A. Negative prefixes on adjectives
Prefixes are often used to give adjectives a negative or an opposite meaning. For example, fair/unfair, experienced/inexperienced and similar/dissimilar are opposites. Other examples are unnatural, inedible, disorganised. Unfortunately, there is no easy way of knowing which prefix any adjective will use to form its opposite.
in- becomes im- before a root beginning with ‘m’ or ‘p’, e.g. immature, impatient, immoral, impossible, improbable. Similarly in- becomes ir- before a word beginning with ‘r’, e.g. irregular, irresponsible, irreplaceable, and il- before a word beginning with ‘l’, e.g. illegal, illegible, illiterate.
Language help
The prefix in- (and its variations) does not always have a negative meaning – often it gives the idea of inside or into, e.g. internal, import, insert, income.
B. Negative prefixes on verbs
The prefixes un- and dis- can also form the opposites of verbs, e.g. tie/untie, appear/disappear.
These prefixes are used to reverse the action of the verb. Here are some more examples: disagree, disapprove, disbelieve, disconnect, discourage, dislike, disprove, disqualify, unbend, undo, undress, unfold, unload, unlock, unveil, unwrap, unzip.
C. Other common prefixes
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