McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Objectives: This chapter will help you recognize and spell: Twenty common prefixes Twenty common suffixes Twenty common roots Part Three, A Brief Guide to Important Word Skills Understanding Word Parts

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. One way to improve your pronunciation and spelling is to increase your understanding of common word parts. Prefixes, suffixes and roots are building blocks in forming many English words. Increasing your awareness of basic words parts will help you pronounce many unfamiliar words, figure out their meanings, and remember how to spell them. Word parts are like part of a puzzle.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Prefixes Prefix = a word part added to the BEGINNING of a word. The prefix changes the meaning of some words to their opposites. mis + understanding A prefix need not change a word to its opposite, but it will alter the meaning in some way. re + view

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Some common prefixes monoalone, one transacross, over, beyond disapart, away prebefore interbetween, among subunder, below exout misbadly, wrong contogether, with postafter, following, later

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Some common prefixes antiagainst probefore, for (in favor of) unnot, reverse adto, towards innot, within extramore than reagain, back malbad comwith, together with dedown, from

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Suffixes Suffix = a word part added to the END of the word. While a suffix may affect a word’s meaning slightly, it is more likely to affect how the word is used in a sentence. Very often, one of several suffixes can be added to a single word. Understanding common suffixes is especially helpful when you are learning new words. If you note the suffixes that can be added to a new word, you will learn not just a single word but perhaps three or four other forms of the word as well.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Some common suffixes ion (tion)ship lessable (ible) ant (ent)ence (ance) nessify (fy) enate ize (ise)ly ageious (ous) istor (er) mentism fulery (ary)

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Roots Root = a basic word part to which prefixes, suffixes, or both are added. Some common roots at times change their spelling slightly, especially in the last one or two letters.

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Some common roots duc (duct)take, lead mit (miss)send, let go portcarry voc (vok)call tract (trac)draw autoself pathfeeling cept (capt) take, seize dict (dic)say, tell, speak script (scrib)write

McGraw-Hill © 2007 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved. Some common roots vers (vert) turn tang (tact)touch cess (ced)go, move, yield siststand gressgo pend (pens)hang, weigh psychmind vid (vis)see spec (spic)look graphwrite