In a continuous assessment, I asked my students to identify four (4) instances of suffixes. Some of the words in which they identified suffixes showed they don't yet understand how to identify the root (though I taught them) in words.
One of them, for instance, underlined (-ion) in condition as a suffix. What's wrong with this answer? I think it's their lack of understanding of what the ROOT is.
What is the root?
The root is the word that a prefix or a suffix may be added to. Let's take a few examples:
(em) + power + (ment) = empowerment
prefix (root) suffix
courage + (ous) = courageous
(root) suffix
courage + (ous) + (ly) = courageously
(root) suffix suffix
(dis) + advantage = disadvantage
(prefix) (root)
(dis) + advantage + (s) = disadvantage
(prefix) (root) (suffix)
When the root is identified in a word, the root is an independent word that is meaningful. For example, in the word condition, the root word isn't condit, because condit isn't meaningful. We therefore can say that there is no suffix in the word condition.
Let's consider another example, trigger. Since we have said that the root must be an independent word that is meaningful, it will therefore be wrong to say that trig is the root of trigger. So, there's no suffix in the word trigger. However, in a word like bigger, the root is big, because big is an independent word and it is meaningful.
Examples similar to condition and trigger in which there are no suffixes include: pension, fiction, finger, water, answer, consider, example, similar, jovial, etc.
In other words, while -ion is a suffix in correction, it is not a suffix in words such as pension, fiction, function, scorpion, etc.
In the same vein, while -er is a suffix in player, it is not a suffix in words such as finger, water, answer, consider, banner, etc.
Furthermore, while -al is a suffix in factual, it is not a suffix in words such as mortal, portal, actual, brutal, punctual, etc.
Let's also add that, while -im is a prefix is impossible and immoral, it is not a prefix in words such as immediately, impose, imbibe, etc.
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