Class 8: Grammar: Prefixes and Suffixes

What is prefix?

Prefixes are the words added in the beginning of some other words to make a new word.

·         Im + possible = impossible

·         Ir + responsible = irresponsible

·         Il + legal = illegal

·         Un + happy = unhappy

Every prefix has a certain meaning. So, in order to use prefixes, one should know the meaning of the prefixes.

Prefix	Meaning of the prefix	New Word
anti	against	anti-war, anti-religion, anti-christ
de	opposite	deforest, deforestation, decode
dis	not	disagree, disobey, dismantle, dissection, disappear, disarm, disconnect, dishonest, dislike,
en or em	cause to	encode, embrace, embedded
fore	before	forecast, forward, foremost
in or im	in	infield, inbuilt
in/im/ir/il	not	injustice, impossible, immoral, incapable
inter	between	international, inter-state
mid	middle	mid-May
mis	wrongly	misleading, misbehave, mismatch
non	not	non-violence, non-communal
over	over	overtake, overlook, overheard
pre	before	pre-independent, prefix, pre-board
re	again	return, replay, reapproach
semi	half	semi-circle, semi-nude
sub	under	sub-urban, submarine, subtypes
super	above	superfast, super hit, supertalented
trans	across	transgender, transport, transplant
un	not	unnoticed, unfriendly, unnoticed
under	under	under-water, undersea

Suffix

Suffix is a group of letters which is put after the main word to make a new word. For example:

·         Harm + less = harmless

·         Hand + ful = hanful

·         Beautiful + ly = beautifully

SUFFIX	MEANING	EXAMPLES
-able	able to, having the quality of	comfortable, portable
-al	relating to	annual, comical
-er	comparative	bigger, stronger
-est	superlative	strongest, tiniest
-ful	full of	beautiful, grateful
-ible	forming an adjective	reversible, terrible
-ily	forming an adverb	eerily, happily, lazily
-ing	denoting an action, a material, or a gerund	acting, showing
-less	without, not affected by	friendless, tireless
-ly	forming an adjective	clearly, hourly
-ness	denoting a state or condition	kindness, wilderness
-y	full of, denoting a condition, or a diminutive	glory, messy, victory,