Word formation in English | Reading & Vocabulary Development
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There are four main kinds of word formation: prefixes, suffixes, conversion and compounds.
Prefixes
We add prefixes before the base or stem of a word.
examples | prefixes |
monorail, monolingual | mono- means ‘one’ |
multipurpose, multicultural | multi- means ‘many’ |
post-war, postgraduate | post- means ‘after’ |
unusual, undemocratic | un- means ‘not’ or ‘opposite to’ |
Suffixes
We add suffixes after the base or stem of a word. The main purpose of a suffix is to show what class of word it is (e.g. noun or adjective).
examples | suffixes |
terrorism, sexism | -ism and -dom are used to form nouns |
employer, actor | -er and -or are used to form nouns to describe people who do things |
widen, simplify | -en and -ify are used to form verbs |
reasonable, unprofitable | -able is used to form adjectives |
unhappily, naturally | -ly is a common suffix used to form adverbs |
See other kinds of word formations : Conversion, Compounding, Abbreviation, Back-formation, Loan words and new words
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