Other English Prefixes
Prefix and Suffix Types
We use a prefix at the beginning of the word to change the meaning and a suffix at the end of a word when we often use them to change the type of word. Understanding when to use prefixes and suffixes correctly are an important part of doing the word formation exercise , which is Part 3 in the Use of English exam.
We have already seen many of the negative prefixes and how we use them in English. Here we look at a much larger group of prefixes in English.
Prefixes
We can think about prefixes in these groups according to their specific meaning.
For example
- They refused to co-operate.
Co- means together so they would not work together. - I misunderstood what the teacher said.
Mis means incorrectly so I didn’t understand correctly.
Other English Prefixes
As we said above there is a large group of other English prefixes. The examples below are the most common and it is important to learn and to recognise them.
- co-
- inter-
- anti-
- mis-
- re-
- multi-
- micro-
- extra-
- over-
- under-
- ex-
- semi-
- pre-
- post-
- counter-
together
between
against/opposite
incorrectly
again
many
very small
more
too much
too little, below
former, previous
partly
before
after
against/opposite
|
together |
|
|
many |
|
|
former, previous |
You can also learn more about negative prefixes and suffixes we use for nouns and people.