Lesson 7: Changing Meaning with Preitxes

The prefix in- is a game-changer! It flips the meaning of a word to its opposite, usually meaning 'not.' Let's look at how this works.

Key Words

📝Example Usage:

• After a long day of hiking, the once-energetic dog was completely inactive, sleeping on the rug.
• He worried that his contribution to the project was insignificant, but his team assured him every part mattered.
• The constant stress led to a severe case of insomnia, leaving her tired every morning. (a condition of being unable to fall asleep)

When you see the prefix semi-, think 'half' or 'partly.' It describes something that is incomplete or happens midway. Here are some words that use it.

Key Words

📝Example Usage:

• The dress code for the dance was semiformal, so we wore nice dresses and button-down shirts instead of tuxedos or casual clothes.
• In her dazed and semiconscious state, she couldn't remember what had happened right after she fell.
• Use a semicolon to join two closely related sentences; it creates a pause that is stronger than a comma but softer than a period.