Learn English - What are prefixes

Do you know what a prefix is or a morpheme is? In this English class, you will be introduced to six basic prefixes: ad-, syn-, sub-, ob-, in-, and com-. You will learn what they mean and how they change words. Take a quiz on this lesson here: TRANSCRIPT What am I going to do today? Yeah, I have no -- hi. James from EngVid. You know what? I'm not too sure what to do, so why don't we do something basic? It's not going to really be basic, but I'll tell you what I want to do. I'm going to help you learn how to spell or use prefixes in English. What do I mean by that? The first thing I want to teach you is what is a prefix and the six basic prefixes we start with. That should help you along with your spelling and your reading. Let's go to the board. Hey, what's up? So what is a prefix? That's the first thing we should look at. Well, “prefix“, in itself, has a word, and it's “pre“. And funny, it means “before“. I've done a couple lessons on this before -- a vocabulary pyramid, so please go check them out -- where I take some of these, and I make a bigger lesson on. So if you're okay with this and you want more, go there, and then do the quiz when you're done. Cool. Anyway, so prefix goes before a word. There are, basically, six basic ones. There are many. There are hundreds, actually. But the ones I'm going to introduce today, you're going to see many, many, many times. And when I'm done, I'm going to give you a little surprise up there. Something that I think will be interesting and surprising. So let's get started, shall we? Let's move towards the board. So the first one I want to do means “to“ and “toward“. You've seen it before, and it does change. What I should introduce also is that -- the fact that a prefix is what we call a “morpheme“. A “morpheme“ -- because “morph“ means “to change“ and “pheme“ -- it's the smallest unit of English, like, you know, the number one. It's the smallest unit you can have that has a meaning. And that's what, basically, prefixes are. They're small units, but they have a very distinct -- which means a certain or one -- meaning that's special, okay? So these are morphemes, and I'm going to do the first one. The first one is “to“ and “toward“. What would it be? Well, it means, in this case -- if I put it here, it means “next to“, and if I put it here, it means “give to“. You've seen it before, and I'm going to put it up here: “ad“. Well, think about it: One plus one, you move the numbers together, and you get two. Move them together -- two. That's when we “add“ things. Well, funny, that's what it also means as a morpheme. When we put it here, and we put “adjoin“: It means “together“ or “next to“. When you say, “I have -- my bathroom adjoins the living room“, it is “next to“. They're “toward“ or “to“; together. What is this one? Well, you already know I'm going to put “ad“ here, right? So let's just add it. I keep saying that, “ad“, “add“, right? Go towards the next thing. “Administer“. When you “administer“ something -- your doctor does this. You go; he administers a drug or an injection. It means to give to you. And there's the “to“ part. Or “We will administer punishment if you do not do the quiz properly at EngVid.“ All right? We'll “give“ you punishment -- “administer“. All right? So let's go to the next one. I love saying “right“. It's just correct. “With“ and together“. Some of these look familiar. I know “unity“ and “promise“. Unity and Ivo -- that's the -- no. That's “Ebony and Ivory“. “Ebony“. Anyway. Let's go here. But it means “with“ and “together“. So what could this possibly be? I don't know. How about “com“? “Com“ means “with“ or “together“. And when we put it here -- I made a small joke about “unity“, “Ebony“, and “Ivory“ because I said “living together in perfect harmony“ if you see that song. “Unity“: They live as one. And then it's “community“ -- living as one. One group of people together as one. Now, what about “compromise“? “Compromise“ -- have you ever heard that word before? I hope not, or you need a new English teacher. It's “compromise“. This changes when you put the “com“ in front. I don't make the rules. I'm just here to administer them. You like that? I like it, too. Okay. So when you make a “compromise“, you promise together. It means two people want different things, but you say, “Look. You can't have everything, and I can't have everything, so why don't we promise to give each other a little bit of this, a little bit of that?“ So we meet halfway. We come together and halfway, right? With a promise, we come and compromise -- halfway, meet each other. “Co“ -- you might even say “copromise“. So you promise, I promise, we'll make a compromise. You work; I work; we'll get better. Okay, so “co“ -- copromise. Don't say “copromise“. Please don't. Compromise.