Spanish prefixes can be of a big help when it comes with learning new Spanish words. Today our Spanish school El Rincón del Tándem tells you more about this topic. Take a look at our blog and start increasing your Spanish vocabulary from today! 🙂
Last week we started to explain what the Spanish prefixes are. In this second part of this post, we keep exploring this topic, listing other news prefixes that will help you easily guess the meaning of unknown words.
To begin with, we remind that prefixes are letters or group of letters that are placed at the beginning of a word with the aim to change the meaning of it.
Prefixes belong to the group of affixes. That is, world elements that we do not find alone and only exist as part of a word.
As mentioned in our previous post, knowing the meaning of the prefixes will help all the students of the Spanish course to easily understand words that sound new to them.
Therefore, let’s learn more!
Homo-
The meaning of this prefix is “same”. When we find it at the beginning of a verb, it expresses the action of making something equivalent or similar to something else.
Homologar = to make equivalent
Homogeneizar = to make uniform/make similar
Homónimo = homonym (i.e. word that is same as another but has a different meaning)
I- / Im- / In-
As in the case of de-des-, the prefixes i-/in- / im- are mainly used to form another word that has the opposite meaning of the base one. Let’s see some examples below:
Ilegal = illegal
Imposible = impossible
Increíble = incredible
Incapaz = incapable / unable
Mal-
Its means “bad”. When it comes with verbs, this prefix tells us that the action or process that the base verb expresses is being done in a bad or poor way.
Malgastar = to waste
Malpensar = to think poorly of somebody
Malentender = to misunderstand
Maltratar = to mistreat / to bully
Mono-
Meaning “alone”, “single”, “one”.
Monopolio = monopoly
Monoparental = single-parent
Monótono = monotonous
Poli-
Mono- and poli- have opposite meanings. Therefore, it means “much/many”, “more than one”. While mono- specifies a quantity (that is, one), poli- means more than one and does not tell nothing about the exact quantity of the base noun.
Poligamia = polygamy
Politeísmo = polytheism
Polícromo = polychromatic
Post- / pos-
Post- and pos- are defined as “after”, “later”, “behind”, “following”.
Posponer = put off, postpone
Posparto = postnatal (i.e. after the labour)
Pre-
Opposite of post- / pos-. Pre- means “before”, “prior to”, “in advance of”. As in the case of ante- it defines anteriority in time or space.
Predecible = predictable
Precocinado = pre-cooked
Re-
This prefix is defined as “again”. At the beginning of a base verb, it tells us that the action is being done again or several times.
Reforzar = to reinforce
Reiniciar = to start over
Repasar = to review
Rehacer = to re do, to remake, etc.
Sub-
The equivalent in English is “under”, “below”, although in some words we find sub-, exactly as in Spanish. The prefix sub- can have literal or figurative meanings. In the latter case, the prefix tells us that the action (or the result of it) is being performed poorly, in a way that is not good or effective enough.
Subestimar = to underestimate
Subdesarrollo = underdevelopment
Subterráneo = underground
Subtítulo = subtitle
Uni-
This prefix has quite the same function than mono-. It means “one”. In some cases, the prefix defines the action or process to make or to turn into one.
Uniformar = to make uniform, to standardize
Unificar = to unify
Unicornio = unicorn
Unilateral = one-sided, unilateral
We hope that this post helps you improve your Spanish by understand how Spanish prefixes work.
If you want to read more about Spanish grammar, language and culture, we invite you to read our past and next posts.
Finally, our Spanish school el Rincón del Tándem provide you a friendly space to learn Spanish while having fun. Get a look at our cheap Spanish courses in Valencia to know more 😉
See you soon!
