Spanish Prefixes And Suffixes: Unlock Hundreds Of Spanish Words

Learning the most common Spanish Prefixes and Suffixes is a fantastic shortcut to unlocking hundreds of new Spanish words overnight.

Before we list these words out, it’s important to understand a little more about Spanish prefixes and suffixes.

(we’ll aim to avoid using as many complicated grammar terms as possible)

The first thing to know is that suffixes and prefixes belong to a group called affixes, and this group contains the smallest grammatical unit in a language – so small that they cannot be considered words since don’t have any meaning by themselves, and only make sense when they are added before or at the end of a word to form a derivative.

In simple terms, prefixes and suffixes are used in conjunction with pre-existing words to either create new words, or else, change and adapt their meaning.

Since both English and Spanish share Latin roots, it’s likely that you will instinctively already know many of the words we’ll cover, due to their similarity.

Words like impatient (impaciente), illogical (ilógico) and irreplaceable (irremplazable) are just a couple of examples of this.

That’s the boring theory lesson out of the way.

Now it’s time to explore some lists of the most common prefixes and suffixes.

Spanish Prefixes

As the name indicates, prefixes precede a base word, to which they can grant different meanings.

Spanish prefixes are not considered words, but “affixes” that have no meaning by themselves, and can only be used in conjugation with pre-existing nouns or verbs.

Below is a list of the most commonly used Spanish prefixes.

(scroll over the see the entire table)

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Spanish Suffixes

Just like prefixes, Spanish suffixes are not words, since they cannot be used on their own. Instead, they must be added at the end of a base word, to which they grant different meanings.

In this case, a suffix does not change a word entirely, but adapts it to an alternative use.

Suffix Classes

As promised, we won’t bore you with too much grammar lingo.

However, it’s worth knowing that suffixes can be categorized into two groups.

1) Flexive suffixes

This group is more commonly used but tends to be overlooked, since they don’t really create new words or alter the grammatical category the word is placed

A flexive suffix is what happens when we change the gender of a noun, and adjective or even the way verbs are conjugated in every tense. For example, when we decide to use blanco vs blanca depending on the gender of the adjective.

Let’s have a look at the most common examples of this.

Nouns

• gato vs gata
• profesor vs profesora

Adjectives

• bueno vs buena
• malo vs mala

Verb conjugation

• Duermo vs duermen
• Como vs comes

The parts in bold can be considered flexive suffixes.

2) Derivative Suffixes

This group essentially refers to endings that are used to create a new word, derived from another existing one.

For example, the word nación (nation) is a base noun, but when we add the suffix -al, we get the adjective nacional (national) as a result. As you can see, the original word has been altered from its original meaning.

In the next part, we will outline the most commonly used derivative suffixes.

(scroll over the see the entire table)

As you can already see, the base word that a suffix modifies could be it a verb, noun or even another adjectives.

There are also some suffixes that grant more subtle changes to words, in most cases adapting them and making them nouns or adjectives.

Spanish Prefixes And Suffixes: Practice

Can you identify the prefixes and suffixes in these sentences?

(scroll down for an explanation on how a prefix/suffix altered the original base word)

1) Creo que es algo contraproducente.

(I think it is a bit counterproductive)

2) Es un proceso bastante antihigiénico.

(It is a very unsanitary process)

3) El festival se celebra bianualmente.

(The festival is celebrated bianually)

4) Viajar es sencillo cuando vives en una región fronteriza, como tú.

(Traveling is quite easy when you live on a frontier region like you)

5) Ve y dile al panadero que necesitamos tres docenas de su mejor pan.

(Go and tell the baker we need three dozens of his best bread)

6) Conozco a un autor que escribe novelas sobre escenarios post-apocalípticos.

(I know an author that writes novels about post-apocalyptic settings)

7) Necesitan fondos para financiar una expedición submarina.

(We need funding to finance a submarine expedition)

8) Necesitamos mejorar nuestra pronunciación en español.

(We need to improve our Spanish pronunciation)

9) Lamentablemente el país pasó por una época de hiperinflación.

(Regrettably, the country went through a period of hyperinflation)

10) La bebida tiene un sabor caribeño difícil de identificar, como una mezcla de frutas tropicales.

(The drink has this Caribbean flavor hard to pin down, like a mix of tropical fruits)

Answers

1) Contraproducente. (the opposite of being productive)

2) Antihigiénico. (denies the original meaning of the word, ending up as “dirty” instead of “clean”)

3) Bianualmente. (something happens twice a year, instead of annually)

4) Fronteriza (changes the noun “frontera” to use it as an adjective, describing the region)

5) Panadero. (Reorients the nouns “Pan” and its derivative “Panadería” as another noun, involving a person)

6) Post-apocalípticos. (changes the apocalyptic adjective into a scenario where this event is over)

7) Submarina. (makes it so the exploration refers to that that is under the sea)

8) Pronunciación. (expresses the idea of the action of pronouncing, but as a noun derived from the same verb)

9) Hiperinflación. (heightens the meaning of the original word, inflation)

10) Caribeño. (This suffix simply indicates that something is relative or belongs to the base word, in this case, the Caribbean)