Every parent wants to see their children succeed at reading. It is one of the first steps in an education that leads to a life of learning in every subject. Having a knowledge of vocabulary and how to build on existing vocabulary makes reading a more productive learning process.
A great way to help your children increase their vocabulary is to teach them common prefixes and their meanings through gameplay. Once these are mastered, reading becomes a much more fluid process because it is easy to figure out the definitions of unfamiliar words without looking to a dictionary.
The Twenty Most Frequent Prefixes (top four in bold)
| Prefix | Meaning | Example |
| 1. anti- | against | antifreeze |
| 2. de- | opposite | defrost |
| 3. dis- | not, opposite of | disagree |
| 4. en-, em- | cause to | encode, embrace |
| 5. fore- | before | forecast |
| 6. in-, im- | in | infield |
| 7. in-, im-, il-, ir- | not | injustice, impossible |
| 8. inter- | between | interact |
| 9. mid- | middle | midway |
| 10. mis- | wrongly | misfire |
| 11. non- | not | nonsense |
| 12. over- | over | overlook |
| 13. pre- | before | prefix |
| 14. re- | again | return |
| 15. semi- | half | semicircle |
| 16. sub- | under | submarine |
| 17. super- | above | superstar |
| 18. trans- | across | transport |
| 19. un- | not | unfriendly |
| 20. under- | under | undersea |
According to Teaching Reading Sourcebook: For Kindergarten Through Eighth Grade, the four most frequent prefixes account for 97 percent of prefixed words in printed school English.
Prefix Games
The Real Misdeal
1. Write each of the above prefixes on an index card.
2. Shuffle the cards and place them face down.
3. Flip one card over at a time.
4. Ask players to shout out a word that uses that prefix and define the prefix.
5. The first player who provides a real word and the correct prefix definition keeps the card.
6. The player with the most cards at the end of the game is the winner.
Have a dictionary nearby in case any player challenges the legitimacy of another player’s word.
Creative Non-words
1. Hand out ten blank index cards to each player and ask the players to write down a different random word (without a prefix) on each of the ten cards.
2. Use the 20 index cards with prefixes that you have already made.
3. Pass out three prefix cards and five word cards to each player.
4. Ask each of the players to create a non-dictionary word from their hand.
5. Have each player create a sentence that uses the non-word in a way that other player can determine the meaning of the non-word from the context clues in the sentence.
6. Once each player has read his or her sentence, have all players vote for the most creative non-word.
7. The player with the most votes at the end of the game is the winner.
