What is the difference between a root, a prefix and a suffix?
A root is the primary linguistic element of a word and could theorerically fall anywhere within the word. A prefix on the other hand always appears before the stem of the word while a suffix always appears after the stem. So a root could be a prefix, a suffix or neither. The difference between roots, prefixes and suffixes is relatively minor and it is most important to understand that all three are the building blocks used to create words.
