Learn some common verb prefixes in French
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| Michael: What are some verb prefixes in French? |
| Aurore: And why are they useful to know? |
| Michael: At FrenchPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Sasha Lee studies for her exam together with her classmate, Doriane Dantois. She sees an unknown word, and asks, |
| "What does "revenir" mean?" |
| Sasha Lee: Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire "Revenir" ? |
| Dialogue |
| Sasha Lee: Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire "Revenir" ? |
| Doriane Dantois: Ça veut dire "Venir encore une fois." |
| Michael: Once more with the English translation. |
| Sasha Lee: Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire "Revenir" ? |
| Michael: "What does "revenir" mean?" |
| Doriane Dantois: Ça veut dire "Venir encore une fois." |
| Michael: "It means "to come again."" |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Michael: While studying French, you might have come across a large number of identical verbs that differ only in the syllables at the beginning of the word. Those syllables are what's referred to as |
| Aurore: le préfixe |
| Michael: or "prefix" in English. Prefixes have many uses. They are attached to nouns, adjectives, or verbs either to create linguistic shortcuts or build more complex words. In this lesson, we will talk about French verbal prefixes. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Michael: To understand how they work, let's have a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says "What does "revenir" mean?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Aurore as Sasha Lee: Qu'est-ce que ça veut dire "Revenir" ? |
| [Recall 2] |
| Michael: And do you remember Doriane's answer, ""It means "to come again"?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Aurore Doriane Dantois: Ça veut dire "Venir encore une fois." |
| Michael: The word in question is |
| Aurore: revenir |
| Michael: which, as she explains, means "to come again." Here, the prefix used is |
| Aurore: re- |
| Michael: which means "to return to a previous state of being," pretty much the same as the English prefix "re-." It is often attached to French verbs that begin with a consonant or an aspirated "h." In this case, the root verb is |
| Aurore: venir |
| Michael: which means "to come" or "to arrive." Attaching the prefix in question, we get the expression |
| Aurore: revenir |
| Michael: or "to come again." |
| [Summary] |
| Michael: In this lesson, you learned that French verbs could get their meaning from a syllable attached in front of the stem. This syllable is called a |
| Aurore: le préfixe |
| Michael: or "prefix." Simply looking at the prefix of a verb is enough to give you an idea about what the word means. French has several other verb prefixes. Let's have a look at some of them, starting with |
| Aurore: des- |
| Michael: It means "not" or "separate from." Here's a French verb that comes with this prefix: |
| Aurore: désassembler |
| Michael: This word means "to disassemble." Let's try another one: |
| Aurore: en-. |
| Michael: This verbal prefix means "in" or "into." One example verb with this prefix would be |
| Aurore: enfouir. |
| Michael: To understand the meaning of this verb, let's look at its root: |
| Aurore: fouir |
| Michael: which means "to dig." Attaching the prefix in question gives it a whole new meaning, which is "to bury." This time, you're not simply digging, but "digging into" with the purpose of burying. Here's another interesting French verb prefix: |
| Aurore: super-. |
| Michael: This is not purely a verbal prefix because it is also used in nouns and adjectives. It also doesn't mean "great" or "powerful." As a French verbal prefix, it means "above" or "on top of." Here's an example: |
| Aurore: superposer. |
| Michael: The root verb here is |
| Aurore: poser |
| Michael: which means "to lay" or "to put." Attaching the prefix, we get the expression "to place on top of." |
| Aurore: Doreen a superposé les coussins pour ne pas avoir mal au dos. |
| Michael: "Doreen placed the cushions on top of each other to keep from hurting her back." Here's another French prefix that's used in nouns and verbs. |
| Aurore: anté- |
| Michael: This verbal prefix means "in front of" or "before." Here's an example: |
| Aurore: antéhistorique. |
| Michael: Breaking this word down, we get "before" plus "historic," and that gives us the word "prehistoric." Just like in English, you'll also find the prefix |
| Aurore: pré- |
| Michael: in French, which holds the same meaning as |
| Aurore: anté- |
| Michael: so you can say both |
| Aurore: antéhistorique et préhistorique |
| Michael: for "prehistoric." Which one you use may depend on context, although the prefix |
| Aurore: pré- |
| Michael: is usually the more common one. |
| And, finally, here's a simpler one: |
| Aurore: é-. |
| Michael: This prefix can be verbal, nominal, or adjectival, and one that indicates removal. For instance, you have the word |
| Aurore: effeuiller. |
| Michael: The root verb here is |
| Aurore: feuiller |
| Michael: which means "to come into leaf." Attaching the prefix, we get the expression "to strip the leaves off." |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Michael: Some French verbal prefixes have variants. For instance, the prefix |
| Aurore: re- |
| Michael: has three more variants. When added in front of a verb that begins with an "s," it becomes the prefix, |
| Aurore: res- |
| Michael: such as in the word, |
| Aurore: ressortir |
| Michael: which means "to go out again." Another one of its variants is |
| Aurore: r- |
| Michael: which is added to verbs that begin with a vowel or the silent "h," such as in the word, |
| Aurore: rhabiller |
| Michael: or "to dress again." The prefix |
| Aurore: ré |
| Michael: functions in a similar manner, and that's how we get words like |
| Aurore: réécrire |
| Michael: which means "to rewrite." |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Michael: You've probably noticed that many French prefixes are very similar to those of English. That's because, for the most part, French prefixes originated in Greek and Latin, just as in English. Take this French prefix, for example: |
| Aurore: anti-. |
| Michael: This nominal and adjectival prefix means "opposed to" or "against," and carries the same meaning as its English counterpart. The word, |
| Aurore: antibactérien |
| Michael: for instance, is the equivalent of the English "antibacterial." The same is the case with the prefix |
| Aurore: pro- |
| Michael: as in the word |
| Aurore: proactif |
| Michael: which, as you could guess, is the equivalent of the English word "proactive." |
Outro |
| Michael: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Aurore: À bientôt ! |
| Michael: See you soon! |
Comments
Hide