Affixes

What Are Affixes?

An affix is added to the root of a word to change its meaning. There are two types of affix: a prefix and a suffix.

• Prefix. When an affix is added to the front of a word, it is called a prefix. Here are three examples:
• un- in undo, pre- in premature, mis- in misunderstand
• Suffix. When an affix is added to the back, it is called a suffix. Here are three examples:
• -ship in friendship, -ness in kindness, -ful in hopeful

Sometimes, prefixes are hyphenated. When an affix is added to a base word, it can completely transform the word's meaning.

Easy Examples of Affixes

Here are some examples of affixes:

• incapable
(The affix is the prefix in.)
• ex-President
(The affix is the prefix ex-.)
• laughing
(The affix is the suffix -ing.)

Real-Life Examples of Affixes

The four most common prefixes are dis-, in-, re-, and un-. (These account for over 95% of prefixed words.) Here they are in some quotations.

• He has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire. (Prime Minister Winston Churchill)
• I inspire myself. (American actor Tommy Wiseau)
• May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears. (South African President Nelson Mandela)
• What consumes your mind controls your life. (Unknown philosopher)

The four most common suffixes are -ed, -ing, -ly, and -es. (These account for over 95% of suffixed words.) Here they are in some quotations.

• Normality is a paved road: it's comfortable to walk but no flowers grow. (Artist Vincent van Gogh)
• Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are. (Singer Kurt Cobain)
• To live will be an awfully big adventure. (Peter Pan)
• Many foxes grow gray but few grow good. ("The First American" Benjamin Franklin)

A List of Common Prefixes

Here is a list of common prefixes with some examples:

Prefix	Meaning	Example
a-, an-	without	amoral, atypical
ante-	before	antecedent, antenatal
anti-	against	anti-establishment
auto-	self	autopilot
circum-	around	circumvent
co-	with	co-conspirator, co-pilot
com-, con-	with	companion, contact
contra-	against	contradiction
de-	off	delist, devalue
dis-	not	disappear
en-	put into	enclose, envelop
ex-	out of, former	extract, ex-governor
extra-	beyond, more than	extracurricular
hetero-	different	heterosexual
homo-	same	homonym, homophone
hyper-	over, more	hyperactive
il-, im-, in-, ir-	not, without	illegal, impractical, inconsiderate, irresponsible
in-	into	insert
inter-	between	internet, intersection,
intra-	inside	intranet, intravenous
macro-	large	macronutrients
micro-	small	microscope
mono-	one	monocle
non-	not, without	nonentity, nonstarter,
omni-	all, every	omnipresent, omniscient
post-	after	post-mortem
pre-, pro-	before, forward	precede, project
sub-	under	submarine, substandard
syn-	same time	synchronize
super-	above	supervisor, superhuman
trans-	across	transmit
tri-	three	tripod, triceratops
un-	not	undone, unfinished,
uni-	one	unicorn, unilaterally

A List of Common Suffixes

Here is a list of common suffixes with some examples:

Suffix	Meaning	Example
-able, -ible	can be done	comfortable, passable
-al, -ial	having the characteristics of	personal
-ed	past-tense verbs (weak verbs)	danced, jumped
-en	made of	golden, wooden
-er	comparative	tidier, nicer
-er, -or	one who	actor, narrator, worker
-est	superlative	nicest, greatest
-ful	full or full of	cupful, careful
-ic	having characteristics of	linguistic, sarcastic
-ing	verb form (present participle and gerund)	dancing, singing
-ion, -tion, -ation, ition	act or process	attraction, attrition
-ity, -ty	state of	humility, infinity
-ive, -ative, itive	adjective form of a noun	expensive, plaintive
-less	without	topless, fearless
-ly	adverb ending	nicely, quickly
-ment	action or process	enjoyment, entrenchment
-ness	state of, condition of	eagerness, kindness
-ous, -eous, -ious	possessing the qualities of	erroneous, joyous
-s, -es	plural	tables, foxes
-y	characterized by	fatty, happy, jumpy

Why Affixes Are Important

There are five good reasons to know about affixes.

(Reason 1) Using an affix to reduce the word count in your sentence

A word's meaning is changed when an affix is added. Sometimes, you can exploit this to reduce your word count by one or two words and to create a more flowing text.

• Not aware > unaware
• Not sure > unsure
• Check again > recheck
(Incidentally, be careful with the word recheck. It means to perform a second check. All too often, it is mistakenly used for a first check.)
• to bake cakes > baking cakes
• a comparison of the data shows > comparing the data shows

In the two examples above, the suffix -ing has been used to create a gerund (a type of noun that can take an object). Using gerunds is a great way of creating more succinct, natural-sounding sentences.

(Reason 2) Breaking down long words to help with spelling

The word antidisestablishmentarianism (a 19th-century political position that sought the removal of the Anglican Church's status as the state church of England, Ireland and Wales) is best known not for what it represents but for its length (28 letters and 12 syllables). It was not uncommon for school children in the 80s to ask each other to spell antidisestablishmentarianism, due to its use in the comedy series "The Young Ones." This was an impossible task, surely? Well, no. If you break it down into affixes, it's pretty simple.

• Anti-dis-establ-ish-ment-arian-ism

This is well-used technique to help with spelling.

(Reason 3) Breaking down long words to help with decoding their meaning

Studying affixes in a word (especially if you know its root) can help with understanding its meaning.

• disrespectfully breaks down to dis-respect-ful-ly
(Dissecting disrespectfully gets you to something like "not-respect-full of-adverb," which would lead to something like "done in a manner that is full of no respect." That's a pretty good clue as its meaning.)

Not useful? Well, try understanding these without dissecting them:

• lonelinesslessness
(With three suffixes, this is the concept of no loneliness.)
• semihemidemisemiquaver
(With four prefixes, this a hundred twenty-eighth note.)

Looking at affixes to ascertain a word's meaning is particularly useful for non-native speakers. In truth, native speakers do it too, but we do it so quickly, we often don't realise we're doing it.

(Reason 4) Knowing whether to use a hyphen with a prefix

The guidance governing whether to use a hyphen with a prefix is quite complicated, but, luckily, this is one of those times when you're safe to fly by the seat of your pants. This is a good rule of thumb: Don't use a hyphen after prefix, but if it looks too unwieldy, use one. Read more about using hyphens in prefixes.

(Reason 5) Knowing when to capitalize a prefix

A prefix is not written with a capital letter unless it starts the sentence or is an integral part of a proper noun.

• Ex-President Smith will meet ex-President Jones later.
(The first prefix (Ex-) starts the sentence, so the capital letter is correct.)
• Please show me the Baxter Inter-Department Programme.
(The prefix Inter- is part of the proper noun, so the capital letter is correct.)
• Will you attend this year's anti-Nazi rally?
(The prefix anti- is not part of the proper noun, so the lowercase letter is correct.)

Key Points

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