Prefixes and Suffixes

Affix simply means to add something to another thing. It modifies the meaning of a word and can be added to the end, beginning or the middle of a word.

The diminutive always has a relationship of abridgement with another full word. The terms "sis" or "bro," for example, are common examples of the diminutive, with the original words being sister and brother. While not very common in English, the diminutive is quite widespread in other languages. Russian is a good example of this. In fact, the term "vodka" is literally a diminutive of the Russian word for water.

An inflection is a change in the form of a word to express a grammatical function or attribute, such as a tense, mood, or person/ gender. Inflections are word elements that indicate grammatical relationships (among the words in a sentence).  Inflection refers to the specific changes in letters and spellings that occurs as a result of this. For example, a noun inflected in the plural form often has an "-s" or an "-es" added to the end of it; and a verb inflected in the past tense often has an "-ed" added to the end of it (as a suffix).