Learn English prefixes to improve your vocabulary: DOWN-, UP-, RE-, DE-

Hi, welcome back.

Today, we are going to do a lesson on prefixes.

Prefixes are little words that you stick at the beginning of other words to change the

meaning.

Think of it as adding a different color light bulb into a room, yep.

The word exists, but then you're going to change the hue, the light.

As an example, we have the verb "do".

But, if I redo, then I do it again, yep.

I'm actually redoing this video, because the first time, I got it all wrong.

So, it's a retake.

I'm redoing it.

Very useful to be able to know prefixes, because your vocabulary will be able to expand and

you'll be able to form new words from knowing how these prefixes work.

So, a prefix, two, three letters at the beginning of the word.

And you can also have a suffix, which is at the end of a word.

But that is for another lesson.

Okay.

So, vocab building is what we're looking at today, through prefixes.

These are four ones.

Down, yep.

To lower.

De, meaning out of, or the opposite of.

Up, yep.

Re, meaning like, to go back.

Now, we have four verbs up here.

Date.

We know this, like to go on a date.

A particular date in the calendar, yeah.

It's a chosen day or time where you're going to do something.

Launch, the rocket launches up into the sky.

But you can also launch a business, meaning to start it.

Centralize.

Say you have a company that has offices all over the country.

If you centralize operations, then you have somewhere in the middle, in the center, everything

is going to be organized from.

Size, yep.

Big, small.

Okay.

So, size is normally a noun rather than a verb.

But, put together with a prefix, then it turns into a verb.

So, what I want you to do, because when we're learning, sometimes we need to be doing things,

yep, is to try and work out which of these goes with which prefix.

Can you figure that out?

So, why don't you start with "date"?

Would that go with downdate?

To downdate something - to lower the date?

It doesn't really work.

Dedate.

It's quite a funny sound, d, d, d, strong d's, dedate.

No, so de, meaning kind of out of or to lower or the opposite, no.

Up, meaning to get higher.

Well, this does actually go together, yep.

Update.

So, if you update, you are renewing it.

You're making it new.

So, the date is getting it's - it's like it's getting better.

The date is improving, yep.

An unusual combination, but it does work.

To redate something.

No, you don't redate something.

You can rebook something.

So, if you missed an appointment, you might say, "I'm so sorry, can I rebook?".

It means to choose another appointment.

Not redate.

Launch.

Downlaunch?

Seems a bit kind of - a bit too confusing.

Delaunch something.

We're about to open, but then we don't open.

No.

We talk about cancelling, not delaunching.

Uplaunch, yeah.

But kind of, if you're launching, you're already going up.

Relaunch, so you're going to do it again.

We're going to relaunch the business on the first of May.

First time, it wasn't that great, so we're going to do a bigger, better one.

Centralize.

Downcenter - I can't even imagine what that means, so no.

Decentralize.

So, de, meaning kind of out of, the opposite, yes.

So, we're in the center, but then we're going to go a different way, we're going to go out.

So, in Britain, the railways were centralized, but then under Margaret Thatcher, lots of

the industries were decentralized.

So, if something is centralized, it often means it's being run by the government.

So, when the railways were decentralized, instead of British Rail, we have all these

different companies who are then controlling a particular section of the railway network.

Size.

Down - downsize, yep.

So, it's big but now we're making it smaller.

And that's the only one that can work with that.

Lots of people, when they retire, downsize.

So, that means they're in a nice, big house and then they are going into a smaller one.

Yeah.

Just thinking, resize.

If you resize, then you are changing the size that you have of something.

Maybe you've got a dress and you want to resize it.

You're going to change the measurements.

Okay, what we're going to do now is we're going to look at other examples for each of

these prefixes.

So, I'm just going to - okay.

I am redoing this.

I'm doing it again, because I've made some mistakes, but here I am.

Let's go!

We're going to start off over here.

Down - the prefix means this kind of direction.

So, joined with the words, let's see how the word changes.

Stairs, they go up.

But if I put "down" before it, then I go down.

Trend, yep.

It's the pattern.

If we think of the economy, is the pattern going up or down?

