| Suffixes | -tion / -ment / -ness make nouns; -able / -ful / -ous make adjectives | educate → education / kind → kindness / enjoy → enjoyable |
| Verb formation | -ise / -ify / -en / en- make verbs | simple → simplify / short → shorten / rich → enrich |
| Negative prefixes | un- / in- / dis- / non- / mis- negate; in- becomes im-, il-, ir- | happy → unhappy / agree → disagree |
| Other prefixes | re- again, over- too much, under- too little, ex- former | write → rewrite / cook → overcook / wife → ex-wife |
| Sound | some suffixes move the stress and shorten the vowel | ˈphotograph → photoˈgraphic / divide → division |
| Trap | possible takes in-, which becomes im- before p | It is impossible to finish today. |
| C1Productive suffixes | -ish / -y / -able / -ify / -ism attach freely to new bases | download → downloadable / solid → solidify |
| C1-ity / -ness | -ity usually follows a Latinate adjective, -ness a native one | possible → possibility / kind → kindness |
| C1Combining forms | Greek and Latin forms build technical words | biology / geography / telephone |
| C1Register | Latinate words sound more formal than their native partners | begin = commence / enough = sufficient |
| C2Look-alikes | a pair of suffixes can split the meaning | an economic crisis / an economical car |
| C2Rare and new affixes | hyper- and pseudo- are learned; -holic and -gate are coinages | hypersensitive / pseudonym / workaholic |