PREFIXES

WHAT ARE PREFIXES?

A COMMON WAY OF FORMING NEW WORDS IN ENGLISH IS BY ADDING A

STANDARD COMBINATION OF LETTERS TO EXISTING WORDS, EITHER AT THE
BEGINNING (PREFIXES) OR AT THE END (SUFFIXES). SOME WORDS MAY HAVE
BOTH, A PREFIX AND A SUFFIX, LIKE IN THE EXAMPLES.
PREFIXES USUALLY CHANGE THE MEANING OF THE WORD. FOR EXAMPLE, THE
PREFIX ‘UN’ CHANGES A WORD TO NEGATIVE: UNKNOWN MEANS ‘NOT KNOW’
WHEY YOU READ, ESPECIALLY ACADEMIC TEXTS, YOU WILL FREQUENTLY MEET
UNFAMILIAR WORDS OF THIS TYPE. VERY OFTEN, YOU CAN GUESS OR DEDUCE
THE MEANING OF THESE TERMS IF YOU UNDERSTAND THE WAY IN WHICH THE
WORDS ARE GENERALLY FORMED IN ENGLISH. THUS YOU CAN INCREASE THE
NUMBER OF WORDS IN YOUR VOCABULARY.
TASK 6. FORM NEW WORDS BY JOINING A PREFIX TO A BASE WORD. DO NOT REPEAT ANY ITEM

PREFIX WORD
1. im _4_ a. direct
2. dis _5__ b. title As you see from
3. micro __7_ c. circle the words formed,
4. in _1_ d. possible most English and
5. sub _9__ e. magnetise Spanish prefixes
6. trans _10_ f. structure
have the same
7. semi _2_ g. charge
Latin origin.
8. super _6__ h. port
9. de __3_ i. economics
10. infra _8__ j. sonic
THE FOLLOWING NEED TO BE STUDIED MORE CAREFULLY SINCE
THEY ARE NOT PRESENT IN SPANISH

PREFIX MEANING EXAMPLE

un Not = no uncertain, unhappy, unlocked, unfair

under too little = sub underdeveloped, underestimate, underpaid

over too much = sobre overload, overproduction, oversize

fore Before = pre, ante forecast, foresee, forearm, forebear

mis badly, wrongly = mal misinterpret, miscalculate, misconstruction

 TASK 7. A. FILL IN THE BLANKS WITH THE APPROPRIATE PREFIX FROM THE TABLE

un over bi re under in mis multi semi fore micro

1. Bipedal robots are still very difficult to build

2. Semiconductor lasers are used for reading bar codes in the shops.

3. A multiuser computer system allows access to more than one person simultaneously.

4. Investment is needed to reduce underdevelopment in Latin America.

5. Unexperienced people tend to misuse most of the computer’s capabilities.

6. Scientists forecast increasing problems in overcrowded cities.

7. Floppy disks were convenient storage devices because they were inexpensive and reusable.

8. Computers became portable and cheaper due to invention of microchips.

• CHEAP = INEXPENSIVE
• PREDICT = FORECAST
• HAVING LITTLE EXPERIENCE =
UNEXPERIENCED
• HAVING 2 LEGS = BIPEDAL
• WITH TOO MANY PEOPLE = OVERCROWDED
• THAT MAY BE USED AGAIN = REUSABLE