Which affixes are placed in front of words?

Which affixes are placed in front of words?

• A. Prefixes
• B. Suffixes
• C. Circumfixes
• D. Infixes

Answer: (A)

Placing something at the front of a base word is how prefixes work. A prefix is attached to the beginning of a word to change its meaning or its grammatical function. For example, adding un- to happy gives unhappy, signaling negation; adding re- to do gives redo, meaning again. This front-placed modification is a common way English builds new forms and expresses relationships. Suffixes, by contrast, attach at the end of a word, such as -ing or -ed, and they alter tense, aspect, or the word’s part of speech without changing the starting position. Circumfixes wrap around a word on both sides in some languages, but they’re not a standard feature of English. Infixes insert inside the word, which also isn’t a typical pattern in English spelling. So the front-placing affix identified here corresponds to prefixes.

Placing something at the front of a base word is how prefixes work. A prefix is attached to the beginning of a word to change its meaning or its grammatical function. For example, adding un- to happy gives unhappy, signaling negation; adding re- to do gives redo, meaning again. This front-placed modification is a common way English builds new forms and expresses relationships.

Suffixes, by contrast, attach at the end of a word, such as -ing or -ed, and they alter tense, aspect, or the word’s part of speech without changing the starting position. Circumfixes wrap around a word on both sides in some languages, but they’re not a standard feature of English. Infixes insert inside the word, which also isn’t a typical pattern in English spelling. So the front-placing affix identified here corresponds to prefixes.