Search results for 'tag:Prefixes tag:Consonants' matching tags 'Prefixes' and 'Consonants'

Re: Words with double consonants

CalifJim — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 07:52:28 GMT

Matsko
I am aware that its one M

No. It's two m's.

There is no general rule.

panel has one n. flannel has two n's. These rhyming words should both take the same pattern!

The least often doubled are h, j, k, q, v, w, x, y. It would be a rare word that contained a doubling of one of these consonants.

In the case of Latinate verbs, doubling is a little more predictable. Many of these consist of a prefix (or two) and a root. Unfortunately, you have to have a good knowledge, or at least a good intuition, about Latin prefixes and roots. All in all, it is probably not worth the trouble to learn all the rules.

Nevertheless, it may be instructive to examine a few cases.

Prefixes: re, com. Root: mend. recommend You need one m for the prefix com and another m for the root mend.

Prefixes: de, con. Root: struct. deconstruct No doubling required.

Prefixes: dis, con Root: nect disconnect One n for the prefix; another n for the root.

Prefix: op Root: pose oppose One p for the prefix; another p for the root.

Prefix: im Root: merse immerse One m for the prefix; another for the root.

Prefixes: ac, com Root: mod Suffix: ate accommodate One c for the first prefix; one for the next prefix. One m for the second prefix; another for the root.

Watch for these related groups of prefixes that are associated with doubled consonants:

col, cor, com, con; il, ir, im; op, oc, of; sup, suf; ac, af, ag, al, an, ap, ar, as, at

collect, correct, commend, connect, illegal, irregular, immerse, oppose, occur, offer, suppose, suffer, accede, affect, aggregate, allay, announce, approve, arrange, assault, attract.

There is no prefix am or om before m. These are reduced to a and o, so there is no doubling: amend, omit. The same applies to av and ov. avoid, overt.

Don't confuse the Latinate ac, af, ag, etc. with the "native English" prefix a, which connects with "native English" roots: awake, asleep, ago, awry, about, around, aloud, ... These never have doubling.

These comments just give a rough idea of a few of the sorts of ideas that underlie the patterns of doubled consonants in English.

Re: The sound of "S" at the beginning and in the middle of words

CalifJim — Mon, 15 May 2006 07:05:55 GMT

I don't know of a site like that.

Initial s is pronounced /s/, except in sure and sugar, where it is pronounced /S/*.
Medial s is problematic. There are no hard-and-fast rules -- mostly just lists.
In -ssion or -ssure, the double S is /S/. impression, pressure
In -sion or -sure, the S is /Z/*. vision, treasure
*/S/ is the sound of "sh" in "sheep". /Z/ is the sound of "s" in "measure" or of "zh" in "Zhivago".

Otherwise âssâ has the sound /s/. Exceptions where âssâ = /z/ are âAussie, Missouri, dessert, dissolve, scissorsâ, and the first âssâ of âpossessionâ

âscâ before âeâ, âiâ or âyâ acts as if âssâ. (acquiesce) Otherwise, âscâ is /sk/. (ascot, Oscar)

Intervocalic ârsâ, âlsâ, and ânsâ. The âsâ is /s/. (horse, else, density, dorsal, conversation, pulse, pensive)
But when followed by final âyâ or âeyâ the tendency in this situation is for âsâ to be /z/. (Mersey, Jersey, pansy, tansy, palsy) Unusual cases with three intervocalic consonants. parsley (/s/), Guernsey (/z/).
Intervocalic âspâ, âstâ*, âskâ. The âsâ is /s/. (aspen, mustard, asking, prosper, hostile, askew)

*But after a stressed vowel, final âstleâ and âstenâ have a silent âtâ, and âsâ is /s/. (castle, rustle, hasten) Stated differently, in such contexts âstâ has the sound of âssâ. An exception is âpestleâ, which may be pronounced with or without the /t/.

Intervocalic âsmâ, âsnâ, âslâ, âsbâ, âsdâ, âsgâ. The âsâ is /z/. (Osmond, osmium, cosmic, Asner, Maslow, Cosby, wisdom, Disney, frisbie, dismal, paisley) But not in compounds: (busboy, gaslight)

Final â-ismâ has /z/.

Intervocalic âsâ is typically /z/, but it is /s/ often enough to require memorizing the many exceptions. Note below how the same spellings can be /s/ or /z/, depending on the word or even the use of the word (noun or verb).

