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    Word Building in English

    Uploaded by

    Dominika Turlej

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd

    Word Building in English

    Uploaded by

    Dominika Turlej
    19 views4 pages

    Copyright

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    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
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    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    19 views4 pages

    Word Building in English

    Uploaded by

    Dominika Turlej

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    You are on page 1of 4

    Word Building in English

    English is a very flexible language and you can build on your vocabulary and learn how to
    make new words.
    One way of doing this is to add prefixes (such as dis, pre or co) before the word.

    Here’s a list of common prefixes with their meanings and some examples.

    anti (= against)
    antibodies, anti-social

    auto (self)
    autonomous, autobiography, automobile

    bi (= two)
    bicycle

    co (= with)
    cooperate, coordinate

    contra (= against)
    contradict, contravene

    de (= remove)
    deregulate, deselect

    dis (= not)
    disappear

    il (= not)
    illegal

    im (= not)
    immaterial, immature

    inter (= between)
    international

    mis(= badly/wrongly)
    misinform, misbehave, misunderstand

    multi (= many)
    multinational

    non (= opposite)
    non-profit

    out (= more than)


    outperform, outdone
    over (= too much)
    oversleep, overwork

    post (= after)
    postpone, postnatal

    pre (= before)
    predict

    re (= again)
    rewrite, relive

    sub (= under)
    submarine

    super (= higher/improved)
    supermarket

    trans (= across)
    transatlantic

    uni (= one)
    uniform

    under (= not enough)


    underpaid, underfed

    Word Endings
    You can also make new words from the words you already know by using different endings.
    For example, “The person who employs me has a fast car”. You can make this sentence
    simpler, by replacing “the person who employs me” with “my employer”. This gives you
    “My employer has a fast car.”

    In English you can make nouns from verbs (to employ gives employer and employee). You
    can also make verbs from nouns or adjectives: government gives to govern, modern gives
    to modernise and so on. Learning what endings you can put on words means you can expand
    your vocabulary and say what you mean more easily.

    Here are some common word endings:

    Nouns
    –er /- or: a person who does something
    adviser / advisor, teacher, learner

    –ian
    optician, mathematician
    –ment: result of action
    improvement, advancement

    –ism: name of system or belief


    realism, optimism

    –ist: the person who believes in the system


    realist, optimist

    –ion
    confusion, apparition

    –ness
    happiness

    –ship
    leadership

    –ence / ance
    permanence, appearance

    –acy
    lunacy

    –age
    marriage

    –ity
    annuity

    –y
    photography

    –cy
    fluency

    Verbs
    –ify
    falsify, modify

    –ise
    modernise

    Adjectives
    –ic
    idiotic, periodic
    –ful
    awful, wonderful

    –able / ible
    comfortable, terrible

    –proof / resistant
    waterproof, childproof, fireproof

    –free
    alcohol free beer, nuclear free zone

    –less: without
    hopeless, childless

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