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Prefixes with Opposite Meanings Discussion & Presentation

A LESSON PLAN FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHERS

Antonyms with different prefixes to discuss and then remember - good for academic writing and opinions practice in advanced classes.

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Prefixes with opposite meanings discussion and presentation

Word formation/ Comparing and contrasting/ Looking at both sides

Choose one of the pairs of ideas on page 2 or page 3, compare and contrast those ideas, and choose which one is best (in the majority of cases, in the short-term, in this country, etc). Although you should look at both sides of both ideas, you should come to a clear (if soft) conclusion each time on which is better, more important, more feasible, etc.

 

Prefixes with opposite meanings presentation

Without looking below for now, match up the affixes with opposite meanings in the two columns below. Words given more than once have more than one possible opposite.

 

anti                                                                                                          bi

bene                                                                                                       bi

homo                                                                                                      cis

inter                                                                                                        di(a)

macro                                                                                                     down

mega                                                                                                      hetero

mono                                                                                                      intra

mono                                                                                                      mal(e)

mono                                                                                                      micro

over                                                                                                        mini

pre                                                                                                          mis

proto                                                                                                       multi

semi                                                                                                        multi

super                                                                                                      neo

trans                                                                                                       poly

uni                                                                                                           post

uni                                                                                                           pro

up                                                                                                            sub

well-                                                                                                        under

Check your answers below, firstly trying to memorise the answers with your pens down.

 

Test each other on the language above and below:

  • Read one of the words in the list of topics below and see if your partner can come up with the opposite word
  • Read out a whole sentence from below and see if your partner can make a sentence with a word with the opposite meaning
  • Read out a prefix above and see if your partner can say the prefix(es) with the opposite meaning(s)
  • Read out the root word from the ideas below and see if your partner can add both possible prefixes
  • Read out a pair of opposite prefixes and see if your partner can say a pair of words using them with the same root (with other words not below often also okay)
  • Read out a single prefix and see if your partner can say a word with it
  • Read out a single prefix and see if your partner can say a word with it and a word with the opposite prefix


Ideas with opposite prefixes to discuss

a homogeneous public education system

a heterogeneous public education system

 

marriage equality for homosexual and heterosexual couples

a special kind of civil partnership for homosexual couples

 

treating transgender people the same as cisgender people of the gender that the they choose to identify with

creating a special category, special policies or special treatment for transgender people

 

funding macroanalysis of the causes of crime

funding microanalysis of the causes of crime

 

government funding to help microfinance start-ups/ micro-bank start-ups

government funding to help sort out bad debts in the megabanks

 

more legislation on megabanks

more legislation on microbanks

 

encouraging megamalls on the edge of and outside cities

encouraging mini-malls in city centres

 

promoting integration of immigrant communities into the majority culture (to retain a monocultural society)

promoting multiculturalism

 

unilateral disarmament

trying to negotiate multilateral disarmament agreements

 

a multiverse cosmology

a cosmology assuming a single universe

 

trying to return former industrial sites in the countryside (coal mines etc) to their pre-industrial state

finding post-industrial economic uses for former industrial sites in the countryside

 

teaching (more) about the pre-colonial history of Asia

teaching (more) about the post-colonial history of Asia

 

investing in the development of supersonic passenger aircraft

investing in the development of better subsonic aircraft

 

a scholarship for monoglots to learn their first foreign language

a scholarship for polyglots to learn more languages

 

an advertising campaign teaching the dangers of carbon monoxide (for humans)

an advertising campaign teaching the dangers of carbon dioxide (for the environment)

 

an English speaking test mainly consisting of a dialogue with another candidate

an English speaking test mainly consisting of a monologue on a topic chosen by the examiner

 

semi-annual job rotations

bi-annual job rotations

 

a bicameral parliament

a unicameral parliament

 

public service advertising against the misuse and overuse of antibiotics

public service advertising promoting the use of probiotics

 

undercover spies placed in anti-North Korean groups

undercover spies placed in pro-North Korean groups

 

writing to a television station to support a particularly well-informed regular guest

writing to a television station to complain about a particularly misinformed regular guest

 

a belief in the fundamental benevolence of other countries/ other countries’ governments

a belief in the fundamental malevolence of other countries/ other countries’ governments

 

upgrading the IT skills of all staff

downgrading staff who lack IT skills and/ or resist technology

 

looking at the upside of each idea first, then the downsides

looking at the downsides of each idea first, then the upsides

 

more info on the company’s internet server

more info on the company’s intranet server

 

more local policemen to stop intra-tribal violence (e.g. between violence between different clans) in tribal areas

more army posts to stop inter-tribal violence in tribal areas

 

cutting the pay of overpaid executives

boosting the pay of underpaid workers

 

teaching children how to avoid undercooking food

teaching children how to avoid overcooking food

 

teaching high school students about the most important proto-feminist figures

teaching high school students about the most important neo-feminist figures

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