This week’s column topic is My unforgettable journey, and the word “unforgettable” has both a prefix and a suffix, so for anyone studying English, here is some information about these very common and useful word parts!

A prefix comes at the beginning of a word and can change the meaning of that word.

Ex. reevaluate (“re-” is a suffix that means “again”, so this means to “evaluate again”) 

A suffix comes at the end of a word and can change the part of speech (e.g. a verb can become a noun, an adjective can become an adverb, etc.).

Ex. government (“-ment” is a suffix that creates a noun, in this case from the verb “govern”)

Let’s go back to the word unforgettable. “Un-” is a prefix that creates the opposite (or negative) meaning) and “-able” is a suffix that creates an adjective. So, if you know some prefixes and suffixes, you can guess the meaning or part of speech (e.g. adjective) of unfamiliar words just by looking at them.

Here are a few more common prefixes:

Sub- means “under”, like subway.

Pre- means “before”, like preview.

In-, like un-, creates the opposite / negative meaning, like insensitive.

Inter- means “between” or “among”, like international. 

Here are a few more common suffixes:

-tion creates a noun, like information.

-ible, like -able, creates an adjective, like flexible.

-ize creates a verb, like terrorize. 

-ly creates an adverb, like quickly, but be careful of exceptions, like friendly (which is an adjective, not an adverb!) 

There are many more prefixes and suffixes, and it’s easy to find lists of them and their meanings online. Take a look and see if you can find some new ones!

Here’s one last suffix that is informal but very useful: “-ish”. This suffix means “kind of”, “similar to”, or “resembling” and it’s similar to っぽい in Japanese. For example, something can be “reddish” if it’s almost but not quite red. It is often attached to all sorts of words to make new, informal adjectives, so have fun with it!

I hope this will inspire you to learn more about prefixes and suffixes in English!

Zach