Grammar tips

Today we will take a look at negative prefixes and suffixes. Sometimes you might get confused with the specifics. This is why we must always revisit these tricky topics.

There are 13 negative prefixes in English: a-, ab-, an-, anti-, dis-, ig-, il-, im-, in-, ir-, non-, un-, mis-. We will give you a list of words that commonly take these prefixes.

Prefix a- 

We can use the prefix a- to make some words (usually adjectives) negative:

• typical – atypical; theist – atheist; political – apolitical; sexual – asexual; social – asocial.

Prefix ab–

Very few words take the negative prefix ab-:

• normal – abnormal; original – aboriginal; use – abuse.

Prefix an-

Even fewer words take the prefix -an; they are most commonly used with scientific terms:

• hydrous – anhydrous; eruptive – aneruptive; electric – anelectric.

Prefix anti-

The prefix anti- originates from Greek and it means ‘opposite’ or ‘against’. In most cases, it requires a hyphen:

clockwise – anti-clockwise; social – anti-social; aging – anti-aging; biotic – antibiotic.

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