PREFFIXES & SUFFIXES (GRAMMAR-STRUCTURE)
Prefixes and suffixes are sets of letters that are added to the beginning or end of another word. They are not words in their own right and cannot stand on their own in a sentence: if they are printed on their own they have a hyphen before or after them.
Prefixes
Prefixes are added to the beginning of an existing word in order to create a new word with a different meaning. For example:
word prefix new word happy un- unhappy cultural multi- multicultural work over- overwork space cyber- cyberspace market super- supermarket
Suffixes
Suffixes are added to the end of an existing word. For example:
word suffix new word child -ish childish work -er worker taste -less tasteless idol -ize/-ise idolize/idolise like -able likeable
The addition of a suffix often changes a word from one word class to another. In the table above, the verb like becomes the adjective likeable, the noun idol becomes the verb idolize, and the noun child becomes the adjective childish.
Word creation with prefixes and suffixes
Some prefixes and suffixes are part of our living language, in that people regularly use them to create new words for modern products, concepts, or situations. For example:
word prefix or suffix new word security bio- biosecurity clutter de- declutter media multi- multimedia email -er emailer