Word Building — Unit 24, Pre-intermediate to Intermediate English
Prefixes, suffixes, word families — nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and compound patterns.
Reading: How Prefix Practice Improved My Writing
At the start of the term, my teacher said my essays were understandable but repetitive. She suggested a weekly word-building plan focused on **prefix** and **suffix** patterns. I began with common forms like **un-** and **re-**, then practiced turning **verbs** into **nouns** and **adjectives**. Although memorizing lists felt boring, short sentence tasks made the process easier.
Each Tuesday, I rewrote a paragraph using related words from one **root**. For example, I changed "agree" to "disagreement" and "organize" to "organization." Because I tracked mistakes in a notebook, I noticed progress after three weeks. If I was unsure, I checked a learner **dictionary** to confirm meaning and form. This habit reduced grammar errors and made my writing more precise.
Before the final assessment, I reviewed all patterns and created mini **quizzes** for myself. The result was not perfect; however, my teacher said the essay sounded more natural and varied. I learned that **word building** is practical, not just theoretical. It also improved my reading speed and confidence in class. When students understand how forms connect, they can guess new vocabulary more confidently and express ideas with greater flexibility in both exams and professional communication.
The part that helped most was not the lists. It was a single question my teacher made me ask of every new word: what else does this word become?
Take "decide". On its own it is a **verb**. But it also gives me the **noun** decision, the **adjective** decisive, and the negative indecisive. That is four usable words from one, and I already knew the meaning of all four the moment I saw the pattern.
She also warned me about two traps, and I fell into both.
The first is spelling changes. Words rarely take a **suffix** cleanly. Happy becomes happiness, not happyness. Argue becomes argument, not arguement — a mistake I made in three consecutive essays.
The second trap is stress. In English the stress often moves when the form changes: PHOtograph, phoTOGraphy, photoGRAPHic. Nobody told me this for years, and it is the reason my spoken vocabulary lagged behind my written one.
By March I had filled forty pages of the notebook. Perhaps half of it I have since forgotten.
But something else happened that I could not have predicted. I now guess unfamiliar words correctly far more often. When I met "inaccessible" in a reading text last week, I did not know it — and I did not need to. I could see in-, access, -ible, and the meaning simply arrived.
That is the real reason to do this.
Vocabulary from this unit
| Term | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| base word | the main part of a word | happy, friend, create |
| prefix | added to the beginning to change meaning | unhappy, rewrite, disagree |
| suffix | added to the end to change the word type | happiness, friendly, creative |
| Prefix | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| un- | not | unhappy, unfair, unable |
| in- | not | incorrect, incomplete, invisible |
| im- | not (before m/p/b) | impossible, impatient, impolite |
| il- | not (before l) | illegal, illogical |
| ir- | not (before r) | irregular, irresponsible |
| dis- | opposite of | disagree, dislike, disappear |
| mis- | wrongly | misunderstand, mistake |
| re- | again | rewrite, rebuild, return |
| over- | too much | overcook, overweight, oversleep |
| under- | not enough | underestimate, undercook, underpaid |
| pre- | before | preview, prepare, preschool |
| post- | after | postpone, postgraduate |
| anti- | against | antisocial, antiageing |
| co- | together | cooperate, coexist |
| Suffix | Base Word | Noun | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| -ment | develop | development | the act of developing |
| -ment | achieve | achievement | something achieved |
| -ion / -tion | decide | decision | a choice made |
| -ion / -tion | discuss | discussion | talking about something |
| -ness | happy | happiness | the state of being happy |
| -ness | kind | kindness | the quality of being kind |
| -er / -or | teach | teacher | a person who teaches |
| -er / -or | invent | inventor | a person who invents |
| -ist | art | artist | a person who creates art |
| -ity / -ty | able | ability | being able to do something |
4 more vocabulary sections in the full unit.
This is the free sample from this unit. The full unit adds 1 more reading passage, comprehension questions with an answer key, the listening exercises, flashcards for the vocabulary above, and a speaking task — with your progress tracked so the next unit unlocks when you are ready for it.
Common questions
What level is this unit?
Pre-intermediate to Intermediate — roughly CEFR A2–B1. If you are not sure of your level, the course places you with a short diagnostic before you start rather than making you guess.
Do I need to pay to use this?
The reading passage and vocabulary on this page are free to read. The rest of the unit — the remaining passages, the exercises, the listening, the answer key and the progress tracking — is part of the paid General English course.
Is this British or American English?
British English spelling and vocabulary, which is what most learners in Azerbaijan are taught and what IELTS expects, though both are accepted in the exam.