Content
A prefix is a grapheme that joins in initial position to a word or lexeme, thus adding to the latter a more meaning, without requiring another explanatory sentence.
Most languages have structures of this type; In the case of Spanish, almost all current prefixes come from Latin, a few of the language Greek. In this way, the inclusion of the prefix gives rise to a modification in the word, which ultimately happens to be a new word.
Not all words admit the possibility of including a prefix: for example, prepositions or conjunctions do not support them. Typically prefixes they join bases (that's the name of the word that receives it) with full semantic content, like nouns.
Characteristics of prefixes
Formerly, the prefixes They were separated from the base word by a hyphen, now they are attached to the base (with few exceptions). A word can have a prefix and at the same time a suffix, that is, a grapheme at the end of the word that incorporates one more meaning.
Prefixes are valuable functional resources that are used in different areas, ranging from everyday colloquial communication to the technical or specialized language of different areas.
A remarkable characteristic of prefixes is that sometimes they modify the category to which the word belongsFor example, sometimes the inclusion of the prefix transforms nouns into adjectives. This happens in the case of the prefix 'anti' (of opposition) or 'multi' (of plurality).
Regarding the orality, in general, the expressive force of the base word is maintained, in which the stressed syllable is found, assuming the prefix a minor role.
However, as the addition of the prefix gives rise to the birth of a new word, it must conform to the accentuation rules current and should be checked according to those. The same does not happen with some suffixes, such as the typical adverbs ending in ‘-mente’, which are accentuated in the same way as the base adjectives to which they are added and modified in content.
See also: Suffix Examples
Autonomous prefixes
The central axis of the prefix, then, is the fact that not being able to function autonomously and always be next to its base word to express its real meaning.
However, some widely used prefixes advance in their expressive value and in some cases acquire almost a total autonomy, that is, they are prefixes with meaning, as happens, for example, with the prefix ‘ex’: many women speak of ‘my ex’ referring to their ‘ex-husbands’, without ever having mentioned the word husband.
Or in the sentence: ‘This would be on a micro scale’, the prefix micro is behaving like an independent adjective; in those cases we speak of ‘lexicalized’ prefixes.
It can serve you: 100 Examples of Prefixes and Suffixes
The following list brings together several prefixes, clarifying in each case their meaning and giving a concrete example of the prefix in use:
- Tetra (four): tetrahedron
- Mini (very small): mini market
- Pen (almost): Penultimate
- Re (repetition): reopen
- Former (previous): Ex minister
- TV (from distance): television
- Infra (under): subhuman
- Fungi (fungus): fungicide
- In (denial): incognito
- Against (opposition): contraattack
- Car (oneself): autonomous
- Bi (two): bivalve
- Neo (new): neoliberal
- Pos (after): postpone
- Pre (predecessor): prelude
- Vice (immediately below): vice president
- Monkey (one): monosyllable
- TO (denial): abnormal
- Plus (beyond): past Perfect
- Anti (contrary to): anticlerical
Can serve you
- Examples of Prefixes and Suffixes
- Examples of Words with the Prefix Hydro
- Examples of Words with the Prefix Hyper
- Suffix Examples
