What are the Differences between Prefix, Suffix and Affix

Affix represents the dependent part of the word and can precede or follow a root word. A word can have multiple affixes. The position of affixes in relation to a root word is always fixed and mostly the affixes are non specific. It is not mandatory that a word needs to have an affix always; some words do exist without any affix and are called as root words. For example, the word “desire” does not have any affix attached but again affix “able” can be appended at the end to change the meaning as “desirable”.

Examples of affix:

•    De  -  de means down or away (prefix)

•    Dis - dis means not (prefix)

•    Im -  im means into or in (prefix)

•    Sub -  sub means close to or under (prefix)

•    Multi - multi means many (prefix)

•    Ant- a person – noun (suffix)

•    Ion - ion is an abstract noun (suffix)

•    Ful -  ful is an adjective (suffix)

•    Ed - ed is past tense (suffix)

•    Ment - ment is an abstract noun (suffix)

Prefix : Prefix denotes the type of affix which is appended at the beginning of a word to give it a different meaning.  The most commonly used prefix is “Un” which can change the meaning of the actual word to have an opposite meaning. For example,  if “un” is added or prefixed with the root word “healthy” it would give a new meaning as “unhealthy”. Similarly, if “under” is added before the word “estimate” it would result in a new word “underestimate” which gives a different meaning altogether. Some of the other commonly used prefixes are pre, semi, mid, over, non, re, etc.

Examples of prefix:

•    Pre  + View = Preview

•    Sub + Way= Subway

•    Mis + Spell = Misspell

•    Under + Estimate = Underestimate

•    Re + Locate = Relocate

•    Non + Stop = Nonstop

•    Un + Happy = Unhappy

•    Im + possible = Impossible

•    Dis + Credit = Discredit

•    Over + Charge  = Overcharge

Suffix

The suffix denotes the type of affix which is appended at the end of the root word, thereby changing the part of the speech.  A suffix can be either derivational or inflectional.  A suffix which ends up creating same word in different forms are called inflectional suffix. These kind of suffix mostly end with s, ed, ing, en, er or est.

Examples of inflectional suffix:

•    Sing + Ing = Singing

•    Smart + Est = Smartest

•    Stop + Ed  = Stopped

•    Dance + Er = Dancer

•    Sharp + En = Sharpen

•    Like + S = Likes

•    Work + Ed = Worked

•    Big + Er = Biger

•    Small + Est = Smallest

•    Car + S = Cars

Suffixes which end up changing the meaning of the words are called as derivational suffix. Words ending with characters such as able, ism, ful, ly and ity are derivational suffix. One thing here is that derivational suffix can be combined to give a different meaning. For example, able + ity = ability and when ability is suffixed to root word desire the final word is desirability.

Examples of derivational suffix:

•    Fix + Eble = Fixable

•    Prince + Ess = Princess

•    Develop + Ment = Development

•    Friend + Ship = Friendship

•    Hard + Ship = Hardship

•    Scholar + Ly = Scholarly

•    Mother + Ly = Motherly

•    Joy + Ful = Joyful

•    Public + Ity = Publicity

•    Drink + Able = Drinkable

More >> Affixes in English Grammar

How to Write a Personal Essay for College

Every college would like to know the person you are before they accept you as a student. Academic is something they can track through your score cards, but knowing your background, culture they can very well determine whether you would fit in their academic structure and can also devise a plan of improvement for your career. Hence personal essays come in to picture where in they look for the personal traits which the students mention in the essays. As all fingers in our hand are different and have a different use in the same way each and every person is unique in his /her way. It is not necessary that every student will have special talents or tragedies to speak about. If we focus on all small experiences we have had in life that can make each of us unique if we can articulate them in a proper way. Mostly colleges are looking at how you visualize your experience and how you speak about it. Having said. that let us use below mentioned tips to make our life easy while writing these essays.

•    Open with an anecdote: Since numerous applications are received by admission officers, they won’t have much time to go through the details of the essays. To make your essay effective start the essay with a moment which has made a long lasting effect on you. This basically enables in placing a hook for the officer to go into the details as short stories are quite influential. Try to relate the event on your personality and how it has changed you.

•    Put yourself in school’s position: At the end of the day everyone wants to be successful and want to get associated with successful persons. Show your inclination and hunger to learn and develop yourself to be successful.

•    Stop trying too hard: Don’t put much effort to impress the officers. Be very straight forward and precise. Need not use any flowery sentence and be aware of self. The essays should be short, simple and interesting by smartly mentioning key points.

•  Ditch the dictionary: Don’t try to show off your vocabulary with numerous words from the dictionary. The essay should be as simple as if someone is talking in person to you. The essay should work as a marketing document for you.

•   Write what is important to you and not to them: Begin your essay keeping in mind if you are given 5 mins of time to speak them in person how would you put your words and keep the listener engaged. The officers are in want of sincerity and look at how logically you are placing your words.

