Word formation

Prefixes

Adding a prefix can change the meaning of a word. Each prefix has a different meaning and can be found as a separate entry in the dictionary. For example bi- means two or twice, e.g. biannual (twice a year).

Exercises

Exercise 1a

Match the prefixes with their meaning.:

Exercise 1b

Add prefixes to the root words to fit the meaning of the sentence.

Suffixes

Suffixes often give you useful information about a word´s part of speech. For example legal (adjective), legally (adverb), legalize (verb), legalization (noun). Together, we call a group like this a word family. Knowing a word family can help you paraphrase another writer´s ideas or express yourself better.

Exercises

Exercise 2a

Sort out the suffixes below. Which part of speech do they form?

Exercise 2b

Make these verbs and adjectives into nouns.

Exercise 2c

Make these words into adjectives (there may be more options in some cases).

Exercise 2d

Make these words into verbs.

Exercise 3

Complete each gap with the correct form of the words in brackets to fix the sentence..