lesson
Use prefixes to unlock a word
1 · Learn
A prefix goes before a root and changes meaning. Some prefixes help form nouns: supermarket names a kind of shop and autobiography names a person's account of their own life. Sub can suggest under, inter between, super above or beyond, anti against, and auto self. These are clues, not complete definitions for every word.
A subheading sits under a main heading. An intercity train travels between cities. Anticlockwise describes turning opposite to a clock's hands. A supermarket is a large shop, not a shop floating above another one. Check each complete word and its job in the sentence.
2 · Worked example
Biography names an account of a person's life. Add auto, meaning self, to make autobiography: an account written by the person whose life it describes. Both are nouns. The prefix changes whose account it is, not simply how long the word looks.
3 · Your turn
Name the prefix in subheading and autobiography. Explain each whole word. Does super mean that every word beginning super describes something physically high?
Check your answer
sub and auto. A subheading is a smaller heading under a main one; an autobiography is someone's own life story. No: meanings such as large or exceptional also occur, so check the complete word.
4 · Apply your learning
Write two short information paragraphs about an invented club. Give each a subheading. Tell a partner why subheading and heading are related, then find another accepted prefixed noun in a dictionary.
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