Word families
many words are formed from the
base words and form groups of related words:
use - disuse - unusable - misuse - useful - useless etc.
word families are formed by various prefixes or suffixes
Prefixes
prefixes meaning NOT: un-, in-, im-, il-, ir-, non- - there are some examples: unable, inconvenient, impossible, illegal, irresponsible, non-smoking
number prefixes: mono-, bi-, tri-, multi-, poly- - some examples: bicycle, triangle, polygon
position/direction prefixes: sub-, under- - some examples: submarine, underground,trans-(across) - transatlantic, pre-(before) - preschool education
Suffixes
suffixes have the effect of changing words and making them a different part of speech
suffix -ly changes an adjective into an adverb
suffix -ness makes a noun
suffixes -fy, -ize make verbs
you can find other suffixes and prefixes in dictionaries