Negative prefixes
None
• means no one or nobody
• used as a pronoun, adverb, or a noun.
 None of the students performed well in physics
 It is none of your business
 The old dress looked none the better even after drycleaning
 She responded to none of my text messages
• singular when emphasize a single entity in a group
• plural when emphasize more than one
 None of the books is/are worth reading.
 None of us is/are going to the banquet.
Negative prefixes
non• The prefix non- is the most useful negative prefix, as it can
be attached to virtually any noun, verb, adjective,
or adverb
• used to create a word that describes the complete opposite
of its nonnegative form.
• When affixing non- to a word, no hyphen is needed unless
the stem is a proper noun.
• Non- =“absence or lack of”: non-standard.
• “not doing, failure to do”: non-accomplishment
• If someone has a non-medical background, it simply means
he has nothing to do with the medical world.
• If one is talking about nonlinear motion, it is clear that he is
explaining motion that is anything but in a straight line.
• Unrevealed means “not made known”:
The mayor’s plans remain unrevealed as of this
writing.
• Non-revealed, on the other hand, is used by
religious writers to mean “not founded on
teachings delivered to mankind by a special
emissary sent from God”:
Christianity and Islam are revealed religions;
Taoism is a non-revealed religion.
• When faced with adding un- or non- to an
adjective (including participles ending in -ed),
use un- when all you mean is the adjective’s
opposite. If you want to convey the lack of
something, use non-.
non-flammable materials
a non-renewable resource
In non-technical every-day talk
words and non-words
nontransparent
non-count nouns
Britons are not necessarily un-American
people, but they are certainly non-American.
unattached to Latin derivatives that end in -ed / -able,
(unfounded, unassailable, and unbelievable)
By adding un to reliable we change the meaning of
the word to not reliable.
"Un" is a little stronger than "non" and, when it's
attached to a participle, often means that the act
implied in the participle hasn't been done yet.
 An unconnected appliance hasn't been connected
 a disconnected one has had the plug pulled.
un·be·liev·er nevernik
noun a person who does not believe; a person who
does not accept any, or some particular, religious
belief.
non·be·liev·er ateista
–noun a person who lacks belief or faith, as in god, a
religion, an idea, or an undertaking.
added to verbs = reversal of action:
wind/unwind
bind/unbind
fold/unfold
do/undo
lock/unlock
fasten/unfasten
buckle/unbuckle
cover/uncover
wrap/unwrap
done/undone
added to adjectives =opposite
happy/unhappy
biased/unbiased
dyed/undyed
available/unavailable
conventional/unconventiona
tied/untied
unknown
unwanted
unavailable
uncool
in-, im-, il-, ir• The in- prefix (from which im-, il-, and ir- are derived) is generally the
least useful of the negative prefixes, as it only goes with certain Latinderived stems (e.g., intolerant, inarticulate, impenetrable),
• is highly conventionalized, and is identical to morphemes used in
words that are not negative:
 inflammable /e:/, which means the same thing as flammable opposite
of "non-flammable."
 irradiate, which means to expose to radiation
 illuminate, which means to make luminous
 inhumane, inexplicable, insane ...
 Use in- prefix with words that start with consonants and vowels, but
not i or u.
 Im- before words that start with m or p: impossible. 'improper',
imbalance, immature ...
Ill- illegal, illegitimate
ir- irreducible, irrelevant, irreplacable, irregular
• An immoral person violates a known moral code; an amoral one
knows no such code.
• de-, a-, anti• The prefix de- is usually affixed to verbs to
denote reversal of an action.
deactivate,decode, decompose,
decontaminate, decrease, deform, defrost,
derail
• A- is affixed to adjectives ending in -al.
Political/apolitical
Sexual/asexual
Typical/atypical
• Anti- means against
"Dis-“
• usually implies "no longer,"
 "disarmed" means that weapons have been removed,
 "unarmed" means they were never there.
• often has a stronger, more active negative connotation.
 Someone who is "unrespected" simply gets no respect--he's overlooked and taken for granted, people
use his things withut asking, etc.
 Someone who is "DISrespected" is insulted or otherwise more actively shown contempt.
• related to bis, (two), and can be used in the sense of separation:
 disjoin
disable
• In the course of centuries, distinctions between un- and dis- have blurred. Sometimes the prefixes are
interchangeable. Sometimes not.
Sometimes a perceived difference may exist only in the mind of the individual English speaker.
Many speakers distinguish between disorganized and unorganized.
 Disorganized applies to the sort of person who stuffs receipts into the sock drawer and can never find
the car keys.
 Unorganized applies to things which have not yet been arranged in an organized manner. By this
reasoning, a person would be disorganized, but an office would be unorganized.
• At one time, unease and disease (first syllable stressed) could be used interchangeably with the
meaning “state of anxiety.” Now disease (second syllable stressed) has taken on the meaning of
“illness.”
• Angry arguments are waged over the differentiated meanings of uninterest and disinterest. The
argument is that uninterested should be used with the sense of “indifferent, lacking in interest, while
disinterested should be used only when the intended meaning is “impartial.”
• the adjective that corresponds to the noun discomfort is uncomfortable.
• http://lognlearn.jimdo.com/vocabulary/word
building/negative-prefixes/
• http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lesso
ns/negative-prefixes