Latin

Prefixes,Suffixes
and Stem
Learning objectives:
01. By the end of this lesson, students will be able
to identify and define latin prefixes, suffixes, and
stem in English words.
02. Students will be able to explain how latin
prefix, suffix, and stem influence the word's
definition.
03. Students will be able to construct new English
words by combining latin prefixes, suffixes, and
stem.
04. Students will be able to apply their
 What is a
prefix?
A prefix is written at the start of a base word. Its
purpose is to create a new word. When a prefix is
added to a word, it changes its meaning.
Example:

unhappy
prefix
 Prefixes:
dis- opposite to e.g. disapprove

un- not e.g. unlike

mis- wrongly e.g. mislead

re- to repeat e.g. redo

 Prefixes:
post- after e.g. postpon

pro- for e.g. proactive

inter- between e.g. interact

in- non or into e.g.

insert
 Prefixes:
semi- half e.g. semiannual

non- not e.g. nonsense

en- cause to e.g. encourage

en- make e.g. enforce

 Prefixes:
trans- across e.g. transport

over- excessive e.g. overestimate

pre- before e.g. preview

anti- against e.g. antibiotic

 What is a
suffix?
A suffix is written at the end of a base word. Its
purpose is to create a new word. When a suffix is
added to a word, its meaning changes.
Example:

activity
suffix
 Suffixes:
-tion action e.g. celebration

-ous full of e.g. famous

-al pertaining to e.g natural

-ist one who practices e.g. artist

 Suffixes:
-ity quality of e.g. activity

-ness state e.g. darkness

-ment result or action e.g. development

-er one who performs e.g. teacher

 Suffixes:
-ly in a manner e.g. quickly

-ic relating to e.g. scientific

-en make or become e.g. lengthen

-hood state or condition e.g. childhood

 Suffixes:
-age action or process e.g. marriage

-ive having the nature of e.g. active

-er comparative e.g. greater

-ate to make e.g. educate

 Inflectional
suffix
An inflectional suffix changes the grammatical
function of a word, without changing its original
meaning.
Example:
s/es: is used to make a singular noun a plural noun
cat - cats
tree - trees
car - cars
bus - buses
Example:
er/est : added to a base form of an adjective to
change it into comparative or superlative degree
are another instance of inflectional suffixes.
tall - taller - tallest
short - shorter - shortest
Example:
We used the inflectional suffix -ed for the past tense
and -ing for the progressive tense
jump - jumped - jumping
walk - walked - walking
 Derivational
suffix
A derivational suffix is when the new word has a
new meaning, "derived" from the original word.
Further, the new word functions as a different part
of speech.
 The derivational suffix -er means someone who
performs an action. It can convert almost any verb
into a noun.

Example:

teach - teacher
lead - leader
speak - speaker
read - reader
help - helper
The derivational suffix -ful, meaning full of.

Example:
Wonder + ful = Wonderful
Hope + ful = Hopeful
Beauty + ful = Beautiful
Care + ful = Careful
Help + ful = Helpful
The derivational suffix -less meaning "without"

Example:
Color + less = Colorless
Use + less = Useless
Help + less = Helpless
Fear + less = Fearless
Spot + less = Spotless
The derivational suffix -hood meaning "a state of
being"

Example:
Child + hood = Childhood
Neighbor + hood = Neighborhood
Mother + hood = Motherhood
Brother + hood = Brotherhood
The derivational suffix -ish means "fairly or having
the nature/quality of.

Example:
Child + ish = Childish
Red + ish = Reddish
Style + ish = Stylish
Fool + ish = Foolish
Boy + ish = Boyish
 What is a Stem?
The "stem affix" is something, usually a single vowel,
sandwiched between the two. The combination of the
root and the stem affix create what we call the STEM of
a latin word. It's to the stem that the final grammatical
stuff is added.
Latin constructed its nouns, adjectives, and verbs by means of
stems.
Root + stem + case number affix
By "root," we meet the meaningful part of any word, which doesn't
change and is found at or close to the beginning of a word. A"case
number" affix is the part that provides grammatical information —
that is, what case the word is in, and whether singular or plural.
Example: ✓Breaking up the word into 3
[[[domin-] -o- ] -s] = dominus. parts has many uses the
[[[ frūct- ] -u- ] -s ] = frūctus. most important is that it cuts
[[[ di- ] -ē- ] -s ] = diēs. down the number of gramma-
. tical endings that we need
to
VERB/VERBAL STEMS:
It's the part that appears in all the forms and stands for the
general or fundamental meaning, which the other elements modify
by adding a specific setting.
Stem of a latin noun or adjective never changes, but stems for
verbs do. A verb's stem may change, but it does so in a very
consistent way.

