Chinese Prefixes and Suffixes: English Affixes in Chinese

English learners are used to building words from pieces: teach + -er, un- + happy, possible + -ity. Chinese does this too, but with a different toolkit. There is no inflection and no verb endings, so the word-building pieces are almost always whole characters that you can also meet on their own.

That is good news for learners. Each of these characters you learn gives you a pattern that opens up dozens of words. This guide maps the most useful English affixes to their Chinese counterparts, and points out where the comparison breaks down.

The big picture: affixes that are also words

In English, -ity or anti- cannot stand alone. In Chinese, most “affixes” can. 可 (kě) means “can” or “worth doing”. 化 (huà) means “to change”. 性 (xìng) means “nature”. When they sit at the edge of a longer word, they take on a lighter, more grammatical job. Chinese linguists often call these quasi-affixes (类词缀) because they sit between real words and real affixes.

So when you see a word you do not know, split it and look at the edges. Often the edge character tells you what kind of word it is.

Quick map

English	Chinese	Examples
-er, -or (person)	者 zhě	记者 / 記者 (jìzhě, reporter)
-ist (specialist)	家 jiā	科学家 / 科學家 (kēxuéjiā, scientist)
-ee, -er (job member)	员 / 員 yuán	演员 / 演員 (yǎnyuán, actor)
un-, non-	不 bù, 非 fēi	不同 (bùtóng, different), 非法 (fēifǎ, illegal)
-less, without	无 / 無 wú	无线 / 無線 (wúxiàn, wireless)
-able	可 kě	可爱 / 可愛 (kě’ài, lovable)
-ize, -ify	化 huà	现代化 / 現代化 (xiàndàihuà, modernize)
-ity, -ness	性 xìng	可能性 / 可能性 (kěnéngxìng, possibility)
anti-	反 fǎn	反战 / 反戰 (fǎnzhàn, anti-war)
super-	超 chāo	超市 (chāoshì, supermarket)
re-, again	重 chóng, 再 zài	重新 (chóngxīn, anew)
-ism	主义 / 主義 zhǔyì	资本主义 / 資本主義 (zīběn zhǔyì, capitalism)

People: 者, 家 and 员

Chinese has three common ways to say “a person who does X”, and they are not interchangeable.

者 (zhě) is the closest to English -er. It forms agent nouns such as 记者 / 記者 (jìzhě, reporter), 作者 (zuòzhě, author), 学者 / 學者 (xuézhě, scholar) and 读者 / 讀者 (dúzhě, reader). In classical Chinese 者 had many other jobs. In modern Chinese the “one who” meaning is the everyday one.

家 (jiā) is the specialist marker, like -ist: 科学家 / 科學家 (kēxuéjiā, scientist), 作家 (zuòjiā, writer), 画家 / 畫家 (huàjiā, painter). On its own, 家 means “home” or “family”. The idea is a person who is “at home” in a field. (That is a handy way to remember it, not the history of the character.)

员 / 員 (yuán) means “member” or “staff member”. It names people by their job or role: 服务员 / 服務員 (fúwùyuán, waiter or attendant), 演员 / 演員 (yǎnyuán, actor).

A rough rule: 者 for any doer, 家 for an expert or creator, 员 for someone with a position or job. Many words are fixed, so learn them as words.

Not and without: 不, 非 and 无

Here Chinese is less tidy than English. 不 (bù) is a plain word for “not”, and it sits before verbs and adjectives: 不同 (bùtóng, different, literally “not same”). It is more like English not than un-.

非 (fēi) is closer to non- and is more formal: 非法 (fēifǎ, illegal). Be careful: in 非洲 (Fēizhōu, Africa) the 非 comes from an older sound-based transliteration of “Africa”, not from the meaning “not”.

无 / 無 (wú) means “without” and is the best match for -less: 无线 / 無線 (wúxiàn, wireless), 无情 / 無情 (wúqíng, heartless). It has a literary flavor.

Qualities and change: 可, 性 and 化

These three build the abstract vocabulary of modern Chinese, much as Latin endings do in English.

