Prefixes
You can make change the meaning of some words by adding prefixes (extra letters at the beginning of words). For example, you can change the meaning of 'excited' to mean 'too much' or 'too excited' by adding 'over' to the beginning of it to make overexcited.
Too much, more than, many and do/be more than:
too much - over excited (adj) - overexcited spend (v) - overspend confident (adj) - overconfident
more than - super market (n) - supermarket natural (adj, n) - supernatural hero (n) - superhero
many - multi layered (adj) - multilayered tasking (n) - multitasking purpose (n) - multi-purpose
do/be more than - out run (v) - outrun sell (v) - outsell grow (v) – outgrow
Not and opposite:
not - non verbal (adj) - non-verbal smoking (adj) - non-smoking returnable (adj)- non-returnable
opposite - in competent (adj) - incompetent convenient (adj) - inconvenient expensive (adj) - inexpensive
opposite - im (before 'p') possible (adj) - impossible patient (adj) - impatient perfect (adj) - imperfect
opposite - il (before 'l') legal (adj) - illegal legible (adj) - illegible logical (adj) - illogical
opposite - ir (before 'r') replaceable (adj) - irreplaceable responsible (adj) - irresponsible relevant (adj) - irrelivant
Using hyphens with prefixes: Most words which are created with prefixes don't use hyphens. However, some prefixed words do use hyphens, for example, the prefixes co (co-operate), pro (pro-government) and non (non-starter).
Some words with prefixes are hyphenated and other words with the same prefix aren't. For example multilayered and multi-purpose There's no hard and fast rule why this is the case.
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