Mississippi Foundations of Reading Practice Test

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What is the definition of a suffix?

A free morpheme used to create new words
A bound morpheme added at the beginning of a word
A bound morpheme that is at the end of a word
A standalone word in a sentence

The correct answer is: A bound morpheme that is at the end of a word

A suffix is correctly defined as a bound morpheme that is added at the end of a word. In linguistic terms, a morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning, and bound morphemes cannot stand alone as words. Instead, they attach to free morphemes (which can function independently) to modify or enhance the meaning of the word. For instance, consider the word "happiness." The suffix "-ness" is added to the free morpheme "happy," changing it from an adjective to a noun. This demonstrates how suffixes function to alter the grammatical role or meaning of the base word. Suffixes can indicate tense, plurality, degree, or change a word's class (e.g., from a verb to a noun). Understanding the role of suffixes is pivotal in reading comprehension and vocabulary development, as it enables learners to decode unfamiliar words and expand their lexicon.