Prefixes, Suffixes, and Roots

You can't really have one without the other, so when discussing one we must discuss them all.

Prefix- The small little piece which means something and is at the beginning of the word.
Suffix- The small piece which means something and is at the end of the word.
Root- The word which another word was derived from. i.e. dance to danced

These beginnings, endings, and words are used to help us know what we are reading, we know the basic definitions of words and then we know the additions to those words to make it mean something else. You can however use context clues to figure out the meaning as well.

Common Prefixes:
anti- against
de- opposite
dis- not, opposite of
en-, em- cause to
fore- before
in-, im- in
in-, im-, il-, ir- not
inter- between
mid- middle
mis- wrongly
non- not
over- over
pre- before
re- again, return
semi- half
sub- under
super- above
trans- across
un- not
under- under

Common Suffixes:
-able, -ible can be done
-al, -ial having characteristics of
-ed past-tense verbs
-en made of
-er comparative
-er one who
-est comparative
-ful full of
-ic having characteristics of
-ing verb form/present participle
-ion, -tion, -ation, -ition act process
-ity, -ty state of
-ive, -ative, -itive adjective form of a noun
-less without
-ly characteristic of
-ment action or process
-ness state of, condition of
-ous, -eous, -ious possessing the qualities of
-s, -es more than one
-y characterized by

Verbs

Verbs are the hardest part of grammar to grasp, as they can vary drastically and it's easy to become confused as to what the verb is. Though, the only time anyone has ever really needed to know what a verb is is when the teacher throws a quiz at you and tells you to label the parts of the sentence. Personally, I think if you're writing you just need to know the dictionary front to back and you're good. For those pop quiz days however, which even writers hate, it's good to know which word is the verb.

These small annoying verbs are usually actions, but as English decides to be even more confusing, they can also be in sentence which has no action at all. It is either the state of being or the action word. There is even past, present, and future tenses of each verb.

Ex:
looked (Past), look (Present), will look (Future)

Some verbs however, don't have the simple trick of adding an -ed at the end.

Ex:
saw (Past), see (Present), will see (Future)

Then there are continuous verbs in which you say:

is looking, are looking, so on and so forth.

There are also different forms for the point of view you choose to write from, as well as knowing if you are writing it in the singular or plural form, the tense even has a few things to say on this subject.

Point of View:
1st (I)
2nd (you)
3rd (he, she, it)
1st (we)
2nd (you)
3rd (they)

Singular:
1st (I)- see, hear, come
2nd (you)- see, hear, come
3rd (he, she, it)- sees, hears, comes

Plural:
1st (we)- see, hear, come
2nd (you)- see, hear, come
3rd (they)- see, hear, come

Singular-Present:
1st (I)- am, have, do
2nd (you)- are, have, do
3rd (he, she, it)- is, has, does

Singular-Past:
1st (I)- was, had, did
2nd (you)- were, had, did
3rd (he, she, it)- was, had, did

Singular-Future:
All- will be

Plural-Present:
All- are, have, do

Plural-Past:
All- were, had, did

Plural-Future:
All- will be