With /s/: case, base, chase, vase, erase
With /z/: phase, phrase, laser, quasar
With /s/: obese
With /z/: these, Chinese, Japanese, and all "nationality words" in "-ese"
With /s/: vise, isolate, isobar, and all words with prefix âiso-â.
With /z/: rise, wise, arise, advise, supervise, improvise, all prefix + âvise" words, advertise, prison
With /s/: dose, close (adj), verbose, morose, purpose, monstrosity, porosity
With /z/: chose, hose, close (v), nose, pose, prose, rose, those; lose, whose; position
With /s/ : obtuse, recluse; use, abuse, excuse (nouns)
With /z/: muse, fuse, ruse, amuse, accuse, profuse, confuse; use, abuse, excuse (verbs)
With /z/: raise, praise, braise, raisin, daisy
With /s/: geese, Reese
With /z/: cheese
With /s/: cease, crease, grease*, lease
With /z/: tease, ease, please; easel, teasel, weasel; reason, season, treason
With /s/: mouse, louse, grouse, douse (v), house (n)
With /z/: rouse, arouse, carouse; house (v), lousy; browse, drowse, drowsy
With /s/: moose, goose, loose, noose, caboose
With /z/: choose
*âgreaseâ has /s/ in the northern U.S. and /z/ in the southern U.S.

Prefix + root.

With the prefix âtransâ it often makes no difference whether /s/ or /z/ is used.
Speakers vary in their choices.
/s/ or /z/: transpire, transpose, transmit, transact
Latin prefixes âreâ, âdeâ, âpreâ followed by a root beginning with âsâ (and vowel) normally have /z/.
reserve, deserve, preserve, resort, present, design, resign, resent, resemble, resolve
But with /s/: resource, research; reset, resend, all âre-â meaning âagainâ.
But Anglo prefixes âbeâ, âaâ followed by a root beginning with âsâ (and vowel) have /s/.
beset, asea, beseech, aside, beside, besiege, asunder

CJ

Re: How and where to use negative prefixes like un-,dis,non-,etc?

Klavier — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 16:17:09 GMT

Anonymous wrote:
Hi, freak guy,

otherwise You would not ferer the poor guy to long lists of words to memorise by heart or to practical usage ONLY.

Have a nice sleep in Your den

So, should I learn ancient roots, rules, and which consonant and vowels go here and there ? Should I burn my brain with this stuff when it comes to the prefix retro- for example, or is it more 'PRACTICAL' to learn all the words in the dictionary in this pattern? Please allow me: retroactive - retrograde - retrospect - retrospective. Oh! I think I have already learnt them.
Have a nice sleep in Your monastery.

Re: How and where to use negative prefixes like un-,dis,non-,etc?

Anonymous — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 14:46:05 GMT

Hi, freak guy,

of course, there are very strict rules, but these rules are rooted in ancient LAtin, if You do not know Latin, then You can claim there are no rules. But if You are not educated enought, You should not state such a nonsense. There are rules as to what consonants or vowels must precede to add this or that prefix. Have you ever heard of a progressive assimilation, for example? You do not seem to have, otherwise You would not ferer the poor guy to long lists of words to memorise by heart or to practical usage ONLY.

Have a nice sleep in Your den

Yours Zdenek

Re: prefix

rvw — Wed, 05 Oct 2005 06:48:18 GMT

There are many rules governing the writing of compounds, and many exceptions to the rules. I would say that you should always first consult a good dictionary to see if the compound has an established form. From Webster's Third New International Dictionary, here are some of the rules governing prefixes:

1. Prefixes in borrowed compounds. A hyphen is often used between duplicated vowels: co-operate, but usually the form is solid: cooperate. If the letters (vowels or consonants) are different, the word is usually solid: coalesce, coerce, collect, diagram, anarchy.

2. Prefixes in compounds formed within English. Open styling is usually not used. "Some combinations are usually close-styled (in- and un-, as in inexpressible, untenable), some are usually hyphened (ex- in ex-president), some are frequently styled either way (anti-, co-, extra, non-, pre-, semi-)." Hyphens are used to avoid vowel duplications: anti-intellectualism. Hyphens are less common if the vowels are different: deadjectival, foreoath. Solid styling is usual for junctures with consonants: nonmetallic, nonalcoholic, extralegal.

3. "When the base word begins with a capital, a hyphen is usual: un-American."

4. Some "prefixes" function as adjectives when they are open before a noun: a pseudo liberal, quasi independence.

5. Sometimes, the hyphened word has a different etymology, pronunciation, and meaning:
    recover: to get back
    re-cover: to cover again.
    recreation: play.
    re-creation: a creating again.

Re: How and where to use negative prefixes like un-,dis,non-,etc?

CalifJim — Wed, 04 Aug 2004 20:53:30 GMT

There is no rule. Words with these prefixes have come about through accidents of history. The most usual is "un-", but always consult a dictionary. The following does not really answer your question, but you may find it somewhat useful anyway, especially if you're willing to work to dig some of this out of a dictionary.

Dissertation on "Negative Prefixes" in English.

"a-" is a Greek prefix meaning "not" or "without". It is found almost exclusively with words formed from Greek roots. You can usually spot these by the spellings: "ph", "th", "y", "rh", "chr", "pn", "mn", final "sis" or "ic".

theist / atheist
chromatic / achomatic
rhythmic / arhythmic
symmetry / asymmetry

This prefix is found mostly in scientific terminology, especially in the medical sciences. "agranulocytosis", "apnea", "amenorrhea", "anemia", "apraxia", "amitosis".

