Word Formation, Prefixes and Suffixes

What the page covers

The resources look at how words are built. Some work on prefixes and suffixes, some on root words, and some on the wider processes that create new words, such as compounding, blends and shortening.

• Gap-fill quizzes: the Word Formation quizzes for 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018 and 2019 give a short text and a prompt word, and you turn it into the right form. Answers such as enthusiastic, extremely and undoubtedly show the pattern.
• Prefix and suffix maps: the Prefixes, Suffixes, & Root Words Mind Map covers meanings such as a-/an- for not or without, and -ant/-ent for one who.
• Flashcards: decks on Latin roots, negative prefixes, morphographs and SSAT roots, prefixes and suffixes.

Where to start

Begin with the Prefixes, Suffixes, & Root Words Mind Map to see the main building blocks. Then take the Prefixes, Suffixes, & Root Words Quiz, which asks what suffixes such as -ism mean and what the root belli means.

Next, try the Prefixation quiz. It shows why im- suits possible while dis-, un- and re- do not.

Using quizzes and maps together

1. Read a map first, such as PREFIXES AND SUFFIXES WHICH ADD MEANING, which separates beginnings from endings and shows nouns formed from verbs and adjectives.
2. Take a quiz straight afterwards and note which answers slipped.
3. Go back to the map or a flashcard deck for those gaps.
4. Move on to the longer Word Formation quizzes, which use full passages, once the basics feel steady.

Learners meeting FCE-style tasks will find the passage quizzes familiar, while the SSAT deck suits those working on roots and affixes.

Where it sits

This unit belongs to the Vocabulary and Word Study strand of English language. For wider study of how words form and change, the VCE-style deck on word formation processes lists neologism, acronyms, initialisms, compounding, affixation and blends.

Pick one quiz today, then make a few flashcards of your own from the words you got wrong.