Irish/Prefixes
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Prefixes
As in many other languages, Irish adds prefixes to words to create new words. If you become familiar with the prefixes below, you may double your [vocabulary]! Note that some prefixes are separated from the base word by a [hyphen], and some prefixes cause lenition.
- ain- in-, un-, not-, over-
- Examples: ceart (right) becomes aincheart (unjust), fios (knowledge) becomes ainfhiosracht (over-curious).
- an- very
- Example: maith (good) becomes an-mhaith (very good).
- ath- re-
- Example: déan (do, make) becomes athdéan (redo, remake).
- ceann- chief, main, -headed
- Example: litir (letter) becomes ceannlitir (capital letter).
- comh- mutual, joint
- Example: ceol (music) becomes comhcheol (harmony).
- dea- good, well
- Example: scéal (news, story) becomes dea-scéal (piece of good news).
- dearg- red-, real, utter
- Example: gráin (hatred) becomes dearg-ghráin (intense hatred).
- dé- bi-, di-, two-
- Example: taobh (side) becomes déthaobhach (bilateral).
- di- de-, dis-, in-, un-
- Example: scéal (news, story) becomes díscéil (uninformative).
- do- in-, un-, not-
- Example: déanta (done, complete) becomes dodhéanta (impossible, hard to do),
- il- many, multi-
- Example: eochair (key) becomes ileochair (master key).
- in- capable of
- Example: creidte (believed) becomes inchreidte (believable).
- lán- total
- Example: cead (permission) becomes lánchead (full permission).
- réamh- pre-, preliminary
- Example: feiceáil (seeing) becomes reamhfheiceáil (foresight).
- mion- small, micro-
- Example: insint (telling) becomes mioninsint (detailed report).
- sár- exceeding, ultra-
- Example: riail (') becomes sár-riail (golden rule).
- ró- over-
- Example: minic (often) becomes rómhinic (too often).
- so- easy
- Example: briste (broken) becomes sobhriste (fragile, easily broken).