This subject of prefixes is beginning to take me over. After limiting myself to two of them last month and only choosing very few examples of each, I have now discovered that there are approximately sixty Prefixes altogether, most of them Latin in origin, but quite a few Greek. There is a nice little clump of them in a different category called ‘prepositional’ and that’s not to mention ‘suffixes’, which are the bits you add onto the ends of words. There are forty four of them, at the last count.
I’ve decided to pick out a few of the more common Prefixes and list them, along with their meanings and an example or two, on the understanding that those of you who are interested, will discover more for yourself and those who aren’t can just skip through to the end! Here we go:
Ante= in front of
Antepasado = ancestor
Anti= against
Anticonceptivo = contraceptive (lit. against conception)
Bi/bis = two
Bisabuelo = great grandfather (lit. twice grandfather)
Entre = between
Entresemana = mid-week
Extra = outside
Extraordinario = extraordinary (lit. outside the ordinary)
i = negation
ireal = unreal/ilegal = illegal
menos/minus = less
menospreciar = to scorn/despise (lit. undervalue)
pos/post = after
posponer = to postpone (lit. to put after)
pre = before
preocupar = to worry (lit. to occupy ones attention before an event)
pro = forward
progreso = progress (lit. moving forward)
re = repetition
repasar = to revise (lit. to pass by again)
sin = without
sinvergüenza = shameless (without shame)
tras = through/beyond
trastienda = back room of a shop
uni = one
uniforme = uniform (lit. one form)
There is an abundance of other examples and some of these Prefixes can have more than one meaning, so this list is really just a taster. You may like to think about the meanings of: antidemocrático, antecedentes, bicicleta, minusválido, sinfín, trascender, revivir, proponer.
I’ll just finish off with something different but related and that is Compound Words. Again there are many of them, so here are just a few that I like:
Boquiabierto = open-mouthed
Nomeolvides = forget-me-not
Agridulce = bittersweet
Aguardiente = firewater
I truly think there is enough food for thought there to keep you going for a good long time!
Jane Cronin’s “Step by Step Spanish” articles are available as e-books at www.janecronin.eu where you can also obtain Jane’s “Step by Step Internet Spanish” course.