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  • What am I going to do today? Yeah, I have no -- hi. James from EngVid. You know what?

  • I'm not too sure what to do, so why don't we do something basic? It's not going to really

  • be basic, but I'll tell you what I want to do. I'm going to help you learn how to spell

  • or use prefixes in English. What do I mean by that? The first thing I want to teach you

  • is what is a prefix and the six basic prefixes we start with. That should help you along

  • with your spelling and your reading. Let's go to the board.

  • Hey, what's up? So what is a prefix? That's the first thing we should look at. Well, "prefix",

  • in itself, has a word, and it's "pre". And funny, it means "before". I've done a couple

  • lessons on this before -- a vocabulary pyramid, so please go check them out -- where I take

  • some of these, and I make a bigger lesson on. So if you're okay with this and you want

  • more, go there, and then do the quiz when you're done. Cool. Anyway, so prefix goes

  • before a word. There are, basically, six basic ones. There are many. There are hundreds,

  • actually. But the ones I'm going to introduce today, you're going to see many, many, many

  • times. And when I'm done, I'm going to give you a little surprise up there. Something

  • that I think will be interesting and surprising. So let's get started, shall we? Let's move

  • towards the board. So the first one I want to do means "to" and

  • "toward". You've seen it before, and it does change. What I should introduce also is that

  • -- the fact that a prefix is what we call a "morpheme". A "morpheme" -- because "morph"

  • means "to change" and "pheme" -- it's the smallest unit of English, like, you know,

  • the number one. It's the smallest unit you can have that has a meaning. And that's what,

  • basically, prefixes are. They're small units, but they have a very distinct -- which means

  • a certain or one -- meaning that's special, okay? So these are morphemes, and I'm going

  • to do the first one. The first one is "to" and "toward". What would it be? Well, it means,

  • in this case -- if I put it here, it means "next to", and if I put it here, it means

  • "give to". You've seen it before, and I'm going to put it up here: "ad". Well, think

  • about it: One plus one, you move the numbers together, and you get two. Move them together

  • -- two. That's when we "add" things. Well, funny, that's what it also means as a morpheme.

  • When we put it here, and we put "adjoin": It means "together" or "next to". When you

  • say, "I have -- my bathroom adjoins the living room", it is "next to". They're "toward" or

  • "to"; together. What is this one? Well, you already know I'm going to put "ad" here, right?

  • So let's just add it. I keep saying that, "ad", "add", right? Go towards the next thing.

  • "Administer". When you "administer" something -- your doctor does this. You go; he administers

  • a drug or an injection. It means to give to you. And there's the "to" part. Or "We will

  • administer punishment if you do not do the quiz properly at EngVid." All right? We'll

  • "give" you punishment -- "administer". All right? So let's go to the next one. I love

  • saying "right". Because it's correct. "With" and together". Some of these look familiar.

  • I know "unity" and "promise". Unity and Ivo -- that's the -- no. That's "Ebony and Ivory".

  • "Ebony". Anyway. Let's go here. But it means "with" and "together". So what could this

  • possibly be? I don't know. How about "com"? "Com" means "with" or "together". And when

  • we put it here -- I made a small joke about "unity", "Ebony", and "Ivory" because I said

  • "living together in perfect harmony" if you see that song. "Unity": They live as one.

  • And then it's "community" -- living as one. One group of people together as one. Now,

  • what about "compromise"? "Compromise" -- have you ever heard that word before? I hope not,

  • or you need a new English teacher. It's "compromise". This changes when you put the "com" in front.

  • I don't make the rules. I'm just here to administer them. You like that? I like it, too. Okay.

  • So when you make a "compromise", you promise together. It means two people want different

  • things, but you say, "Look. You can't have everything, and I can't have everything, so

  • why don't we promise to give each other a little bit of this, a little bit of that?"

  • So we meet halfway. We come together and halfway, right? With a promise, we come and compromise

  • -- halfway, meet each other. "Co" -- you might even say "copromise". So you promise, I promise,

  • we'll make a compromise. You work; I work; we'll get better. Okay, so "co" -- copromise.

  • Don't say "copromise". Please don't. Compromise. And if you say "copromise" say you learned

  • it from some other teacher, not James. I guess there's some girl out there who's teaching

  • English you can blame it on. Okay, so "promise together".

  • Mr. E, we've done (1) and (2). What's next? Well, let's go here: "vious". Okay. We have

  • one here that means "against" and "toward". That's interesting. "Against" and "toward":

  • They seem opposites. And that's what this one, basically, means, "ob". When we look

  • at here, and we look at this word, "obvious", "obvious", it means "toward easy to see".

  • When something is "obvious", you can easily see it, or you're moving to make it obvious

  • so you can easily see it. One I didn't put here is "oblong" because we talk about sides

  • -- but that's another lesson -- and why we have "toward". But here's another one. "Noxious".

  • "Noxious" is actually a word which means to make you sick. If something is "noxious"...

  • or "nauseous". "Nauseous". So when we have "obnoxious", it means "toward making me sick"

  • or "not happy". "That's very obnoxious. What you said was obnoxious. I don't like it. It

  • almost makes me want to be sick." Sorry about that -- eggs for breakfast.

