Language Arts Grade Four

Unit Four, Lesson Four: Pre Prefix

  1. shook
  2. book
  3. noodle
  4. balloon
  5. goose
  6. shampoo
  7. apricot
  8. cherries
  9. deciduous
  10. evergreen
  1. conifer
  2. mesquite
  3. willow
  4. agave
  5. creosote
  6. sprout
  7. growth
  8. apple
  9. oasis
  10. palm
The Pre- Prefix

Prefixes are affixes which are added to the beginning of a word. Consider these examples: 


	prefer		prevent		predict

	predetermine	prefabricate	premature

	prefix		pretrial	presuppose
The pre- prefix means before or in advance. So, the word pretrial refers to the trial before the main trial. Many words with the pre- prefix have roots which are not easily recognizeable as English words. For instance, the word predict means to "declare in advance." You may recognize the root dict as being similar to the word diction which means "to say" which means about the same thing as "to declare."

As another example consider the word premature which means "arriving or happening before the proper time." The root mature means ripe or ready and so premature means "before ripe or ready."

Here are some more examples: 


  premium	prelude		prefigure

  preform	preface		preexist

  preempt	precaution	preamble
What is a precaution? It's something done in advance to be careful or to keep someone safe. To do something with caution means to do something carefully. So, a precaution is a caution taken in advance.

You may have heard of prefabricated buildings. These are buildings which are built in advance and then taken to the building site and reassembled. To prefabricate means to build in advance. Build means more or less the same thing as fabricate.

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