This is the podcast for the Building Vocabulary page of eapfoundation.com Building Vocabulary Although English vocabulary study can seem overwhelming at times, it can be made more systematic by considering prefixes, suffixes, and word roots, which are a useful way to build vocabulary. This section explains what these terms mean and gives reasons to study them. Some common prefixes, suffixes and roots are given in later sections. So first, what are prefixes, suffixes and word roots?
A prefix is a word component which is added to the beginning of a word to create a new word. Prefixes usually change the meaning of the word, but not the word form. For example, the prefix dis- can be added to the word similar to form the word dissimilar, meaning not similar. In contrast, a suffix is added to the end of the word to create a new word. Suffixes usually change the form of the word rather than the meaning.
For example, adding ity to the end of the word similar creates the word similarity and changes the word from an adjective to a noun. Prefixes and suffixes are collectively referred to as affixes. A root or base is the word to which affixes are attached. In the previous examples, the root is simil, also spelt simul, meaning like or resembling, to which the adjectival suffix ar has been added to make similar.
The words simulate and simultaneous also come from this root. So why study prefixes, suffixes and roots? Academic vocabulary contains a significant number of common prefixes, suffixes, and roots, mostly of Latin or Greek origin. One reason to study them is that doing so may improve vocabulary comprehension in use. Additionally, knowledge of these can be helpful in guessing the meaning of unknown words.
A final reason for studying these aspects of vocabulary is that many new technical or scientific words are made from common roots and affixes of Latin or Greek origin. As noted above, most common prefixes, suffixes and roots are of Latin or Greek origin. Studying these will be easier and lead to more improvement for speakers of Romance languages, such as French, Italian and Spanish.
or speakers of Greek. Speakers of other languages, such as Asian languages, will find them more difficult to study, and may be advised to focus on only the most common ones. The following sections list only the most common examples of prefixes, suffixes and roots in English.