Well, if I have "down" in front of it, then the pattern is going down.

Load.

I'm going to load my things into the car.

But with "down" in front of it, we use it with a computer.

I am downloading something from the internet.

I'm pulling it down into my personal memory.

Downhaul, okay.

Well, haul means to pull.

I've seen a van outside that says, like, "Haulage" or something.

It moves things.

But if you downhaul, then you are pulling down, specifically on a boat.

You pull a rope that makes the sail go up.

If you want to know more about sailing, then you can check out my sailing video.

Pour, yep.

I pour the water.

With "down" in front of it, the sky is pouring water onto us - rain, yep.

In England, it rains quite a lot.

So, we talk about the weather a lot.

Right - right and wrong.

Downright is kind of a phrase that shows quite - it shows like, a strong feeling.

That was downright rude!

It means it was really, really, really rude, okay?

De, the prefix, means reverse.

So, with crease, increase, yep.

But the opposite of increase is decrease.

Capitate.

So, a cap, Latin root of a word, head.

And also, in Catalan, I think, "cap" means "head".

But if I put "de", I'm taking the head off.

Decapitated.

Flect, it's like kind of a movement.

So, if the ball deflects off me, it goes onto me and then it goes over there.

So maybe like, I shoot the ball and it deflects off a player.

It like, changes direction.

Compose, yeah.

You can compose an email.

You can compose a song.

You can compose yourself, yep.

To make yourself feel calm.

But decompose is the reverse.

It's like a body decomposing.

It's getting kind of, you know, worms are eating it.

Really nice.

Caf, yep, coffee.

Decaffeinated, it's got like, the strong stuff that keeps you awake out.

So, it has the taste but without the power.

Activate, if you activate your membership, yep, it's all kind of set up.

But if you deactivate it, then you're doing the reverse and so it's not there.

You're not part of that anymore.

So, you can deactivate memberships, etc.

Up, higher.

So, beat, yep, think about the beat in the music.

If you're upbeat, that means you're like "Woohoo, I'm ready, let's go!".

Roar - you know, like a lion.

Even more than a roar is the noise that a crowd makes if they are really upset about

something.

The uproar, when the politician did this, was enormous, yep.

It's a great noise, an uproar.

Upfield, meaning if this is our sort of field, meaning a pitch here, upfield is a kind of

up, yeah, a direction in the pitch.

So, that way.

Hold, yep.

I can hold some money, I can hold an apple, a potato.

But this has a more significant meaning if you uphold something, it means like, these

are values that I keep to.

I uphold the values of tolerance and hospitality, yep.

Something you really lift high, yep, and consider important.

Opposite stairs, yep, stairs up.

Upstairs, we go upstairs.

Rising, an uprising, yep, rising.

The sun rises, we rise when we get up.

But an uprising is even more than that.

It's like a protest.

People are waking up and they're saying, "No, no more!"

An uprising, a really big waking up.

The prefix re means again, to do again.

Assess, meaning to make a judgement.

If I do the judgement again, I have a look and I think whether I got it right the first

time.

Locate means like, to find, yep.

But if you relocate, then you are changing where you are.

I relocated to Los Angeles.

I relocated to New York.

Restructure.

Structure is the way something is organized.

So, if you restructure it, then you change it.

You change the organization of it.

Train, choo-choo train?

No, this is the verb meaning to like, to learn a skill.

So, if you retrain as a plumber, then you're doing a course and you're learning how to

fix toilets and pipes and all the things that we need.

Build, yep, to make.

You build a house, but if you rebuild it, then you make it again.

And gain, yep, you can gain muscle mass.

But to regain means to get - to get back again.

I regained her trust, yep.

I got it again.

Lots of words here, yep.

The most important thing is that you remember the meaning of the prefixes, because then

you'll see them when you're reading and you'll understand how the meaning of the word changes

with these key prefixes.

Have a go at the quiz now.

If you're not a subscriber, become one.

And remember there are lots of other teachers on www.engvid.com , all who have a personal

style and will offer different things to what I do, so check out some of the other teachers

as well.

And I'll see you in the next video.