Dorothy Richmond - Practice Makes Perfect: French Vocabulary Building with Suffixes and Prefixes

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These two words are part of a family of words that have the base word soft. In a family of words, the base word is the common element and contains the main idea of the word. Knowing the meaning of the base word (soft) and the meanings of the prefix (pre-) and the suffixes (-en, -ed, and -ly) helps you recognize or infer the meaning of a word like presoftened or softly. To know the meaning of an affixed base word requires that you be familiar with the possible meanings of prefixes like pre- and suffixes like -ly. Fortunately, most French prefixes have recognizable English counterparts. Suffixes, however, differ quite a bit between French and English and require careful study.

A prefix is a letter or group of letters affixed to the beginning of a base word to add to or otherwise modify the base words meaning. For example, the adjective amoral is composed of the base word moral and the prefix a-, which adds the concept of not to the meaning of the adjective. The word moral means being concerned with right and wrong; the word amoral means not being concerned with right and wrong. A prefix does not change the function of the base word: moral and amoral are both adjectives. A suffix is a letter or group of letters affixed to the end of a base word to form a new, related word. For example, the suffix -ity added to the base word moral changes the adjective moral to the noun morality.

A suffix may change the function of a word; for example, fear is a noun, but fearful is an adjective. Some French suffixes are grammatical, including endings to mark infinitives, present participles, past participles, and adverbs. These suffixes and their uses are explained in .

In this age of information and technology, it is easy to look up vocabulary and get translations online. You may even find lists of suffixes and prefixes; unfortunately, they are rarely accompanied by enough examples and they never offer in-depth analysis. By contrast, this book focuses on individual suffixes and prefixes, providing charts of words, along with their base words and the English equivalents of both. Of course, these charts are not exhaustivethere are simply too many suffixes and prefixes. You will, however, be exposed to about 4,000 words, and you will learn to modify many of the base words you already know and become an artisan of language as a result. The 160 suffixes and prefixes in this book deliver the most potential for expanding your vocabulary.

They also provide insight into families of words. The base words you have learned in your introductory French courses are but the stem of a flower. Starting with this stem, you can sketch out a beautifully blooming flower composed of many petals; these petals are the suffixed and prefixed words. The stem may be the root of the flower (frequently a Latin or Greek root), but more often, the stem is a French base word that grew out of a Latin or Greek root. This is why the term base word is used instead of root in the vocabulary charts. Practice Makes Perfect: French Vocabulary Building with Suffixes and Prefixes presents 100 suffixes and 60 prefixes, selected on the basis of their frequency and usage.

Some affixes are more common than others, but all are found in words you encounter in everyday conversation and reading, from magazine articles and newspapers to literature. Both suffixes and prefixes are grouped as beginning or intermediate/advanced. Each entry is presented with its basic meaning, its English equivalent if one exists, its part(s) of speech, and its gender if it is a noun. A short paragraph then explains and analyzes the suffix or prefix, specifying how it is used to form new words and providing other important information. At least one chart follows, presenting a list of words formed with the affix, their base words, and the English equivalents of both. If an affix appears predominantly in nouns, a chart of nouns is presented, followed by a list of related verbs and/or adjectives that are derived from the same base words as the nouns.