Prefixes, Suffixes, and Root Words

​Common Prefixes and Their Meanings

• likely

• fluffy

• helpful

• hopeless

Examples: careful, cheerful, colorful, careless, washable, comfortable, teacher, driver.......

If you have the word teach, which is a verb: something that you do, and you add the suffix "-er" to the end, it becomes someone who teaches. It changes from something you do: a verb to someone: a noun. The suffix "-er" means the person who.

A root word is the most basic form of word that would have suffixes or prefixes added to it.

• take away the prefix and suffixes to find the root word

• think of the meaning of the root word before adding the prefix or suffix

• example: prepay (pay is the root word, it means to give money for an item)

• example: teacher (teach is the root word, it means to show or explain something)