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Word Formation: Prefixes, Suffixes and Compounding — 3rd Year Secondary School (Bac) English

📋 Lesson Card

Subject English
Level 3rd Year Secondary School (Baccalaureate)
Unit Grammar and Vocabulary

🎯 Learning Objectives

  • Understand how prefixes and suffixes change the meaning and part of speech of words
  • Learn common prefixes (un-, re-, dis-, mis-, over-, under-, pre-, etc.)
  • Learn common suffixes to form nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs
  • Practice word formation through compound words
  • Apply word formation skills in Bac exam exercises

📍 Introduction

Word formation is a key skill for the Bac English exam. By understanding how prefixes and suffixes work, you can guess the meaning of new words and expand your vocabulary. This is particularly useful for the reading comprehension section and for writing tasks.

📖 I. Prefixes

A prefix is added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning. The most common prefixes in English are:

Prefix Meaning Example
un- not / opposite happy → unhappy, fair → unfair
dis- not / opposite agree → disagree, appear → disappear
re- again write → rewrite, build → rebuild
mis- wrongly understand → misunderstand, spell → misspell
over- too much load → overload, estimate → overestimate
under- too little estimate → underestimate, developed → underdeveloped
pre- before view → preview, pay → prepay
inter- between national → international, act → interact
il-/im-/in-/ir- not legal → illegal, possible → impossible, correct → incorrect, regular → irregular

📖 II. Suffixes

A suffix is added to the end of a word and usually changes its grammatical category (part of speech).

Noun suffixes:

Suffix Examples
-tion / -sion educate → education, decide → decision
-ment develop → development, achieve → achievement
-ness happy → happiness, kind → kindness
-ity active → activity, possible → possibility
-ance / -ence important → importance, different → difference
-er / -or teach → teacher, act → actor

Adjective suffixes:

Suffix Examples
-ful beauty → beautiful, hope → hopeful
-less care → careless, home → homeless
-able / -ible comfort → comfortable, access → accessible
-ive create → creative, act → active
-ous danger → dangerous, fame → famous
-al nature → natural, culture → cultural

📖 III. Compounding

Compounding is joining two words to create a new word with a new meaning:

  • Noun + Noun: bedroom (bed + room), football (foot + ball)
  • Adjective + Noun: greenhouse (green + house), blackboard (black + board)
  • Noun + Verb: sunrise (sun + rise), rainfall (rain + fall)

✏️ Bac-style Exercise

Complete the sentences with the correct form of the word in brackets:

  1. The ________ (develop) of technology has changed our lives.
  2. It is ________ (legal) to drive without a licence.
  3. She showed great ________ (creative) in her project.
  4. The situation was ________ (hope); they had to find a solution.
  5. ________ (understand) between cultures can cause conflicts.
🟢 Click to see answers
  1. development
  2. illegal
  3. creativity
  4. hopeless
  5. Misunderstanding

💡 Summary

Word formation helps you understand and use English more effectively. Prefixes change the meaning of words (e.g., un- = not, re- = again). Suffixes change the part of speech (e.g., -tion makes verbs into nouns, -ful makes nouns into adjectives). Compounding creates new words by joining two words together. Mastering these patterns will improve both your reading comprehension and your writing for the Bac exam.

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