What is a prefix?

What is a prefix?

• A. A root word that cannot stand alone.
• B. A morpheme added to the end of a word.
• C. A morpheme added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning.
• D. A syllable that sounds the same.

Answer: (C)

Prefixes are morphemes placed at the start of a word to change its meaning. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in language, and adding a prefix like un-, re-, pre-, or dis- to a base word creates a new word with a new idea: unkind means not kind, redo means do again, preheat means heat before. Prefixes never stand alone as words; they must attach to a base word. This is different from a root that cannot stand alone, which describes a bound morpheme, and from suffixes, which are added to the end, or from a syllable-based concept about sound. So the correct understanding is that a prefix is a morpheme added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning.

Prefixes are morphemes placed at the start of a word to change its meaning. A morpheme is the smallest unit of meaning in language, and adding a prefix like un-, re-, pre-, or dis- to a base word creates a new word with a new idea: unkind means not kind, redo means do again, preheat means heat before. Prefixes never stand alone as words; they must attach to a base word. This is different from a root that cannot stand alone, which describes a bound morpheme, and from suffixes, which are added to the end, or from a syllable-based concept about sound. So the correct understanding is that a prefix is a morpheme added to the beginning of a word to change its meaning.