A prefix is placed before a base word to modify its meaning.
Examples of prefixes include:
return, reply, return
unkind, untrue, uncertain
misunderstand, misprint, mistrust
Pre is a prefix which means before, prior to, early and in front of.
Synonyms are words that are similar or have a related meaning to another word. For example, small and little have the same meanings. Beautiful and gorgeous are also synonyms.
Can you match the words on the left to their synonyms on the right?
In English some words have silent letters. This means that how a word is pronounced and how it is spelt is different. We write the silent letter when we spell the word, but it is not heard when we speak.
Here are some examples. The orange letter in each word is silent.
Silent B
The lift is broken, we'll have to climb the stairs.
A baby sheep is called a lamb.
Silent C
After our lesson on cat idioms and another on dog idioms, it’s time to take a look at some other animals.
Instead of idioms we are going to look at some vocabulary related to animals. All you have to do is read through the following short text and guess what the missing words are:
I took my young daughter to the zoo for the first time recently.
In English we have a few different ways of saying goodbye.
Goodbye and bye bye are two phrases that English learners use but they are actually not common for native speakers to use. Goodbye is a little cold and bye bye is a kids' phrase!
Let's take a look some better ways!
Here are some informal slang phrases you can use with friends.
Catch you later
Later
So long
Gotta go
See you later/soon/next time
How are you?
I'm fine, thank you.
'I'm fine, thank you', is an answer we use so often to this question that we don't really have to think about what we are going to say. The reply comes almost automatically whenever we hear it beinng asked to us.
But how about if we ask the same question in a different way?
All these questions mean 'how are you?', but your task is decide which is the best response. There are many ways you can answer but only one is correct from the three possible replies.
Friday, March 20 is the first day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere.
Spring is a season. There are four seasons in a year, spring, summer, autumn and winter. Each season is marked by different weather and hours of daylight.
It's easy to know when spring is on the way. The Sun rises earlier in the morning and sets later in the day. The days also start to get warmer.
A negative description of a rich and powerful person.
Those fat cats in government don't care about the poor.
Has the cat got your tongue? is an expression we say to people when we want them to speak but they aren't.
Tell me why you are late again. What's the matter, has the cat got your tongue?
Adverbs modify other words apart from nouns and pronouns. For example:
He was driving.
He was driving dangerously. - here the adverb modifies driving and gives us more information about the action.
These are the five types of adverbs:
Adverbs of Manner:
She sings beautifully.
We ran quickly.
A prefix is placed at the beginning of a word to change its meaning.
Examples of prefixes include:
misunderstand, misplace, misprint
unaffected, unwanted, unconformable
discourage, disallow, disappear
Re is a prefix with the meaning again, back or it indicates repetition.
