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How to Practise Negative Prefixes

By Alex Case
Games and other stimulating oral practice of dis-, un-, im-, etc

Words with negative prefixes like “uncertain” and “inflexible” are easy to understand and really useful in communication, but difficult to memorise. This makes them perfect for the kind of controlled speaking practice explained in this article.

Negative prefixes pelmanism

This is based on the classic card game pairs/ the memory game. Choose at least 20 words with at least two different negative prefixes, e.g. eight examples of words which take un-, and the same number of words that take in- and im-. Make cards with those words (“lucky”, etc). Students spread the cards across the table and take turns trying to find pairs of words which take the same negative prefix, keeping them if they match, or putting them back in the same places if they don’t. This is commonly played with the cards face down for extra fun and challenge, in which case you’ll need to make sure that students can’t see through the back by using thick or coloured paper, and/ or grey print.

Before or after the game, students can also work together to put the cards into columns by negative prefix that they would take.

Negative prefixes snap

This is a faster game that can be played with the same pack of cards as the pelmanism game above. Students deal out the pack of cards but don’t look at the cards in their hand. They take turns putting their top card face down on the table, and race to be first to shout out “Snap” when the last two cards take the same negative prefix, e.g. when “polite” and “mature” are next to each other on the table. If they are right, they get all of the cards that are on the table, and play continues. If the last two cards don’t match, they should just stay silent until the next card is turned over and put down. If they say “Snap” when the two cards don’t match, they have to pay a penalty by giving two cards to the other player(s). The winner is the first person to get all of the cards in the whole pack, or the person with most cards in their hand when the teacher stops the game.

Negative prefixes coin games

Students pick a word and flip a coin to see if they should make it into the negative version (heads) or whether they should keep the form without prefix that it has (tails). Some of the many games that can then be played with those forms are explained below.

Negative prefixes bluff

A student picks a word, flips a coin to see if they should use the basic form or the form plus a negative prefix, then make a personal sentence using it as quickly as they can, using their imagination if they can’t think of anything true. Perhaps after follow-up questions, their partner then guesses if it was true or not.

Negative prefixes make me say yes

Students choose a word and use either it or its negative form in a yes/ no question to try to get a positive answer from their partner. For example, they choose the word “organised” and ask the question “Is your desk at home disorganised?” and get a point for the answer “Yes, it is”. Which form they use can be chosen to make a suitable question, be alternated between positive and negative forms, or can be decided with a coin. Alternatively, you could give extra points for each “Yes” answer that comes from a question with a negative prefix in order to encourage use of those forms.

Negative prefixes things in common

Students choose a word and try to make a sentence that is true about both/ all the people in their group using either that word or its opposite, e.g. that “We all have uncooperative siblings”. If you want to score, they could then read out some sentences and get one point for each thing that is true about their group and not about everyone in any of the other groups. Which form they use can be decided in the same ways as with Make Me Say Yes above.

Negative prefixes hints games

Students choose a word with a negative prefix and give hints until their partner guesses which word they chose. Hints could include which prefix it takes, blanked example sentences, the first letter, or dashes to represent each letter (making it like hangman with hints).

Negative prefixes tennis

Students send a ball back or forth (or pretend to) as they serve and return with words associated with negative prefixes, for example:

  • serving with a word which can take a negative prefix and returning with the form with the correct prefix
  • serving with a word with a negative prefix and returning with another word with the same negative prefix

In all cases, the returner only loses the point if they can’t think of something suitable but the server can.

Negative prefixes debates

One student chooses a word, adds a negative prefix to it, and makes a statement such as “I wouldn’t want to work with a manager who is dishonest”. Their partner makes and tries to justify the opposite statement (“I wouldn’t want to work with a manager who is honest”), then they debate until someone changes their mind or they can’t think of more arguments. This obviously only works with higher level classes.

Negative prefixes brainstorming

Within a given time limit, students race to say or write as many suitable examples as they can of categories like:

  • words with non-
  • negative prefixes in personality words
  • negative prefixes that make negative words positive (“unselfish”, etc)
  • words starting with m- plus negative prefixes (“unmemorable”, etc)
  • words with negative prefixes that could describe their classroom or school

Negative prefixes Strangers on a Train

Give each student at least one word with a negative prefix. As they roleplay starting a conversation with someone they don’t know, they try to use those words in a conversation without the other person noticing, something that is easiest if they hide their tracks with lots of other words with negative prefixes.

Negative prefixes drawing games

Students draw pictures to represent “uninterested”, “indecisive”, etc. This can be done as a guessing game and/ or with students competing to draw the best representations of those words.

Written by Alex Case for Teflnet January 2025
Alex Case, founder TeflTasticAlex Case is the author of TEFLtastic and the Teaching...: Interactive Classroom Activities series of business and exam skills e-books for teachers. He has been a teacher, teacher trainer, director of studies, and editor in Turkey, Thailand, Spain, Greece, Italy, UK, Korea and now Japan. He has published a book with Macmillan and hundreds of articles, reviews, lesson plans and worksheets with Onestopenglish, Modern English Teacher and many others. In addition to contributing articles and teaching ideas to Teflnet, Alex for many years edited Teflnet Book Reviews.
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