AFFIXES: The building blocks of

English

Just for fun!

Let’s suffer from verbomania!

insane fondness for animals zoomania

morbid craving for poisons toxicomania

obsession with stamp-collecting stampomania

craze for starting fires pyromania

obsession with music musomania

irrational craving for water hydromania

craze for flowers florimania

Are you afraid of words?

Hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobia

Fear of long words

Let’s suffer from phronemophobia!

fear of heights acro/altophobia

fear of numbers arithmophobia

fear of being alone or of oneself autophobia

fear of books bibliophobia

fear of ugliness cacophobia

fear of meat carnophobia

fear of time chronophobia

Let’s suffer from phronemophobia!

fear of computers cyberphobia

fear of dentists dentophobia

fear of confined spaces claustrophobia

fear of sexual love erotophobia

fear of hearing good news euphobia

fear of nudity gymnophobia

fear of words logophobia

What is an affix?What is an affix?

An affix is a word element - a prefix, suffix, or infix - that can be attached to a base or root to form a new word.

Noun: affixation Adjectives: affixable and affixal

What is an affix?What is an affix?

Affixes are of two types:prefixes, occurring before the stem of a word, and suffixes, occurring after.

English does not have affixes in large numbers--about fifty common prefixes and somewhat fewer common suffixes.

What is an affix?What is an affix?

Prefixes include dis-, mal-, ex-, and semi-, as in disinterested, malformed, ex-husband, and semi-detached. Suffixes include -ship, -ness, -ette, and -let, as in hardship, goodness, kitchenette, and booklet.

What is an affix?What is an affix?

Clusters of affixes can be used to build up complex words:

nation, national, nationalize, nationalizationdenationalization, antidenationalization

Some Common Greek and Latin roots:

Root (source) Meaning English words

aster, astr (G) star astronomy, astrology

audi (L) to hear audible, auditorium

bene (L) good, well benefit, benevolent

bio (G) life biology, autobiography

dic, dict (L) to speak dictionary, dictator

Some Common Greek and Latin roots:

Root (source) Meaning English words

fer (L) to carry transfer, referral

fix (L) to fasten fix, suffix, affix

geo (G) earth geography, geology

log, logue (G) word, thought,speech

monolog(ue), astrology, biology, neologism

luc (L) light lucid, translucent

Some Common Greek and Latin roots:

Root (source) Meaning English words

manu (L) hand manual, manuscript

meter, metr (G) measure metric, thermometer

path (G) feeling pathetic, sympathy, empathy

phys (G) body, nature physical, physics

scrib, script (L) to write scribble, manuscript

Some Common Greek and Latin roots:

Root (source) Meaning English words

tele (G) far off telephone, television

ter, terr (L) earth territory, extraterrestrial

vac (L) empty vacant, vacuum, evacuate

verb (L) word verbal, verbose

vid, vis (L) to see video, vision, television

What is an affix?What is an affix?

“Over half the words in English are there because of processes of this kind (i.e., affixation). And this is one reason why children's vocabulary grows so quickly once they learn some prefixes and suffixes."

(David Crystal, How Language Works. Overlook, 2006)

Prefixes showing quantity

Meaning Prefixes in English Words

half semiannual, hemisphere

one unicycle, monarchy, monorail

two binary, bimonthly, dilemma, dichotomy

hundred century, centimeter, hectoliter

thousand millimeter, kilometer

Prefixes showing negationwithout, no, not asexual, anonymous, illegal, immoral,

invalid,irreverent, unskillednot, absence of, opposing, against

nonbreakable, antacid, antipathy, contradict

opposite to, complement to

counterclockwise, counterweight

do the opposite of, remove, reduce

dehorn, devitalize, devalue

do the opposite of, deprive of

disestablish, disarm

wrongly, bad misjudge, misdeed

Prefixes showing direction or positionabove, over supervise, supererogatory

across, over transport, translate

below, under infrasonic, infrastructure, subterranean,hypodermic

in front of proceed, prefix

behind recedeout of erupt, explicit, ecstasyinto injection, immerse, encourage, empower

around circumnavigate, perimeterwith coexist, colloquy, communicate, consequence,

correspond, sympathy, synchronize

Suffixes, on the other hand, modify the meaning of a word and frequently determine its function within a sentence. Take the noun nation, for example. With suffixes, the word becomes the adjective national, the adverb nationally, and the verb nationalize.

