About Englis affix

1. Roots and Affixes
How words are created?

2. Root or base word
• A root is a word part that comes from another language, such as Greek
or Latin. A root word may or may not have a meaning. It can not be
reduced to a smaller part.
e.g. speak solve talk dis- -able -ness
• A base word is the form of a word to which prefixes and suffixes can be
added to create new words. It has a meaning on its own, and it is a
word that can stand on its own.
instruct
instruction instructor reinstruct

3. Differences of root and base word
• New words can be formed using root words and base words by
adding suffixes or prefixes, and several affixes can be added to root
words to have a meaning.
• A root word is the basic linguistic unit, and it is the original form of a
word while a base word is a word in its simplest form.
E.g. They repainted the old car.
re + paint + ed
prefix base suffix

4. Affixes
• An affix is a word part that can be attached to either a root or a
base word to create a new word.
• Affixes can be divided into two categories: prefixes (appear at
the beginning of words) and 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
Dis- not -ous adjectival suffix

5. Apply
• For example one could analyze the word intangible, using the chart
shown previously.
• First break the word into its parts:
Prefix Root suffix English word
In- + tang + -ible = intangible
Tang is a latin root meaning “touch”
In- is a prefix meaning “not”
-ible is a suffix meaning “able to”

6. Derivation and inflection
• Derivation: by adding a prefix or suffix, such as -ness or un-. For
example, happiness and unhappy derive from the base word happy.
• Inflection: refers to modification of a word to express
different grammatical categories such
as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, and mood.

7. Derivation
• adjective-to-noun: -ness (slow → slowness)
• adjective-to-verb: -ise (modern → modernise) or -ize (final → finalize)
• adjective-to-adjective: -ish (red → reddish)
• adjective-to-adverb: -ly (personal → personally)
• noun-to-adjective: -al (recreation → recreational)
• noun-to-verb: -fy (glory → glorify)
• verb-to-adjective: -able (drink → drinkable)
• verb-to-noun (abstract): -ance (deliver → deliverance)
• verb-to-noun (agent): -er (write → writer)

8. Inflection