  • Next, we're going to do this one, and that's "sub" -- damn it. I almost gave it away. But

  • you don't know unless you're very smart, and you looked here, but I'm covering that. Next

  • one, we've got "servient". And it's not a "serviette". You know, you go to the -- they

  • give you one of these, a "serviette" -- no. Not a "serviette". But it means "under". Now,

  • if you look here it should be easy for you. It should be obvious. See? And I'm not trying

  • to be obnoxious. I'm just trying to administer the lesson in a way for you to learn. It's

  • "sub". "Sub" means "under" or "lower" in English or -- actually, it's a Latin root, so "under".

  • So when we put here "sub", and we put "subservient", this is interesting. I know it's small, so

  • work with me here. It means, "Somebody knows their position is lower or under others, and

  • they act like it." So -- sorry. It has "acts like it", "and they act like it". So basically,

  • you have someone who acts like, "Yes, sir. No, sir. Three bags full sir. I'll do, yes,

  • yes, yes." You're "subservient" -- under us, serves under us. Cool? And "subway". Well,

  • if you're from -- if you're from New York or Toronto, they have a subway. That means

  • they travel under the ground. Cool? Let's go over here.

  • So we've got "subservient". We've got "subway". What else could we possibly have? A bunch.

  • Because, again, we have "with" or "together"? Twice? It's not my fault. These are the basic

  • six. I'm just telling you because if you look in the dictionary, you'll see pages and pages

  • starting with this. All right? So "together" and "with" would be here. Let's put it up

  • here -- "syn". You've seen this. I'm going to make one small change. You may not say,

  • "James, this isn't 'syn'. You put 'syn' and then you use something else. This is wrong."

  • Sometimes "syn" becomes "sym". Sometimes this -- it looks like this. But it's the same meaning.

  • They're similar, right? In this case, "sympathy". When somebody has "sympathy", they have something

  • with emotion, right? They have sympathy for you. They have emotions with you or together

  • with you. They share them with you or together with you -- "sympathy for your children",

  • "sympathy for the planet or other people". I feel as you do. And here's one. I put this

  • one because you're studying English. And when you're studying English, you have to learn

  • this one. And I'm coming right back to "syntax". This isn't a tax for being a bad person, no.

  • "Syntax" is how words work together. You can put the verb and the subject and the object

  • in different places, but in English, there's a syntax -- there's a way that the words must

  • go. You have to write them this way. So your teachers will go, "You have great writing,

  • but the syntax is off." They're saying your words don't work well together for the way

  • the English rules work. And that's "syntax", "together" and "with".

  • Now, I missed something, so this lesson isn't quite sufficient, or it's not -- you might

  • say something else. It's not quite finished. And what would that be? Good. Because it's

  • going to help me with the final one I want to do, and it's this one: "in". Very popular

  • word, and it's "in" these days. When we say something is "in" these days, it means it's

  • "in fashion" or style. So "in", funny enough, means "not". It's the opposite, "not". And

  • "in" means "into", "to enter". So if you use here -- which is what's happening right now.

  • "Sufficient" means "enough". If you speak Spanish, "sufficiente". I don't speak Spanish.

  • I wish I did. I'm learning it, though. But if you say that, "It's not enough. I don't

  • have enough time" -- "insufficient". Let me just finish off this. It's "insufficient",

  • "not enough". "Insufficient time. I'm running out. I have to hurry." And the last one is,

  • "incapable". "Capable" comes from "capacity" or "ability". So we put "no ability" -- "ability",

  • there we go. Someone has no ability to do something. See? I was incapable of finishing

  • the lesson until five seconds ago, and that's when I wrote "inability". "Incapable" and

  • "insufficient" -- it wasn't sufficient because I missed one. I gave you five, not six. And

  • "incapable" -- wasn't finished. This is bad. That's why the worm works here, to keep me

  • on top of my job. Anyway. I wrote all of this, and I told you these

  • are the six basic ones. There are many more, and some of these have been done in a bigger

  • lesson on EngVid, so please go check those out, and once again, do the quiz. But notice

  • I did this one last. I really did do it for a reason, and you're going to find out. Do

  • you know that only four prefixes make up -- take a guess. Do you think 20 percent? 30 percent?

  • 40 percent? 50 percent? Keep on going. What was that, Mr. E? That's right. 97 percent

  • of most of the prefixes out there -- surprised? I know you are. And do you know it's this

  • one that's included in the list of four? These four are used 97 percent. And the best part

  • is they're mostly negative. It makes my language a very negative language. I don't think that's

  • right. I think that's not fair, but "in", "dis", and "un" usually mean "no" or "not".

  • Anyway. A quick review because we've got to go, all right? So "ad" means "to" or "toward",

  • all right? "Com" means "with" or "together". "Ob" means "against" or "toward". I know.

  • I don't make the rules. I'm just telling you. "In" means "not" or "into". "Sub" means "under".

  • And "syn", which sometimes looks like "sym", can be "with" or "together". Cool? You like

  • that? I do. These are the basic six. Don't forget. These

  • negative four are terrible, but I want you to have a good day. Mr. E and I are on our

  • way -- subway. Cool, right? Not trying to be subservient here, but I've got to do the

  • promo. Here we go. So I need you to go to www.engvid.com, where "eng" stands for "English"

  • and where "vid" stands for "video", where you'll see me and Mr. E. We'd like to teach

  • you some more, all right? Don't forget your prefixes. Next, we'll do suffixes. Sufficiente.

  • That's not Spanish, it's just me.

What am I going to do today? Yeah, I have no -- hi. James from EngVid. You know what?

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