Prefixes- Solutioning,Activity and Examples

Word wizard – Prefixes – Solutions

ACTIVITY:

1. When you say a word the wrong way, you miss-_____ it.

1. Judge
2. Spell
3. Take
4. Pronounce

2. Jade thought Jack was very _____ because he kept interrupting her.

1. Unpolite
2. Impolite
3. Dispolite
4. Mispolite

3. Read the sentence below and identify the word that contains the prefix mis-?

June stared miserably out the foggy window, only now realizing that her mistreatment of Mister Fuzzy-bottom, her cat, had forced him to run off.

Note: Only one word out of three (in bold) in the above paragraph contain the prefix mis-. Identify the word that contains the prefix mis-.

HERE ARE THE ANSWERS!!!!

1. Mis-spelt
2. Impolite
3. Mistreatment.

Let’s now discuss what makes some prefixes confusing:

The following 4 prefixes are easy to confuse because they all have a negative meaning.

1. un- The prefix un- means not, reverse action, deprive of, release from.
2. mis- The prefix mis- means wrong.
3. dis- The prefix dis- also means not and opposite of.
4. im- The prefix im- can also mean not and opposite of.
5. In- The prefix in- can mean opposite of and to a high extent.

The prefix in- Generally, means the opposite or “not”:

Example:

Inconsistent means it is NOT consistent.

Insufficient means it is NOT sufficient.

Here are some exceptions that might be confusing. Look at the following example:

1. Let’s take the words valuable and invaluable.

Valuable means it costs a huge sum of money or is very significant. Gold bangles are valuable – it might cost $ 5,000.

It may be assumed that the meaning of invaluable is not valuable – but that’s not correct!

Invaluable means highly valuable; the value is so great that it is impossible to measure.

Example: Mona Lisa paintings are mostly invaluable.

Non-physical things can be described as invaluable

Example, Advice given by somebody has greatly changed your friend’s life. Then, it can be said the advice was invaluable.

Note: The prefix in the above sentence is NOT the opposite of root word but means extremely.

The words famous and infamous.

Famous describes someone or something that is very popular.

What does infamous mean?

Is it the opposite of not popular or not famous?

No! generally infamous actually means famous for something bad.

Example: A robber who has robbed 20 big banks can be infamous because many people the robber because he is bad.

Here, infamous means a person with a very bad reputation known to many.

For a city with a lot of traffic jams – infamous traffic jams.

The words flammable and inflammable.

Generally, flammable means which can catch fire, like paper, wood, and petrol, are called flammable.

The word inflammable also means the same thing but is used to describe an extreme version.

Therefore, both flammable and inflammable means things capable of catching fire and burning more easily.

E.g., Petrol, Diesel etc.

We can make the opposite of flammable as non-flammable like glass, rock, and metal are non-flammable materials.

Note:

Invaluable (extremely valuable)

Infamous (known for something bad)

Inflammable (able to catch fire, same as flammable).

Read the sentence below. Which of the bolded words contain the prefix mis-?

The month of June stared miserably out the foggy window, only now realizing that it was her own mistreatment of Mister Jonny-bottom, her cat, which had forced him to run off.

The correct answer is mistreatment.

While the words miserably and mister both contain the letters m-i-s-, they are not examples of the prefix mis-.

To mistreat means “to treat badly”.

In this case, the prefix mis- has been added to the base word treated to show that April was unkind to her cat in some way.

Un- The prefix un means not, reverse action, deprive of, release from.

Un- The prefix un means not, reverse action, deprive of, release from.

2. Unfair

Root word: Fair.

Meaning: Not equal or not right.

Example: It’s unfair to ask James to work late again.

If we add a prefix in the beginning of a word, it changes its meaning.

Dis- is a negative prefix which means not or none.

To get the opposite meaning, we add dis-

Example:

Appear and disappear words can be considered

The sun appears behind the mountains in the morning and disappears behind the sea in the evening.