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Character Words with Negative Prefixes

A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Making antonyms of personality adjectives jigsaw and two speaking tasks, including word formation with un, im, in, ir and dis.

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Lesson Plan Content:


Character words with negative prefixes games

Character words with negative prefixes jigsaw game instructions for teachers

Cut up the worksheet into cards, but make sure that each card has at least two boxes (e.g. “in-” and “un-” on one card) so that students can put them back together without having to know all the words. Especially with weaker classes, you can also have at least some cards with three, four or even five boxes. It is best if the left-hand column and right-hand column are cut in different places. Give out the mixed-up cards and ask students to put them together so that all the opposites are correct.

If students find putting the table into order difficult:

  • Tell them that it should make two nice rectangles
  • Give them some key answers
  • Ask them to think about if there any patterns
  • Tell them not to touch the cards while you read out all the answers or let them look at the worksheet, then let them try again

When they have checked their answers, they can test each other in pairs by:

  • Reading out words with the same negative prefix missing until their partner guesses that negative prefix
  • Reading out single words with the negative prefix missing
  • Reading out negative prefixes and helping their partner make suitable negatives with it

The presentation below can be done before or after testing each other.

For free speaking, you could get students to take turns adding one positive adjective to a description of their friend/ father/ girlfriend/ music teacher etc and one negative adjective to that of their partner. When they have finished, another group says which person sounds best (or probably which sounds least bad).

 

Character words with negative prefixes speaking instructions for teachers

Character words war

In pairs, students take turns describing their own brother/ romantic partner/ grandparent with a positive word and their partner’s with a negative word. They can’t repeat exactly the same words as have been used before, but they can use the opposite of a word which has been used. When you stop the game, they should discuss which person sounds worse and why.

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Character words with negative prefixes presentation for students

First of all without looking at the cards, try to answer these questions:

Which negative prefixes are most common? Which of those is number one?

 

What letters usually comes after “im-”? Do those letters always have “im-” before them, or are other negative prefixes sometimes possible?

 

Which letter follows “il-” and “ir-”?

 

What other negative prefix(es) are there?

 

Cards to cut up/ Suggested answers

un

adaptable

un

adventurous

un

affectionate

un

ambitious

un

approachable

un

caring

in

competent

in

considerate

un

conventional

un

creative

in

dependent

un

diplomatic

in

efficient

in

flexible

un

friendly

un

helpful

un

intelligent

un

interesting

un

kind

il

logical

im

modest

un

motivated

dis

obedient

dis

organised

im

patient

im

polite

im

practical

un

punctual

un

reliable

ir

religious

in

sensitive

un

sociable

un

sympathetic

un

systematic

un

tidy

un

trustworthy

 

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