Antonymy 2

Objective

To examine how adjective antonyms are formed and used.

Activity 1

Adjectives commonly have opposite words, or antonyms. When we think of an adjective, we often immediately think of its opposite. For example: 

• rich - poor
• old - young
• easy - difficult

For each of these five sentences, write down the pair of adjective antoynms that could fill the gap. 

1. Brian lifted his backpack. It was Answerlight/heavy
2. The train journey had been very  Answerlong/short
3. His grandfather left him a Answerlarge/small sum of money.
4. The slice of bread was too Answerthick/thin
5. The towels in the bathroom were Answerwet/dry

Activity 2

Just like with nouns, adjective antonyms can be formed by using prefixes.

For example, we can write this sentence in two ways: 

• He lost the game and felt very sad.
• He lost the game and felt very unhappy.

In the second example, we took the antonym of 'sad' and added the un- prefix. 

Read these four sentences. Identify the adjective and replace it with an antonym and a negative prefix to keep the same meaning.

If you need a hint, click the 'Adjectives' button to see a list of possible antonyms.

1. That was a very mean
remark
2. The children can be very naughty
in this class
3. I thought her speech was boring.
4. The substitute teacher is a little naive.

Adjectiveskind, obedient, inspiring, experienced

Here are the sentences with some antonyms with prefixes you could use:

1. That was a very unkind
remark
2. The children can be very disobedient
in this class
3. I thought her speech was uninspiring.
4. The substitute teacher is a little inexperienced.

Activity 3

English uses several different prefixes to form antonyms. Here are some clues that help you know which one to use:

• Un- is used with words of Anglo-Saxon origin, which tend to be shorter, everyday words.
• There are many different prefixes for Latin origin words, which tend to be longer and more specialised.
• Dis- and in- come before vowels, and il-, im- and ir- come before consonants.

Keep these hints in mind in the next activity.

Add the correct prefix to the 12 adjectives. Next, write a sentence using each word. 

1. visible
2. similar
3. equal
4. legible
5. content
6. loyal
7. animate
8. interesting
9. aware
10. courteous
11. partial
12. fair

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