Prefixes and Suffixes

Most Chinese words are built by joining two meaning-carrying characters, which the earlier articles covered. But there's a smaller set of characters that work more like the English un-, -ness, or -er: little attachments that don't mean much on their own but tack onto a word to tweak it. These are prefixes (they go in front) and suffixes (they go behind). Knowing the common ones lets you understand and build a lot of words quickly.

Prefixes

There are only a few, and they're worth knowing because they show up constantly.

老 (lǎo) literally means "old," but as a prefix it often just marks a noun without meaning old at all. It's there in some everyday words and family or animal names:

• 老师 (teacher)
• 老板 (boss)
• 老虎 (tiger)
• 老鼠 (mouse/rat)

It also attaches to surnames as a friendly way to address someone: 老王 (Old Wang, said warmly, not about age).

第 (dì) turns a number into an ordinal, the way English adds -th. This one's extremely regular:

• 第一 (first)
• 第二 (second)
• 第三 (third)

Just put 第 in front of any number and you've got "the Nth."

阿 (ā) is an affectionate prefix attached to names or family terms, common in southern China and in older or regional speech:

• 阿姨 (auntie)
• 阿明 (a friendly way to call someone named Ming)

Suffixes

There are more of these, and they do more work. Here are the ones worth knowing as a beginner moving up.

子 (zi) is the workhorse. It's a neutral-tone suffix that attaches to a character to make it a full noun. Often the bare character can't stand alone as a word, and 子 gives it a body:

• 桌子 (table)
• 椅子 (chair)
• 孩子 (child)
• 儿子 (son)

儿 (r) works similarly, especially in northern speech, often adding a casual or small feel. It usually just gets tacked onto the sound:

• 花儿 (flower)
• 画儿 (picture)
• 一点儿 (a little bit)

头 (tou) is another neutral-tone noun-maker, found in a fixed set of words:

• 石头 (stone)
• 木头 (wood)
• 里头 (inside)

们 (men) marks a group, like a plural for people. It attaches to pronouns and words for people:

• 我们 (we)
• 你们 (you, plural)
• 他们 (they)
• 朋友们 (friends)

Note it's only for people, and you don't use it when a number is already there. You say 三个学生 (three students), not 三个学生们.

A few suffixes for later

These show up more as you climb past the beginner band, but it's handy to recognize them now. They tend to turn one kind of word into another, a bit like English -ize, -ity, or -er:

• 化 (huà) = -ize / -ify, marking a change: 现代化 (modernize), 变化 (change)
• 性 (xìng) = -ity / -ness, making an abstract quality: 重要性 (importance), 可能性 (possibility)
• 度 (dù) = a degree or measure: 温度 (temperature), 难度 (difficulty level)
• 家 (jiā) = a specialist, like -ist: 画家 (painter), 作家 (writer), 科学家 (scientist)
• 员 (yuán) = a member or staffer: 服务员 (waiter), 学员 (trainee), 演员 (actor)
• 者 (zhě) = a person who does something, like -er: 读者 (reader), 作者 (author), 记者 (reporter)

You'll notice 家, 员, and 者 all turn a word into "the person who does this," with slightly different flavors. 家 leans toward expert, 员 toward a role on a team, and 者 toward a general doer.

Why this helps

Affixes are multipliers. Learn 第 once and you can form every ordinal. Learn 家 and you can guess that 音乐家 is a musician (music + expert). When you hit an unfamiliar word, spotting a familiar suffix often hands you half the meaning for free, which makes building and decoding vocabulary a lot less work.