2
inexpensive
-ful full of beautiful, painful Anglo-Saxon Usually an adjective
-less without careless, helpless Anglo-Saxon
-y characterized by/ like cloudy, fishy Anglo-Saxon
-ly characteristic of badly, friendly,
quickly
Anglo-Saxon Usually an adverb
4
th
Grade (Please review affixes from prior grades.)
Prefix Suffix Definition Examples Origin Additional
Information
under- too little/ below underfed,
underground
Anglo-Saxon
over- too much/ above overdone, overhead Anglo-Saxon
non- not nonfat, nonsense Latin
pre- before preplan, pretest Latin
bi- two bicycle, binocular Latin
tri- three tricycle, triangle Latin/ Greek
quad- four quadrilateral,
quadrant
Latin
oct- eight octagon, octopus Latin/ Greek
-ion, –ation
–sion, -tion
act of/ state of/
result of
attention, vision,
invitation
Anglo-Saxon Noun
(See 6
th
grade for
explanation)
-ness condition/ state of darkness, fairness Anglo-Saxon Usually a noun
-ly characteristic of badly, friendly,
quickly
Anglo-Saxon Usually an adverb
-ment act/ process enjoyment,
replacement
Latin
-er, -or one who/ that which baker, boxer,
conductor, survivor
Latin Usually a noun
Use –or with Latin
roots for nouns
(inventor, elevator)
Use –er with
Anglo-Saxon roots
(heater, swimmer)