•   Be natural and not fugitive: It is not necessary that everyone has gone through hardship. If you have not, then there is no point in creating an imaginary story since you do not have experience. College is mostly looking at how you collate your thoughts and visualize the consequences of such events. Creating an imaginary story would tend to be like pretending someone you are not.

•  Follow the instructions: Every college has a unique format and we should respect that while writing the personal essays. We should answer to what a college asks for and not send a generic answer.

•    Use the space to tell what your application can’t: Administrative officers are quite busy and hence won’t have time to go through every detailed essay and connect the dots. Just imagine you are speaking to an officer in person and he asks you what else I should know about you? Your essay should depict that piece of information as well but should be within the context.

What is the Difference Between a Dependent Clause and an Independent Clause

A clause is a useful component of writing. It is a group of words that encompasses a subject and a verb. When it is combined with a phrase or other parts of speech, it conveys a meaning. Usually, it acts as a sentence wherein a subject indicates the reader what the sentence is all about and a verb tells what the subject is doing. A clause is broadly categorized into two types one is dependent clause and another is an independent clause. Let us understand the differences between a dependent clause and an independent clause.

Dependent Clause

Dependent clause is also known as subordinate clause that does not expresses a complete thought or idea and cannot stand alone in a sentence. It always needs an independent clause to complete a sentence. The subordinate clause is dependent due to due to the presence of many dependent words such as since, although, even though, while, in order to, because, etc. In addition to this, it also dependent due to some conjunction including but, yet, or, and, nor, etc.

For example:

•    Although I don’t remember his name, I am sure the boy was in my school.

•    Because I partied the whole night, I forgot to do my homework

•    Since I don’t have enough money, I cannot buy a gift for her.

•    Before the ice-cream melts, you must have it.

•    Whenever you come, you will be welcome.

In the above sentences, each underlined sentence is a dependent clause which neither expresses a complete thought not does it stands alone. It depends on the main clause to convey a meaning. A subordinate clause or dependent clause is further categorized into noun phrase, adverb phrase and adjective phrase.

Independent Clause

Independent clause is also known as the main clause. An independent clause expresses a complete thought or idea. It can stand alone in a sentence as it contains a subject or a verb to complete a sentence.

For example:

•    She wants to visit Disneyland.

•    The chefs are busy preparing food for the party.

•    I like singing and dancing.

•    She is wearing a nice dress.

•    John reads books at night.

In the above sentences, complete thoughts were expressed. For instance, in the last sentence, ‘John’ is the subject and ‘read’ is a verb, which make it a meaningful sentence. Hence, the sentence is considered as an independent clause.

Singular and Plural Indefinite Pronouns Examples in Sentences

Indefinite pronouns are the ones which do not have any specific meaning or better to say that these are not specific to replace any particular noun. These pronouns never refer back to object, person or subject. It can be either plural or singular, but must tally in number with the verb. Sometimes the pronoun can be both singular as well as plural depending on the usage in the sentence.

Singular Pronoun

A singular pronoun uses verbs and personal pronoun which are singular in nature. Some of the commonly used singular pronouns are another, anybody, anything, everybody, no one, somebody, something, someone, etc.  One easy way to remember such pronouns are words ending with one, thing, and the body are singular in nature. Some examples of singular pronouns are as follows:

•    Everybody is present here.

•    Anyone can understand what is happening here.

•    Everyone was happy seeing the happy ending of the movie.

•    Somebody left his notepad in the library.

If you see the above sentences you would see that they sound like referring to a number of people and hence should be plural but actually it should be interpreted as we are referring to every individual person and hence we are not using plural form. Some examples of incorrect usage of singular pronouns are as follows:

•    Everybody are present. (It is incorrect).

•    Somebody left their notepads in the library. (It is incorrect)

Plural Pronoun

A plural pronoun uses verbs which are plural in nature. Words like them, their, they are plural in nature and require a plural pronoun. Some of the commonly used plural pronouns are many, few, both, several, all, etc. Some examples of plural pronouns are mentioned below:

•    Several files are filled with quotation errors.

•    Both of them are going to a movie tonight.

•    Few of the samples are being considered to be taken for second round of testing.

•    All of them are guilty for not following the rules.

Pronouns both as Singular as well as Plural

These are the tricky ones which can behave both ways depending on the noun they are replacing. The rule of thumb here is prepositional phrases follows the pronoun and the pronoun must tally with the object in prepositional phrases in terms of number. Some of the commonly used pronouns are most, either, none, some, etc. Few examples for such dual usages are as follows:

•    Most of the questions are out of syllabus. ----Plural usage

•    Most often he is quite. ----Singular usage

•    All is well. ----Singular usage

•    All of them failed to get good grades in the exam. ----Plural usage.

Well here you can learn more about Indefinite Pronouns.