Learn English - What are prefixes?

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. And if you say "copromise" say you learned

it from some other teacher, not James. I guess there's some girl out there who's teaching

English you can blame it on. Okay, so "promise together".

Mr. E, we've done (1) and (2). What's next? Well, let's go here: "vious". Okay. We have

one here that means "against" and "toward". That's interesting. "Against" and "toward":

They seem opposites. And that's what this one, basically, means, "ob". When we look

at here, and we look at this word, "obvious", "obvious", it means "toward easy to see".

When something is "obvious", you can easily see it, or you're moving to make it obvious

so you can easily see it. One I didn't put here is "oblong" because we talk about sides

-- but that's another lesson -- and why we have "toward". But here's another one. "Noxious".

"Noxious" is actually a word which means to make you sick. If something is "noxious"...

or "nauseous". "Nauseous". So when we have "obnoxious", it means "toward making me sick"

or "not happy". "That's very obnoxious. What you said was obnoxious. I don't like it. It

almost makes me want to be sick." Sorry about that -- eggs for breakfast.

Next, we're going to do this one, and that's "sub" -- damn it. I almost gave it away. But

you don't know unless you're very smart, and you looked here, but I'm covering that. Next

one, we've got "servient". And it's not a "serviette". You know, you go to the -- they

give you one of these, a "serviette" -- no. Not a "serviette". But it means "under". Now,

if you look here it should be easy for you. It should be obvious. See? And I'm not trying

to be obnoxious. I'm just trying to administer the lesson in a way for you to learn. It's

"sub". "Sub" means "under" or "lower" in English or -- actually, it's a Latin root, so "under".

So when we put here "sub", and we put "subservient", this is interesting. I know it's small, so

work with me here. It means, "Somebody knows their position is lower or under others, and

they act like it." So -- sorry. It has "acts like it", "and they act like it". So basically,

you have someone who acts like, "Yes, sir. No, sir. Three bags full sir. I'll do, yes,

yes, yes." You're "subservient" -- under us, serves under us. Cool? And "subway". Well,

if you're from -- if you're from New York or Toronto, they have a subway. That means

they travel under the ground. Cool? Let's go over here.

So we've got "subservient". We've got "subway". What else could we possibly have? A bunch.

Because, again, we have "with" or "together"? Twice? It's not my fault. These are the basic

six. I'm just telling you because if you look in the dictionary, you'll see pages and pages

starting with this. All right? So "together" and "with" would be here. Let's put it up

here -- "syn". You've seen this. I'm going to make one small change. You may not say,

"James, this isn't 'syn'. You put 'syn' and then you use something else. This is wrong."

Sometimes "syn" becomes "sym". Sometimes this -- it looks like this. But it's the same meaning.

They're similar, right? In this case, "sympathy". When somebody has "sympathy", they have something

with emotion, right? They have sympathy for you. They have emotions with you or together

with you. They share them with you or together with you -- "sympathy for your children",

"sympathy for the planet or other people". I feel as you do. And here's one. I put this

one because you're studying English. And when you're studying English, you have to learn

this one. And I'm coming right back to "syntax". This isn't a tax for being a bad person, no.

"Syntax" is how words work together. You can put the verb and the subject and the object

in different places, but in English, there's a syntax -- there's a way that the words must

go. You have to write them this way. So your teachers will go, "You have great writing,

but the syntax is off." They're saying your words don't work well together for the way

the English rules work. And that's "syntax", "together" and "with".

Now, I missed something, so this lesson isn't quite sufficient, or it's not -- you might

say something else. It's not quite finished. And what would that be? Good. Because it's

going to help me with the final one I want to do, and it's this one: "in". Very popular

word, and it's "in" these days. When we say something is "in" these days, it means it's

"in fashion" or style. So "in", funny enough, means "not". It's the opposite, "not". And

"in" means "into", "to enter". So if you use here -- which is what's happening right now.

"Sufficient" means "enough". If you speak Spanish, "sufficiente". I don't speak Spanish.

I wish I did. I'm learning it, though. But if you say that, "It's not enough. I don't

have enough time" -- "insufficient". Let me just finish off this. It's "insufficient",

"not enough". "Insufficient time. I'm running out. I have to hurry." And the last one is,

"incapable". "Capable" comes from "capacity" or "ability". So we put "no ability" -- "ability",

there we go. Someone has no ability to do something. See? I was incapable of finishing

the lesson until five seconds ago, and that's when I wrote "inability". "Incapable" and

"insufficient" -- it wasn't sufficient because I missed one. I gave you five, not six. And

"incapable" -- wasn't finished. This is bad. That's why the worm works here, to keep me

on top of my job. Anyway. I wrote all of this, and I told you these

are the six basic ones. There are many more, and some of these have been done in a bigger

lesson on EngVid, so please go check those out, and once again, do the quiz. But notice

I did this one last. I really did do it for a reason, and you're going to find out. Do

you know that only four prefixes make up -- take a guess. Do you think 20 percent? 30 percent?

40 percent? 50 percent? Keep on going. What was that, Mr. E? That's right. 97 percent

of most of the prefixes out there -- surprised? I know you are. And do you know it's this

one that's included in the list of four? These four are used 97 percent. And the best part

is they're mostly negative. It makes my language a very negative language. I don't think that's

right. I think that's not fair, but "in", "dis", and "un" usually mean "no" or "not".

Anyway. A quick review because we've got to go, all right? So "ad" means "to" or "toward",

all right? "Com" means "with" or "together". "Ob" means "against" or "toward". I know.

I don't make the rules. I'm just telling you. "In" means "not" or "into". "Sub" means "under".

And "syn", which sometimes looks like "sym", can be "with" or "together". Cool? You like

that? I do. These are the basic six. Don't forget. These

negative four are terrible, but I want you to have a good day. Mr. E and I are on our

way -- subway. Cool, right? Not trying to be subservient here, but I've got to do the

promo. Here we go. So I need you to go to www.engvid.com, where "eng" stands for "English"

and where "vid" stands for "video", where you'll see me and Mr. E. We'd like to teach

you some more, all right? Don't forget your prefixes. Next, we'll do suffixes. Sufficiente.

That's not Spanish, it's just me.