• 可 (kě) works like -able, but it goes in front: 可爱 / 可愛 (kě’ài, lovable or cute), 可能 (kěnéng, possible), 可靠 (kěkào, reliable).
• 性 (xìng, nature) works like -ity or -ness: 可能性 (kěnéngxìng, possibility), 重要性 (zhòngyàoxìng, importance). Add it to an adjective and you get a noun for that quality.
• 化 (huà, to change) works like -ize or -ify: 现代化 / 現代化 (xiàndàihuà, to modernize), 美化 (měihuà, to beautify). Notice that 化 goes at the end, like the English suffix.

Because they stack, you can read long words: 可 + 能 + 性 gives “can” + “ability” + “nature”, which is “possibility”.

Direction and degree: 反, 超, 重/再 and 主义

反 (fǎn) means “opposite” and works like anti- or counter- in words like 反战 / 反戰 (fǎnzhàn, anti-war). But 反对 / 反對 (fǎnduì) is a verb meaning “to oppose”, not a prefix word. Watch for this: the “prefix” is often just the first half of an ordinary compound.

超 (chāo) means “to exceed” or “to surpass” and works like super-: 超市 (chāoshì, supermarket, literally “super market”), 超人 (chāorén, Superman).

For re-, Chinese has two words for “again”. 重 (chóng, repeat) appears in 重新 (chóngxīn, anew). 再 (zài) is the ordinary word for “again” and is a separate word, not a prefix.

主义 / 主義 (zhǔyì) is the equivalent of -ism and is used to translate many Western -isms, such as 资本主义 / 資本主義 (capitalism).

Small words: 们, 子, 儿, 老 and 第

These look like affixes in the most English sense.

• 们 / 們 (men) is a plural marker, but only for pronouns and some words for people: 我们 / 我們 (wǒmen, we), 老师们 / 老師們 (lǎoshīmen, teachers). It is not a general plural like English -s, and it is not used after a number.
• 子 (zi) is a noun suffix with a neutral tone: 桌子 (zhuōzi, table), 孩子 (háizi, child). It is very productive. On its own 子 means “child”.
• 儿 / 兒 (-r, “erhua”) gives a diminutive or colloquial feel: 玩儿 / 玩兒 (wánr, to play). It is much more common in northern, Beijing-style speech than in other regions.
• 老 (lǎo, old) is a prefix that often no longer means “old”: 老师 / 老師 (lǎoshī, teacher), 老虎 (lǎohǔ, tiger). Before a surname it is friendly and familiar: 老王 (Lǎo Wáng, “old Wang”).
• 第 (dì) turns a number into an ordinal: 第一 (dì-yī, first), 第二 (dì-èr, second).

How the comparison with English differs

Chinese word parts and English affixes are alike in one big way: learn the part once and you can read many new words. They differ in three ways.

1. Most Chinese “affixes” are full words. English -ity is useless alone. Chinese 性 is a real word meaning “nature”.
2. Chinese does not inflect. There is nothing like -ed, -ing or -s to learn. Tense and number come from extra words.
3. Productivity varies. 化 and 性 attach to many new words, and 第 works with any number. 老 appears only in a fixed set of words. Many words are simply fixed, so check a dictionary before inventing a word.

For more on how characters combine, see Chinese compound words. For the idea that components behave like roots, see Chinese radicals are like English word roots.

Writing them by hand

These characters are worth learning by hand. 家, 者, 性 and 化 recur in hundreds of words, and writing them stroke by stroke makes the patterns familiar. In Hanzibloc, the component you are writing lights up as you go, so you see which part of a character carries the meaning while your hand learns the shape.

FAQ

Does Chinese have prefixes and suffixes?

Yes, but fewer than English, and most of them are ordinary characters that also work as full words. Examples are 者 (one who), 性 (-ity), 化 (-ize) and 老 (a friendly prefix). Chinese words do not change their form for tense the way English words do, and plural marking is limited to a few words like 们.

What is the Chinese suffix for -er or -ist?

There are several. 者 (zhě) is the broadest one, as in 记者 (reporter). 家 (jiā) marks a specialist, as in 科学家 (scientist), and 员 (yuán) marks a member of a job, as in 演员 (actor).

How do you say 'un-' or '-less' in Chinese?

Use 不 (bù) for a plain 'not', 非 (fēi) for formal 'non-' words such as 非法 (illegal), and 无 (wú) for 'without', as in 无线 (wireless).