Deriving words that aren't too long

Simple English words are mostly short, normally one or two syllables.
But English doesn't seem to derive these simple words from smaller
roots. My conlang does, more or less regularly, but its words seem so
long...

For example, I have the root "chit" (gift), and by adding the endings
"il" and "a" I get the word "chitila" (to take). Is there any way I
could still have regular derivation, but keep the size of the words
down?... it makes a single English sentence 3 times as long translated.

Simon.