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
When you learn English prefixes and suffixes, you’ll be able to make new words easily and quickly. It’s also a useful skill for the FCE, CAE and IELTS exams!
Check out the prefixes and suffixes exercise below to increase your English vocabulary.
Word-building
Choose the correct answer.
There’s also a 20-question exercise here.