Word Classes, Prefixes and Suffixes

Word Classes

All words belong to categories referred to as word classes (or parts of speech) according to the part they play in a sentence. There are nine word classes in English (Lexico by Oxford, n.d.):
1-) Nouns designate people, things, and ideas (e.g., boy, tree, happiness).
2-) Verbs describe actions, events, situations, and changes (e.g., run, rain, be, become).
3-) Adjectives qualify and/or classify nouns (e.g., a sweet perfume, an Italian woman).
4-) Adverbs modify verbs, adjectives, and other adverbs (e.g., walk slowly, be very pretty, sing really well).
5-) Pronouns substitute nouns in a sentence (e.g., he, us, mine, herself).
6-) Prepositions show connection between words in a sentence (e.g., to meet after school; to travel by train).
7-) Conjunctions connect words, phrases, clauses, and sentences (e.g., a red and white flag; I went to my friend’s house because it was her birthday).
8-) Determiners are words that introduce nouns in a sentence (e.g., a student, the student, this student, those students, every student, many students).
9-) Exclamations are words or phrases that express strong emotion (e.g., Cool! How nice!).

 

Prefixes and Suffixes

Prefixes are a letter or group of letters attached to the beginning of a word to make a new word, and suffixes are a letter or group of letters attached to the end of a word to make a new word by changing the word class of the word to which they are attached (Cambridge Dictionary Online). Be sure that you are using the correct prefix or suffix in academic writing to ensure you do not make up words.
Below are some of the most frequently used prefixes and suffixes in English.

 

Prefixes:

Some common prefixes are (Cambridge Dictionary Online):

 

Prefix	Meaning	Examples
anti-	against	antibiotic, antisocial
auto-	of or by oneself	autobiography, auto-pilot
be-	thoroughly, completely;  to make, cause, seem;  to provide with; at, on, to, for	befriend, belittle
bi-	two, twice	bicycle, bilingual
co-	with	cooperate, coworker
counter-	contrary to	counterargument, counterproductive
de-	privation, descent	decaf, degrade
dis-	not	disagree, disloyal
ex-	former	ex-student, ex-wife
ex-	out of	exhale, export
fore-	before, superior	forecast, forehead
il-/im-/in-/ir-	not	illegal, impossible, inconvenient, irresponsible
in-	inside	insert, internal
inter-	among, mutually	interdepartmental, interpersonal
intra-	inside, within	intracranial, intramural
mal-	badly, wrongly	maladjusted, malfunction
micro-	small	micro-computer, microwave
mis-	badly/wrongly	mistranslate, misunderstand
mono-	one/single	monologue, monotonous
multi-	many	multi-national, multi-purpose
non-	not	non-alcoholic, non-stop
out-	more or better than	outgrow, outnumber
over-	too much	overdo, overtired
post-	after	postgraduate, postwar
pre-	prior to	prepay, preschool
pro-	in favour of	pro-government, pro-revolutionary
pseudo-	false	pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-scientific
re-	again or back	reread, retype
semi-	half	semicircular, semi-final
sub-	under	submarine, subway
trans-	across, changing	transformation, transatlantic
un-	not lacking the opposite of	undo, unsupervised
under-	not enough	undercooked, under-used

 

Suffixes:

Some common noun suffixes are (Cambridge Dictionary Online):

Suffixes	Examples
-age	baggage, package, storage
-ance/-ence	existence, intelligence, resistance
-ant/-ent	consultant, intelligent, resistant
-cy	efficiency, emergency, frequency
-dom	free, kingdom, wisdom
-er/-or	People: teacher, worker, actor, supervisor Things: bottle-opener, pencil-sharpener, connector, projector
-er x –ee	employee, payee, trainee
-hood	childhood, brotherhood, motherhood
-ity	flexibility, productivity, scarcity
-ion/-sion/-tion/-xion	complication, admission, complexion
-ism (activity or ideology) and -ist (person) and	Activity / ideology: Buddhism, journalism, Marxism Person: anarchist, journalist, physicist
-ment	enjoyment, excitement, replacement
-ness	happiness, sadness, weakness
-ry/-ery	bakery, misery, robbery
-ship	friendship, membership, partnership

 

Some common adjective suffixes are (Cambridge Dictionary Online):

Suffixes	Examples
-able/-ible	drinkable, recognizable, flexible
-al	brutal, legal
-en	golden, wooden
-ese	Chinese, Japanese
-ful	forgetful, hopeful, useful
-ian	Brazilian, Canadian
-i	Iraqi, Pakistani
-ic	classic, poetic
-ish	British (nationality), reddish (kind of red), thirtyish  (around thirty)
-ive	active, passive, productive
-less	cloudless, harmless, useless
-ous	delicious, furious, outrageous
-y	cloudy, rainy, sunny

 

Some common adverb suffixes are (Cambridge Dictionary Online):

Suffixes	Examples
-ly	frequently, rapidly, shortly
-ward	backward, downward, upward
-wise	clockwise, edge-wise, otherwise

 

Some common verb suffixes are (Cambridge Dictionary Online):

Suffixes	Examples
-ate	communicate, demonstrate, irritate
-en	enlighten, shorten, straighten
-ify	beautify, purify, terrify
- ise/-ize	commercialise/commercialize industrialise/industrialize modernise/modernize

 

References

English Grammar Today. Word classes and phrase classes. Retrieved from http://dictionary.cambridge.org/pt/gramatica/gramatica-britanica/word-classes-and-phrase-classes

Mccarthy, M.; & O’Dell, F. (1994). English vocabulary in use: intermediate & advanced. Cambridge University Press.

Prefixes. In Cambridge Dictionary Online. Available at https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/prefixes

Suffixes. In Cambridge Dictionary Online. Available at https://dictionary.cambridge.org/grammar/british-grammar/suffixes

TESOL. Word classes in English grammar. Retrieved from: https://www.tesol-direct.com/tesol-resources/english-grammar-guide/word-classes/