24/06/2023, 20:51 Affixes - Rules of use - World TESOL Academy

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Module 2: Words and Affixes – Rules of use

punctuation
When it comes to teaching students about affixes, there are certain rules and notes which can be useful to learn.
 Words and punctuation
– Introduction These rules can enable students not only to decipher the meaning of certain words, but also to create their own
words without help. This might not seem like such a big step, but it’s a huge moment in a student’s journey when
 Types of word - they first piece together a new word for themselves, and can give them a great sense of achievement.
Introduction

Types of word -
Prefix rules

Introduction continued
Students will often struggle to match prefixes with compatible base words. For example, it’s easy for a native
Types of word - Nouns, speaker to see that “unlegal/imlegal” is incorrect, however, new learners won’t be aware of this.

verbs, adjectives
Luckily, when it comes to negative prefixes (ones that change a word to hold an opposite meaning) there are a
number of rules which can be applied in most situations for matching suitable prefixes with base words:
 Types of word -
Pronouns, adverbs,
prepositions
Rough negative prefix rules:

 Types of word -
Words starting with ‘l’ have the prefix ‘il’ – illegal, illegible
Conjunctions,
Words starting with ‘r’ use the prefix ‘ir’ – irrelevant, irresponsible

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24/06/2023, 20:51 Affixes - Rules of use - World TESOL Academy

interjections, & Words starting with ‘m’, ‘b’ or ‘p’ use ‘im’ – impatient, immature, imbalance
determiners

 Types of word - Grouping This won’t help students to match all base words with a correct prefix, but it’ll help when dealing with many
different word classes negative prefixes – which are one of the most common uses.

 Types of word - Recap

Suffix rules
 Types of word - Quiz
Suffixes can be tricky, as there aren’t many rules that can be widely applied, however there are a few points that
Types of verb - students should be made aware of.

Introduction
First, students should know that unlike prefixes, suffixes can change the spelling of the original word. This can
Types of verb - Action often make it difficult for students to pick out the base word from the suffix itself.

and stative

Types of verb - For example:


Transitive, intransitive,
Beauty + ‘ful’ = beautiful
auxiliary, modal

 Types of verb - Phrasal,

regular and irregular Second, similar to prefixes, not all suffixes can be applied to all base words. However, with suffixes there’s less of a
structure to which words can take which suffixes, and your students will have to learn and memorize these on a
Types of verb - Recap word-by-word basis.

Types of verb - Quiz Third, each suffix can have a different meaning depending on what type of word it is attached to, and these will

also have to be memorized.
 Affixes - Introduction

 Affixes - Rules of use For example:

 Affixes - Teaching affixes ‘er’ + big = bigger (more big)

But
 Punctuation - ‘er’ + train = trainer (someone who trains)
Introduction

 Punctuation - Periods, As these can be a little complicated for new teachers, in the next page we’ll look at some further tips for
commas and colons introducing affixes to your students.

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Back to: 120-hour TEFL/TESOL course > Module 2: Words and punctuation
 Punctuation -
Apostrophes, question,
exclamation and
quotation marks

 Punctuation - Hyphens,
dashes, brackets and
slashes

 Punctuation - Recap

 Affixes & punctuation -

Quiz

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