English

Negative Prefixes

A prefix is a letter pattern that is fixed to the beginning of a word which affects its meaning.

Rethink = re + think 
re is the prefix and means again.

So to rethink means to think again. There are many prefixes and we will look at them in groups to make it easier to revise them.

Today we are going to look at prefixes that you add to a word to make it mean not that thing but its opposite.

For example to the word kind we can add the prefix un to make unkind. Here we have changed the meaning of the word to make a word that means not kind (unkind).
The reason we will look at prefixes is to help us with our spelling and also with the meanings of words.
We are going to give the prefixes that change the meaning of a word this way a name:

Negative Prefixes. 

These change the meaning of a word from something it is to something it is not

Happy: add the prefix un, un + happy = unhappy, which means not happy!

Here are some negative prefixes that we add to words to change the meaning in this way

In-    dis-    un-    im-

We are going to add these prefixes to other words to change their meaning.

Choose one of these prefixes to the root word to make a new word. I have put in its meaning.
I have done the first few for you. If you are unsure (not sure) look up the word in a dictionary.

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Here are the answers.

Please note that some words begin with im and they are not prefixes but you can usually tell.

Did you also notice that if the base word starts with p or m the prefix is im?
Well that is our introduction to negative prefixes; why not come back again when we will be looking at more prefixes?

Good luck!

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