Definitions


Understanding prefixes and suffixes for kids is an important part of learning English grammar.

Definition of Prefix.- It is an affix which is placed before the root of a word. Particularly in the study of languages,a prefix is also called a preformative, because it alters the form of the words to which it is affixed. For an example:

Examples of prefixes:

• unhappy : un is a negative or antonymic prefix.
• prefix, preview : pre is a prefix, with the sense of before
• redo, review. : re is a prefix meaning again.

The word prefix is itself made up of the stem fix (meaning attach, in this case), and the prefix pre- (meaning "before"), both of which are derived from Latin roots.

Definition of Suffix.- A suffix (also sometimes called a postfix or ending) is an affix which is placed after the stem of a word. Common examples are case endings, which indicate the grammatical case of nouns or adjectives, and verb endings, which form the conjugation of verbs. Particularly in the study of Semitic language a suffix is called an afformative, as they can alter the form of the words to which they are fixed.
Suffixes can carry grammatical information (inflectional suffixes) or lexical information (derivational suffixes). An inflectional suffix is sometimes called a desinence.
Some examples in European languages:

Girls, where the suffix -s marks the prural.

He makes, where suffix -s marks the third person singular present tense.

It closed, where the suffix -ed marks the past tense.

De beaux jours, where the suffix -x marks the prural.