The French language relies on suffixes to mark parts of speech and gender. It relies on both suffixes and prefixes to modify base words and convey nuances of meaning. Practice Makes Perfect: French Vocabulary Building with Suffixes and Prefixes will help you expand your vocabulary and comprehension, as well as gain an appreciation of the language through awareness of French suffixes and prefixes.
In this age of information and technology, it is easy to look up vocabulary and get translations online. You may even find lists of suffixes and prefixes; unfortunately, they are rarely accompanied by enough examples and they never offer in-depth analysis. By contrast, this book focuses on individual suffixes and prefixes, providing charts of words, along with their base words and the English equivalents of both. Of course, these charts are not exhaustive—there are simply too many suffixes and prefixes. You will, however, be exposed to about 4,000 words, and you will learn to modify many of the base words you already know and become an artisan of language as a result.
The 160 suffixes and prefixes in this book deliver the most potential for expanding your vocabulary. They also provide insight into families of words. The base words you have learned in your introductory French courses are but the stem of a flower. Starting with this stem, you can sketch out a beautifully blooming flower composed of many petals; these petals are the suffixed and prefixed words. The stem may be the root of the flower (frequently a Latin or Greek root), but more often, the stem is a French base word that grew out of a Latin or Greek root. This is why the term base word is used instead of root in the vocabulary charts.
Practice Makes Perfect: French Vocabulary Building with Suffixes and Prefixes presents 100 suffixes and 60 prefixes, selected on the basis of their frequency and usage. Some affixes are more common than others, but all are found in words you encounter in everyday conversation and reading, from magazine articles and newspapers to literature.
Both suffixes and prefixes are grouped as beginning or intermediate/advanced. Each entry is presented with its basic meaning, its English equivalent if one exists, its part(s) of speech, and its gender if it is a noun. A short paragraph then explains and analyzes the suffix or prefix, specifying how it is used to form new words and providing other important information. At least one chart follows, presenting a list of words formed with the affix, their base words, and the English equivalents of both. If an affix appears predominantly in nouns, a chart of nouns is presented, followed by a list of related verbs and/or adjectives that are derived from the same base words as the nouns. If an affix appears in nouns, adjectives, and verbs, the chart may be comprised of words that function as two parts of speech, for example, nouns and adjectives. Every chart is followed by at least one exercise aimed at testing your comprehension of the affixed words; there are more than 200 exercises in all. The number of exercise items depends on the frequency of the words formed with a given suffix or prefix, as well as on their degree of difficulty for the learner of French.
Two appendixes are provided. Appendix A presents a crash course in French verbs (specifically, infinitives, present participles, and past participles) and adverbs. Appendix B presents a list of all 160 affixes in this book, each with its reference number, meaning(s), and at least one example word.
Enjoy the art of sketching delightful word flowers and appreciating their bloom!