However, these are not cases where the prefix was applied to an already existing word. Most people know these words as a single unit. They are unaware that the initial "a" has a separate meaning of its own. These should be learned separately, as there are very few pairs like those cited above.

This prefix is also confusable with the native English prefix "a-", as in "ago", "asleep", "aside", which does not have anything to do with negation.
__________

non- has almost exactly the same meaning as "un-", but is less frequent, and here again the best approach is to learn these separately. It occurs more freely with nouns than many of the other prefixes do. Here are a few common ones:

partisan / nonpartisan
sectarian / nonsectarian
violence / nonviolence
standard / nonstandard
compliance / noncompliance
proliferation / nonproliferation
sense / nonsense

The last listed is the only one where the stress shifts to the prefix.
__________

"in-" is a prefix from Latin, so it is usually seen when the root is from Latin. While native English roots tend to be monosyllabic, Latin roots tend to be polysyllabic. "in-"changes to "im-" before "m", "p", and "b". It changes to "il-" before "l" and to "ir-" before "r". This pattern is quite common with adjectives (derived from Latin).

articulate / inarticulate
polite / impolite
possible / impossible
modest / immodest
legal / illegal
reverent / irreverent
regular / irregular
sanity / insanity

Latin also uses the prefix "in-" in other ways, not necessarily for negation, so caution is advised! For example, "improve" is not the negation of "prove"! Probably the most maddening of these is the word "inflammable", which means the same thing as "flammable", not the opposite! You will sometimes see the word "nonflammable", which is more clearly the opposite of "flammable".
__________

"dis-" is also a Latinate prefix, but it often means more than the simple negation of "un-". With verbs it may imply some action (often of removal) employed to create a negative state or the absence of something. The difference is usually more obvious in the past participle. Usually the form with "un-" cannot even be used as a verb.

arm / disarm (remove weapons from)

unarmed - not carrying a weapon
disarmed - having had one's weapon(s) taken away

infect / disinfect (remove possible sources of infection)

uninfected - not having an infection
disinfected - having had possible sources of infection removed

qualify / disqualify (remove from competition or consideration)

unqualified - not having the proper qualities or qualifications
disqualified - judged to be unqualified; having been removed from consideration

The prefix "de-" is also sometimes used in the sense of removal, forming verbs from nouns: "defrost", "delouse", "dethrone", "devein", "defrock", "declaw", "deice".

Sometimes the positive form has a prefix which is removed before the negative prefix is added. "encourage / discourage" "consonant / dissonant"
With some dictionary work you should be able to discover the difference between the words in these groups as well. They are rather curious, not to say pathological, examples.

interested / disinterested / uninterested
prove / disprove / improve
integrate / disintegrate / segregate / aggregate
assemble / disassemble / dissemble
distinguish / distinguishable / indistinguishable
distinguished / undistinguished
claim / disclaim / unclaimed
able / unable / disabled
trust / distrust / trustworthy / untrustworthy
cover / uncover / discover
__________

"un-" is the native English prefix for negation, but it combines freely with nonnative roots as well. It is the most used prefix of its kind. It is used with verbs, adjectives, and adverbs, but also sometimes with abstract nouns -- not with concrete nouns ("*an unchair", "*an unbowl"). It can indicate simple negation (adjective) ("happy / unhappy") or it can indicate reversal of a process (verb) ("lock / unlock"). In this latter role, the prefix "de-" is sometimes used instead.

able / unable || tidy / untidy || cooperative / uncooperative || safe / unsafe ||
helpful / unhelpful || grateful / ungrateful || likeable / unlikeable || suitable / unsuitable || kind, unkind

Whenever there is a common word which is the opposite, the "un-" form does not exist: high / low (*unhigh, *unlow) fast / slow (*unfast, *unslow). But speakers sometimes mistakenly use such forms as "unthaw" for "thaw" (freeze / thaw, *unfreeze / *unthaw) or "unloosen" for "loosen" (tighten / loosen, *untighten, *unloosen).

pack / unpack || dress / undress || screw / unscrew || wind / unwind || tie / untie || roll / unroll || veil / unveil || cover / uncover

(Note how many of these form phrasal verbs with "up", e.g., dress up, wind up, tie up, roll up, cover up.)

code (encode) / decode || activate / deactivate || hydrate / dehydrate || humanize / dehumanize || escalate / de-escalate || brief / debrief

Here are a few curious examples. Get out your dictionaries! These could be challenging!

rail, derail; plane, deplane; attach, detach, unattached, detached, undetached; compose, decompose.

Does "derail" mean "remove the rails from"? If you have all planes removed from the runways, do you deplane the runways? Can you "rail" something? Can you "plane" something? What are the different implications of "attached" and "undetached"? Don't they mean the same thing (because two negatives (un, de) make a positive)? Is decomposing really the reversal of composing?