Prefixes and Suffixes

Question

Hi Everyone,I have a very simple question, which I thought could be answered with a quick Google search. However, this is NOT the case. Does anyone know 'exactly' how many prefixes there are in the English language, and how many suffixes?Thanks,CC

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Cup cakeDoes anyone know 'exactly' how many prefixes there are in the English language, and how many suffixes?

There are probably different ways of counting them, so in all likelihood, the answer is no. Nobody knows.

CJ

Persian Learner · Answer

Cup cakeDoes anyone know 'exactly' how many prefixes there are in the English language, and how many suffixes?

First we should make a distinction between inflectional and derivational affixes (bound morphemes).

We have just eight inlfectionals in English and they are all suffixes. By 'inflectional', it means they assume a grammatical function and represent relationships between different parts of a sentence:

1. -s

2. -ed

3. -ing

4. -en

5. -s

6. -'s

7. -er

8. -est

On the other hand, we have derivational affixes which include both prefixes and suffixes, and they always precede their inflectional counterparts. They are called 'derivational' because they assume a lexical function and when they are added to a root/stem, a new word is derived. The suffixes in this category far outnumber the prefixes.

There are 140 prefixes in English:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_prefix

And there are 976 suffixes based on the following wiki list:

https://en.wiktionary.org/w/index.php?title=Category:English_words_by_suffix

However, I wouldn't say such lists are definitely accurate or complete as they are not based on a comprehensive linguistic research.

Prefixes and Suffixes

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