122
English
Vocabulary in Use Elementary
Prefixes
58
Prefixes come at the beginning of words. They can help you to understand what a new word means.
Here are some common prefixes.
prefix
meaning
examples
ex
(+
noun)
was but now isn’t
ex-wife
,
ex-boyfriend
half
(+
noun or adjective)
50% of something
half-price
,
half-hour
in
,
im
(+ adjective)
not
informal
,
impossible
non
(+ adjective or noun)
not
non-smoking
pre
(+
noun, adjective, verb)
before
pre-school, pre-heat
re
(+ verb)
again
redo
,
rewrite
un
(+ adjective or noun)
not
unhappy
,
unsafe
An
ex-wife
is a woman who is now divorced.
An
ex-boyfriend
is someone who is no longer your boyfriend.
Something that cost £10 yesterday and costs £5 today is
half-price
.
A
half-hour
journey is a journey of 30 minutes.
Informal
clothes are clothes like jeans and trainers. Formal clothes are things like a suit.
If something is
impossible
, you can’t do it. It’s impossible to read with your eyes closed.
You
must not smoke in a
non-smoking
restaurant.
Pre-school
children are too young to go to school.
You nearly always need to
pre-heat
the oven before you cook something.
To
redo
something is to do it a second time, and to
rewrite
something is to write it a second time.
Unhappy
means sad, the opposite of happy.
Unsafe
means dangerous, the opposite of safe.
Tip
Sometimes words with prefixes have a hyphen (-), e.g. a half-hour programme, and sometimes they
don’t, e.g. an impossible question. Use a dictionary when you are not sure if there is a hyphen or not.
Exercises
123
English Vocabulary in Use Elementary
Choose one of the words from the opposite page to fit in these sentences.
1 This
part of the restaurant is
2 I can’t read this. Please
your homework.
3 In
English we often say ‘Hi’, not ‘Good morning’.
4 I liked school but my sister was very
there.
5 I bought two T-shirts because they were
in the sale.
6 Don’t walk on that wall –
the notice says it is
.
Write your own sentences to show what these words mean.
1 ex-wife
2 ex-boyfirend
3 redo
4 impossible
5 pre-school
What do you think these words and phrases mean? Look at the table opposite to help you.
1 an ex-husband
a man who is now divorced from his wife
2
pre-exam nerves
3 an incorrect answer
4 an unread book
5
to retell a story
6 a half-brother
7 an unfinished letter
8
a non-alcoholic drink
9 to reread a book
10 to resend an email
Find the negative forms of these words. Use a dictionary to help you.
1 possible
impossible
2 comfortable
3 polite
4 pleasant
5 attractive
58.1
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