This includes not only what we normally think

of as "tenses" (like present, future, imperfect,
perfect), but other verb forms too, like infi-
nitives and participles.
. Like this!
3 Verbal stems
1.) Present Stem
. -is very common , founded in many tenses and verb forms.
Every verb has a present stem and, except in IRREGULAR VERBS, it
is created through the combination of a root ( the meaningful part
of a verb) and a vowel.
Basic structure: [[ root ] -V- ]
Example:
The present stem of the verb moneō,
monērē 'warn' is monē -.
[[ mon- ] -ē- ]
The present stem of amō, amāre 'love' is
amā -.
[[ am- ] -ā- ]
 5 Groups of Present stems
1. ā
Ex. amā - 'love' ; parā - 'prepare' ; and laudā - 'praise'
2. ē
Ex. monē -'warn' ; habē - 'have' ; and vidē - 'see'
3. e
Ex. dūcē - 'lead' ; lege - 'choose' ; and dīce -'say'
4. ī
Ex. audī - 'hear' ; dormī - ' sleep' ; and ; invenī - 'discover'
5. Irregular
For these, the present stem is more difficult to ascertain.
Ex. The present stem of esse - ' to be' is just probably es-,
without
. a vowel.
RULE 1:
To find the present stem of a verb, take off -re from the present active
infinitive .
Example. If you look up 'love' into a dictionary, it will give you amō, amāre,
amāvī, amātum
Taking off the -re from amāre gives you amā - which is the what we call
'present stem.'
Note: The present, imperfect, and future tenses, present participles, present
infinitives and gerundives require the "present stem."
Ex. moneō, monēre 'warn,' which all use the present stem monē -.
monēs is a present tense means 'you warn'
monētis is a present means 'you warn'
monēbāmus is an imperfect means 'we were warning'
monēbō is a future means 'I will warn'
monēre is an infinitive menas 'to warn'
monendus is a gerundive means 'to be warned'
2.) Perfect Stem
The perfect stem is both fascinating and complicated. The perfect
stems of latin verbs were created in many ways, and are the result of
numerous ancient and extinct processes. The perfect stem is used to
form the perfect, pluperfect, future perfect tenses and the (active)
perfect infinitive. These verb forms all have "perfect" in their names. To
put amō, amāre into the perfect tense, we cannot use
the present stem amā- and add our endings
(which for the perfect are ī, istī, it, imus, istis,
ērunt). Instead, we need the perfect stem,
which in the case of amō, amāre is amāv-.
These gives us the correct forms:
✓amāvī -'loved,'
✓amāvistī - 'you loved,'
✓amāvit - 'she loved,' etc.
8 Common ways in which latin forms the Perfect Stem
1. Add -v- to the present stem
. - this is an extremely common perfect stem. Example, the perfect stems audīv -
'hear,' amāv - 'love,' are formed through the combination of -v- and the present
stems amā- and audī-.
2. Add -u- to the bare root
. - this is almost the same process as the previous since what we like to write as
v and u were the same letter and basically the same sound in classical latin.
Example, the perfect stems monu - 'warn,' and habu - 'have'. The present stems of
these verbs are different, namely monē- and habē-.
3. Add -s- to the bare root
. - this is also very common. It is the remnant of the aorist tense, which
flourished in ancient greek, but died out in latin in the shortly before the historical
period — or rather, it merged with the perfect tense, which is why the classical latin
perfect has two meanings ('I did' and 'I have done').
The roots tēg - 'cover,' carp - 'pluck' and dic - 'say' have the perfect stems
tēx-, carps-, and dix- (as in dixit 'he said'). The combination of the sounds [g] or [k]
in the root and the -s- affix results in -x-.
4. Reduplicating the root
. - it involves taking the initial consonant of the root and 'doubling' it. These 2
consonants will be separated by a vowel, often -ē-. The first consonant and the
vowel together act a s a kind of orefix to the root. It is not very common but is in
fact the 'original' way that latin formed perfect verbs.
- the root tend- 'stretch' has the perfect stem tetend-. 'You stretch' and 'you
had stretched' (in the present and pluperfect tenses) would therefore be tendis and
tetendistī. The same goes for curre- and cucurr-, the present and perfect stems of
the root curr- 'run'.
5. Lengthening the vowel in the root
. - this is uncommon, but occurs in some important verbs. Take Julius Caesar's
famous phrase, vēnī vīdī vīcī. The perfect stems of the roots ven- 'come', vid- 'see'
and vic- 'conquer' are vēn-, vīd-, vic-, with lengthened vowels.
6. The perfect stem may be the same as the root
. - these happens in verbs whose roots already end in -v-/-u-, meaning that the
common suffix cannot be added easily.
Example. The root of solvō, solvere 'loosen' is solv-. This is also the perfect stem;
'they solved' (perfect tense) is therefore solvērunt.
7. Removing an affix from the present stem (and then adding another).
. - it may not be obvious, but some presented stems are in fact built around the
