lesson
Updated 1 month ago Β· 5 views
Have you ever run into a monster word like unpredictable or disqualification and felt your brain freeze up?
Long words look intimidating, but they are actually just Lego towers built from smaller, familiar word parts.
Word Anatomy: Bases and Affixes
A base word is the core part of a word that holds the main meaning and can usually stand on its own, like play or act.
An affix is a word part added to a base word to change its meaning or how it works in a sentence. We call an affix added to the front a prefix (like re- or un-), and an affix added to the end a suffix (like -ful or -tion).
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How do you break down any huge multisyllabic word you find in a science or history book? Let's use the Affix Peel strategy.
The 3-Step Affix Peel
Step 1: Spot and peel off the prefix from the front. Step 2: Spot and peel off the suffix from the back.
Step 3: Read the leftover base word, then blend all the parts back together smoothly from left to right.
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What happens when a base word slightly changes its spelling when a suffix attaches? Let's look closer.