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Primary School English Quiz - Prefixes 1 - Adding Prefixes (Questions)

English is a language that has thousands of words, through which all of us communicate. These words are categorised into the eight different parts of speech. There are some words which appear in more than one of these categories and some words which are derived from words from another category. In earlier quizzes we have looked at some adjectives which were formed from nouns by adding a suffix. In this quiz we look at words that can be formed by adding a prefix.

Look at the words – DISAGREE, AGREE and AGREEMENT. What do you find they have in common? AGREE appears in all three of them:

DISAGREE is formed by adding DIS to AGREE at the beginning of the word.

AGREEMENT is formed by adding MENT to AGREE at the end of the word.

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Letters added to the beginning of a word are known as prefixes and letters added to the end of a word are suffixes. Here, AGREE is the root word whilst DIS is the prefix and MENT is the suffix.

The meanings of the new words are different from the meaning of the root word. The new words formed by adding a prefix could be an antonym, as in the case of AGREE-DISAGREE or RUN-OVERRUN.

While there are no definite rules governing the use of prefixes, it would help to know what they stand for. For instance, ‘re’ means 'again', ‘un’ means ‘not’, ‘in' and 'im’ also mean 'not' and ‘dis’ means 'the opposite of'. These prefixes, re, un, in, im and dis, are the most commonly used prefixes. Take this quiz and learn some new words which are formed by adding prefixes.

1. Which prefix could be added to PLEASANT and LIKELY?
[ ] un
[ ] fore
[ ] dis
[ ] re
2. Which prefix could be added to ARM and HEAD?
[ ] dis
[ ] fore
[ ] mis
[ ] up
3. Which prefix could be added to TRUST and COVER?
[ ] re
[ ] non
[ ] dis
[ ] up
4. Which prefix could be added to RUN and ORGANISE?
[ ] un
[ ] dis
[ ] re
[ ] mis
5. Which prefix could be added to ACT and BEARING?
[ ] un
[ ] dis
[ ] mis
[ ] over
6. Which prefix could be added to GRADE and LIFT?
[ ] over
[ ] up
[ ] mis
[ ] anti
7. Which prefix could be added to CLOCKWISE and TRUST?
[ ] re
[ ] im
[ ] anti
[ ] mis
8. Which prefix could be added to GUIDE and FORTUNE?
[ ] un
[ ] mis
[ ] re
[ ] in
9. Which prefix could be added to ANIMATE and ACTION?
[ ] in
[ ] dis
[ ] anti
[ ] un
10. Which prefix could be added to MIGRANT an POLITE?
[ ] mis
[ ] un
[ ] re
[ ] im
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Primary School English Quiz - Prefixes 1 - Adding Prefixes (Answers)
1. Which prefix could be added to PLEASANT and LIKELY?
[x] un
[ ] fore
[ ] dis
[ ] re
'Unpleasant' and 'unlikely' are the new words. 'Un' means 'opposite of' and some other words which use the same prefix are 'unnecessary' and 'unequal'
2. Which prefix could be added to ARM and HEAD?
[ ] dis
[x] fore
[ ] mis
[ ] up
'Forearm' and 'forehead' are the new words. 'Disarm' is also a word but 'dishead' is not. 'Fore' means 'before' or 'in front' and some other words formed with the same prefix are 'foreground' and 'forefathers'
3. Which prefix could be added to TRUST and COVER?
[ ] re
[ ] non
[x] dis
[ ] up
'Distrust' and 'discover' are the new words formed. 'Dis' means 'reverse action' and some other words formed with this prefix are 'disbelieve' and 'disarm'
4. Which prefix could be added to RUN and ORGANISE?
[ ] un
[ ] dis
[x] re
[ ] mis
'Rerun' and 'reorganise' are the new words formed. 'Disorganise' is also a word but 'disrun' is not. 'Re' means 'back' or 'again' and some other words formed by adding the same prefix are 'realign' and 'recheck'
5. Which prefix could be added to ACT and BEARING?
[ ] un
[ ] dis
[ ] mis
[x] over
'Overact' and 'overbearing' are the newly formed words. 'Over' means 'excessive' and some other words formed with the same prefix are 'overhead' and 'overtime'
6. Which prefix could be added to GRADE and LIFT?
[ ] over
[x] up
[ ] mis
[ ] anti
'Upgrade' and 'uplift' are the newly formed words. 'Up' means 'better' or 'rising' and 'upswing' and 'upmarket' are both formed with the same prefix
7. Which prefix could be added to CLOCKWISE and TRUST?
[ ] re
[ ] im
[x] anti
[ ] mis
'Anticlockwise' and 'antitrust' are the newly formed words. 'Mistrust' is also a word but 'misclockwise' is not. 'Anti' means 'against' and some other words formed with the same prefix are 'antithesis' and 'antiaircraft'
8. Which prefix could be added to GUIDE and FORTUNE?
[ ] un
[x] mis
[ ] re
[ ] in
'Misguide' and 'misfortune' are the new words formed. 'Mis' means 'wrong' and 'misbehave' and 'miscarriage' are also formed by the same prefix
9. Which prefix could be added to ANIMATE and ACTION?
[x] in
[ ] dis
[ ] anti
[ ] un
'Inanimate' and 'inaction' are the newly formed words. The prefix 're' would also work, forming 'reanimate' and 'reaction'. 'In' means 'in' or 'into' and also 'not'. Some other words formed with the same prefix are 'inlay' and 'inmate'
10. Which prefix could be added to MIGRANT an POLITE?
[ ] mis
[ ] un
[ ] re
[x] im
'Immigrant' and 'impolite' are the two new words formed. 'Im' means 'opposite of' and 'impossible' and 'improbable' are also formed by the same prefix