
(sound), bio (life), chrono (time), derma (skin), geo
(earth), micro (small), and psycho (mind)
Affixes
 Affixes can be divided into two categories:
 prefixes (appear at the beginning of words)
 suffixes (appear at the end of words)
Common Prefixes
Common Suffixes
Bi-
two
-al
adjectival suffix
Anti-
against
-fy
verb suffix
Inter-
between
-ic
adjectival suffix
Pre-
before
-ion
noun suffix
Super-
above
-ism
noun suffix
Trans-
across
-ize
verb suffix
not
-ous
adjectival suffix
Dis-
Prefixes
 The prefix “pre” means before.
 A prefix is a word part that comes before the root.
 A prefix can change the meaning of the root slightly
or even totally.
 For example, if you add the prefix “ab” (meaning not)
to the root normal, the resulting word is abnormal
(meaning not normal).
 Another prefix that means not is “a.” If you add the
prefix “a” to the word vocation (meaning job or
career), the resulting word, avocation, means hobby,
the opposite of a job.
Suffixes
 A suffix is a word part added to the end of a root.
 A suffix can change the meaning of a word and it can
change the part of speech that word plays in a
sentence.
 For example, if you add the suffix “ly” to an adjective,
it will change the adjective to an adverb (soft—
adjective; softly—adverb).
 Some common suffixes and their meanings are: “er”—
used to compare two people or objects; “est”—the
most or best of three or more people or objects;
“ment”—a condition; “nes”—a state of being; “ous”—
full of.
Understanding meaning
 The meaning of a word is related to the meaning of its
word parts.
 To figure out the meaning of an unfamiliar word, break
the word down into its component parts; then think
about the meaning of the word’s affixes and root.
Let’s take a closer look…
 Let’s analyze the word intangible
 First break the word into its parts:
PREFIX ROOT SUFFIX ENGLISH WORD
In- + tang + -ible = intangible
tang is a latin root meaning “touch”
inis a prefix meaning “not”
-ible is a suffix meaning “able to”
ANYONE? What does the word mean? Read the
meaning of the prefix, then the suffix, and then the
root.
Let’s take a closer look…
 Let’s analyze the word intangible
 First break the word into its parts:
PREFIX ROOT SUFFIX ENGLISH WORD
In- + tang + -ible = intangible
tang is a latin root meaning “touch”
inis a prefix meaning “not”
-ible is a suffix meaning “able to”
ANYONE? What does the word mean? Read the
meaning of the prefix, then the suffix, and then the
root. NOT ABLE TO BE TOUCHED
Building vocabulary by recognizing
Word Families
 A group of English words may be derived from (come
from) the same word part or root.
 Such a group is called a word family.
 You can use this knowledge to help you determine
the meaning of unknown words.
 Check it out…
solo, solitary, solitude
What do you think the root soli/o means = ?
Answer:
Alone
Can you think of other words in the family?
 Solitare
 Soloist
 Based on ones knowledge of the word part (root) and
the meaning of other words in the same family, you
can more easily figure out the meaning of words!
 Solitare- a card game played by one person
 Soloist- one who performs alone
Let’s see what you know:
• The words divide and indivisible are members of
the same word family. Which root do they share?
A. –visB. -visibleC. -div• What is the meaning of this root?
A. separate
B. shrink
C. junk
• What is another member of the same word family?
A. December
B. dividend
C. invisible
In conclusion
 Word part knowledge can rapidly increase your
reading vocabulary simply by memorizing the
meanings of word prefixes, roots, and suffixes.
 By using this technique in combination with context
clues, your reading vocabulary will grow tremendously.
 You will be MUCH more intelligent than your peers
because not everyone is taught this. Use this year to
your advantage!