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Prefixes and suffixes

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word families - general
 
 
 
 
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Adjective suffixes board game
B1-B2
20-30 mins
groups: 3-4
 
 Board game - 23 squares with half-minute topics. Students make adjectives from prompts and discuss topics. 'A job where you need to be (imagine).' Suffixes: -able -ible -ful - less -ic - ical -ive
 
worksheet preview
 
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Adjective suffixes board game answers
B1-B2
 
 Answers to adjective suffixes board game.
 
 
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Prefixes - gap cards
B1-B2
 
24 cards gapped for common prefixes: anti, over, non, pre, post, self, under Could be used for a snakes and ladders game
 
 
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Prefixes snap
B1-B2
 
Twenty-five cards - 11 prefixes, 14 word stems. (1) play snap. (2) Gap fill and oral follow-up
 
 
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Prefixes quiz
B1-B2
 
Two eight-question word completion quizzes. These can be done in teams (A and B) and then the teams question each other
 
 
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Adjective building - half-minute topics
B1-B2
8
 
Sixteen half-minute topics providing practice using adjectives formed with prefixes: incapable, illegible, irreplaceable, impatient, irresistible, indecisive, illiterate, illogical, irresponsible, improbable, illegal, irrelevant, immature, uninteresting, unadventurous,unusual
 
 
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Prefixes and suffixes
B1-B2
45minutes +
groups: 2+
 
Set of worksheets providing practice with common prefixes and suffixes. Prefixes: un- mis- dis- re- pre- post- under- over- Suffixes: -ion -less -ment -ful -ness -able -ist -ical -er -ous -cy -ance/ence -(i)ty -ate -al -ive (Nine pages) Tasks include matching, gap-fill and speaking
 
worksheet preview
 
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Prefixes and suffixes extra
B1-B2
 
Students spot incorrect combinations of prefixes/stems or stems/suffixes
 
 
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Adjective building - prefixes and suffixes
B1-B2
 
matching - prefix + adjective + noun (Goes with New InsideOut Upper Intermediate, page 73)
 
 
 

 

 
 
 
Adjective building quiz
Gap-fill quiz relating to (old) Inside Out upper intermediate, unit 8. page 75
 
 
Noun suffixes quiz 1
Fourteen-question exercise. Students fill in noun suffix from gapped sentences. e.g. 'The develop____ of mobile phone networks in poor countries...'
 
 
Adjective prefixes quiz 1
Seventeen-question short-answer quiz. Add prefixes il / ir / dis / un / in / im to individual words.
 
 
Adjective prefixes quiz 2
Sixteen-question short-answer quiz on adjective prefixes. Complete the sentences by adding a word with an adjective prefix from the list at the top of the quiz page.
 
 
Prefixes and suffixes quiz
Twenty-question multiple-choice quiz on prefixes (adjective and noun) and noun suffixes.
 
 
Adjective prefixes quiz 3
Ten-question short-answer quiz on adjective prefixes. Add the prefixes il, im, dis etc. to complete the adjectives in example sentences.
 
 
Noun suffixes exercise 2
Sixty gapped sentences requiring a noun with verb or adjective form given as cue.
 
 
Noun and adjective suffixes quiz
Fifteen-question short-answer quiz. Form appropriate noun or adjective by adding the suffix. Example: The company has over 1,000 ______________ . (employ)
 
 
Noun and adjective suffixes quiz 2
Fifteen-question gap-fill quiz. Complete the missing word with the correct form of the word in brackets: e.g. Knowledge is easier to obtain than ______________ . (wise)
 
 

 

 
 
 
Prefixes crossword 01
Fifteen-item crossword, all of the examples made with common prefixes - re, multi, dis etc. (Includes the following trickier examples: illogical, illegible, irreplaceable, multilingual)
 
 

 

Material from other sources

 
 
 
BBC prefixes quizzes external link icon
Three ten-question multiple-choice quizzes in ascending order of difficulty. NB: this BBC website is aimed at young native speakers (note the emphasis on spelling). However, this item would be of use to non-native learners.
 
 

 

 
 
 
Global Upper Intermediate students' book book cover 
Global Upper Intermediate students' book
Unit 2 Right & Wrong  Page 22   Prefix mis
 
 
Inside Out Student's Book Upper Intermediate book cover 
Inside Out Student's Book Upper Intermediate
Unit 8 Escape  Page 75 
adjective building (1) Compound adjectives with 'well-' or '-conscious' (Uses examples from reading Every postcard tells a story, page 74.)
(2) Adjectives with prefixes: un in ir im il
+ suffixes less ful ish (Matching exercises)
(3) Gapped text with root adjective prompts.

 
 
New Cutting Edge Upper Intermediate students' book book cover 
New Cutting Edge Upper Intermediate students' book
Module 2 Life's ups and downs  Pages 20 - 21  Forming nouns and gerunds
(20) Noun - verb pairs: research and researh etc. (20) Passage with mulitple choice words: noun /verb/adjective etc, (21) Word completion
 
Module 2 Life's ups and downs  Page 27   Practise
End-of-unit extra practice section
 
Module 2 Life's ups and downs  Page 22   Forming adjectives
Common adjectival endings: ive, ic, able etc
 
Module 2 Life's ups and downs  Page 23   prefixes
Common prefixes: over, under, pre, post etc
 
 
New Inside Out Student's Book Upper Intermediate book cover 
New Inside Out Student's Book Upper Intermediate
Unit 4 Challenge  Pages 36 - 37  Ben Saunders: Polar explorer
Reading about the youngest person to ski solo to the North Pole + vocab work focusing on prefixes and suffixes
 
 
Straightforward Advanced Student's Book book cover 
Straightforward Advanced Student's Book
1D The quarterlife crisis  Pages 12 - 13  Noun suffixes
 
 
Play Games with English Book Two book cover 
Play Games with English Book Two
Opposites quiz page 30  Page 30 
dis... un... im... in... Ss form opposites of 12 adjectives (with picture prompts) by adding these prefixes.
 
 
Reward Upper-intermediate Resource Pack book cover 
Reward Upper-intermediate Resource Pack
9 - 12b Impossible?  Pages 9 - 12
Dominoes game with prefixes.
 
 
The Great Train Robbery
 
<i>Black Mirror</i>
 
Escape from the canyon