root and an old affix. Latin removes the affix and may add the regular -v- in its
place.
Example: crēscō, crēscerē 'grow' has the present stem crēsce-.This is the
combination of crē- and -sc-, which adds an inchoative meaning. To form its perfect
stem, -sc- is removed and -v- is used in its stead, giving us the perfect stem crēv-.
8. The perfect stem may be completely different from the present stem.
. - this occurs instances of suppletion — when a verb has co-opted forms from
another verb and merged them into its paradigm (compare English go, went gone).
This is common in irregular verbs.
While es- is the present stem of esse 'to be ', the perfect stem is fu-.
Example: 'we have been' (perfect) is fuimus and 'to have been' (perfect infinitive) is
fuisse. Moreover the perfect stem of ferō, ferre 'carry' is either tul- or reduplicated
tetul-
RULE 2:
To find the perfect stem of a verb, take off the -ī from the first person singular
perfect active indicative form.
Example: If you look up 'praise', the dictionary will give you the 4 forms (laudō,
laudāre, laudāvī, laudātum). Taking off the -refrom laudāre gives us the present
stem laudā-. Taking off the -ī from laudāvī gives us the perfect stem laudāv- (which
follows the perfect pattern).
Unlike the present stem, the perfect stem is very robust; when we add the right
tense-person affixes to it, it doesn't change
The following are therefore erfect active infinitives, formed from the perfect stems.
The affix to learn is "-isse."
✓ laudāvisse - 'to have praised'
✓ tetendisse -'to have stretched'
✓ habuisse - 'to have had'
✓ crēvisse - 'to have grown'
✓ vīdisse - 'to have seen'
✓ tēxisse - 'to have covered'
Here are some verbs:
✓ laudāvit - 'she praised' (perfect)
✓ tetendērunt - 'they stretched' (perfect)
✓ habuerās - 'you had had' (pluperfect)
✓ crēverāmus - 'we had grown' (pluperfect)
✓ vīderint - 'they will have seen' (future perfect)
✓ tēxerō - 'I will have covered' (future perfect)
Some verbs may lack a perfect (and thus its associated tense-person affixes); this
is the case with with deponent verbs.
Example: Take the common deponent verb loquor. Loquor, loquī, locūtus sum
'speak'
Through both these forms and others, we can identify the present stem loque- and
the supine stem locūt-, but no perfect stem.
3.) Supine Stem
. - used to create several important forms of 'non-finite' verbs (verbs that
cannot stand on their own in a sentence, but are dependent on some other word).
This include supines, past participles and future participles, as well as a lot of nouns
that are derived from verbs. While each have their own dedicated endings, they all
There is one thing that is used to make the supine stem: the affix -t-. It is added in one of two
ways.
1. Adding -t- to the present stem.
. - in amō, amāre, the supine stem is amāt-. In the past participle amātus 'loved' and the
future participle amātūrus 'to be going to love'. With some verbs, the the vowel of the present
stem changes, as in monitus 'warned' from the present stem monē-.
2. Adding -t- to the root.
Example the root of capiō, capere 'take' is simple cap-. This results in the supine stem capt-,
as in the principle captus 'taken'.
We observe many sound changes in the second. The last sound of the root often becomes
more like the affix -t-. When two adjacent sounds become more alike, this is known as
'assimilation'. Example: vehō, vehere 'carry' has the root veh-. The final -h- of veh- changes
into -c- in the supine stem, which is vect-. Through this, the sound becomes a plosive sound
just like the affix -t-.
More complex sound happens when the supine affix -t- is added to roots that end in -t- or -d-.
The combinations which were originally *tt and *dt, and then *ts, eventually became simply -
s-. Example: Take the verbs cadō, cadere 'fall', vertō vertere 'turn' and rīdeō, rīdēre 'laugh'.
The roots of these words are: cad-, vert-, rīd. When -t- is added to make the supine stem, the
results are cas-, vers-, ris-.
RULE 3:
To find the Supine stem of a verb, take off -um from the supine.
The dictionary will tell us the verb for 'paint' is pingō, pingere, pīnxī, pictum
The 4th form, pictum, is the supine form. To find the Supine stem, take off -um. If the
dictionary gives the 4th principal part as the past participle, instead of the supine, it will say
pictus, so you will need remove the -us. Pict- is the supine stem of pingō, pinger, use it to
make the future participle pictūrus, the past participle pictus and nouns that buildon the stem
such as pictūra 'painting'.
Latin verbs like nouns and adjectives, are built with the help of stems. We should try to
identify 3 stems for each verb— though sometimes this is not possible.
Thanks to stem, we can reduce the number of things we need to remember, because the
theory can explain away irregularities ang allow us to focus the affixes that all verbs share.
Thank you for
listening.
God bless 😇