Building Verbs with Suffixes and Prefixes

This note is for one of my students. Happy reading!

AFFIXES (Suffixes and Prefixes) are needed to build new English words. To see how affixes work, look at the following examples:

Prefixes to reverse verb meaning (動詞意味を逆転させる接頭辞) :


dis-
examples: disappear = 消えなさい
root word: appear or 現われなさい
disconnect = 接続解除
root word: connect or 接続しなさい



un-
examples: unbend = まっすぐにしなさい
root word: bend or くねり
unfasten = 外しなさい
root word: fasten or 留めなさい



de-
examples: deselect = 選択解除しなさい
root word: select or 選り抜き
deform = 変形させなさい
root word: form or 形態



Here are the most common affixes for verbs, and their meanings:

re-	again or back	ex: restructure OR rebuild = to build again
dis-	reverses the meaning of the verb	ex: disallow = to take back permission
over-	too much	ex: overwork = to work too much
un-	reverses the meaning of the verb	ex: undo = to take back action
mis-	badly or wrongly	ex: misinform = to give wrong knowledge
out-	more or better than others	ex: outdo = to beat, to do better than
be-	make or cause	ex: belittle = to make someone feel small
co-	together	ex: co-own = to own jointly
de-	do the opposite of	ex: deport = to take someone/something outside of a country
fore-	earlier, before	ex: foresee = to predict, to say what will happen before it actually happens
inter-	between	ex: interact = to migle with other people
pre-	before	ex: pretest = before a test
sub-	under/below	ex: substandard = poor quality, below passing
trans-	across, over	ex: transplant = to take from one place to another
under-	not enough	ex: underfund = to give a poor budget for something

here are the URL's of the pages I used to make these notes:

http://www.uefap.com/vocab/build/building.htm
http://babelfish.yahoo.com/translate_txt