Typical noun suffixes are -ence, -ance, -or, -er, -ment, -list, -ism, -ship, -ency, -sion, -tion, -ness, -hood, -dom.

Typical verb suffixes are -en, -ify, -ize, -ate.

Typical adjective suffixes are -able, -ible, -al, -tial, -tic, -ly, -ful, -ous, -tive, -less, -ish, -ulent.

The adverb suffix is -ly (although not all words that end in -ly are adverbs—like friendly).

The “infix”The “infix”

A word element (a type of affix) that can be inserted within the base form of a word (rather than at its beginning or end) to create a new word or intensify meaning. The process of inserting an infix is called infixation.

The “infix”The “infix”

Examples and observations:

"Abso-Bleedin'-Lutely"(Quincy Jones, song in the film Walk, Don't Run, 1966)

Absobloodylutely 

The “infix”The “infix”

Examples and observations:

Infixes work in fortuitous or aggravating circumstances by emotionally aroused English speakers:

Hallebloodylujah! . . . In the movie Wish You Were Here, the main character expresses her aggravation (at another character's trying to contact her) by screaming Tell him I've gone to Singabloodypore!

The “infix”The “infix”

Examples and observations:

"English has no true infixes, but the plural suffix -s behaves something like an infix in unusual plurals like passers-by and mothers-in-law."(R.L. Trask, The Penguin Dictionary of English Grammar, 2000)

The “infix”The “infix”

Examples and observations:

FanflamingtasticUnbeflippinglievableFanfrigginstasticAbsobloominlutely

Exercises - AffixesExercises - Affixes

A man's useless tuxedo could be __________ into a woman's smart town suit. (form)

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In Garner's case, the formal elements often go unnoticed because they are __________ and made almost invisible by the emotional power and urgency of the story. (merge)

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Eduardo Duhalde, Argentina's caretaker president, today said that he would __________ the peso as he prepared to unveil a high-risk plan to end the country's economic turmoil. (value)

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The Maya priests discovered, however, that they had slightly __________ the average synodic period of Venus. (estimate)

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Of themselves, of course, the rules are normative, and their validity is thus __________ by issues of fact. (affect)

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There remained a distinctive philosophy of liberalism which could __________ the Liberals from other political parties. (differ)

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In a black leather notebook __________ with a metal clasp, he wrote: Oswestry July 18th 1829... (fast)

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The only miracle left in the nuclear dream is that more people have not __________ to the fact that nuclear power is economically - and increasingly, in that it takes much-needed funds away from renewables and efficiency - ethically, redundant. (wake)

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Frederick's reforms, however, __________ a major flaw in the progressive infatuation with scientific management. (example)

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Drugs which are rapidly inactivated have advantages, because the risk of __________ is minimized and there are no cumulative effects. (dosage)

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Sections of the population have also combined their own popular nationalism and religion with aspects of the clerical interpretation already invested in the law, particularly in the __________ movement of the early 1980s. (abortion)

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Any technical term used here, whether from __________ or anthropology, is explained in the body of the text, and the index will enable the reader to refer back to these explanation. (Marx)

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The best cure in such a case is an __________ of the law by statute. (alter)

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He not only uses __________ images to achieve rhythm but, even more subtly, uses __________ ideas for the same purpose. (repeat)

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The integral involves two __________ functions. (continue)

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It is remarkable that a cell as overtly dull and __________ as the fertilized egg can give rise to such varied and complex forms. (structure)

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Even in the university centers, perhaps only 50 per cent of cases are notified, while reporting from private practitioners is __________. (existent)

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__________ resources that took aeons to constitute are squandered in an instant, according to the "laws" of supply and demand. (replaceable)

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I try not to go to the supermarket at 5pm because it's __________________. (practice)

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He was accused of __________________ documents. (false)

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You shouldn't have done that! It was very __________________ of you. (think)

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They had to __________________ the lion before they could catch it. (tranquil)

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How many words can you “grow” from each root?

act love

talk dark

comfort excite

station suit

decide mix