Introduction to Roots and Affixes

These five simple, step-by-step lessons will help you understand and practice the basics of English word construction: prefixes, suffixes, and roots.

Increase your vocabulary quickly by learning how to recognize new words based on the word parts you already know.

You’ll study different word forms made by adding suffixes. Then you can practice choosing the correct forms of these words. Fit them into different positions in a sentence. (“The results showed conclusively…” v.s. “The major conclusion of the report…”)

Recognizing the suffixes that mark different parts of speech will improve your grammar. They can help you gain confidence in expressing yourself in English.

You will learn how prefixes add to or change the meaning of roots. Then you'll practice recognizing those changes in meaning.

You will study and work with several common roots until they are quite familiar. You may also be surprised how many roots you already recognize because you know several words made from them!

Some of the lessons will seem quite simple, especially if you have been reading in English for a while (or if you speak French, Spanish, Italian, or Portuguese, which use many of the same roots and prefixes.)

However, the lessons build on each other, and I wanted to make it easy even if you do not have much experience with English prefixes or suffixes.

Each lesson should take you from 15 minutes to half an hour. (You might need extra time for the bonus in lesson 5, but probably not much.)

So you can easily finish all the lessons in a week or so. Then you'll have a big head start on recognizing new English words since so many are built with roots and affixes.

Short, varied exercises (and a quiz at the end of each lesson) let you practice each new point.