 #2 (permalink) Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:02 am About " ad " |
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Hi Zishuli,
No, it can also be a prefix, although the spelling often changes slightly.
A lot of our English prefixes were originally Latin or Greek prepositions. For example ad- is a preposition in Latin meaning 'to or towards'.
Sometimes English doesn't allow for the combination of sounds that result from these Latin and Greek prefixes placed against other words, and so the spelling is changed somewhat to conform to English pronunciation rules.
Sometimes the spelling changes were made originally in Latin for similar reasons, and we kept that spelling when the word entered the English language. For whatever reason, the 'd' in ad- is often dropped and instead the initial consonant of the root word is absorbed into the prefix.
For example:
before c, k, or q, ad- usually becomes ac- (accede)
before 'f', ad- usually becomes af- (affluent)
before 'g', ad- usually becomes ag- (agglutinate)
before 'l', ad- usually becomes al- (alliteration)
before 'p', ad- usually becomes ap- (apportion)
before 's, ad- usually becomes as- (assailant)
before 't', ad- usually becomes at- (attune)
Probably more than you really needed to know, but now you know.
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 Skrej
I'm here quite often ;-)
Joined: 03 Jul 2008
Posts: 863
Location: Not-quite exact central USA
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| #3 (permalink) Mon Jan 05, 2009 7:14 am About "ad" |
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Hi Skrej,
Wow.....
I am full of gratitude to you for helping me....a lot. ^_^
You are very kind, Skrej. I am really impressed.
I think I can understand it now, but I need time to digest the whole of it.
Thank you. |
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Zishuli
You can meet me at english-test.net
Joined: 18 Sep 2008
Posts: 88
Location: BeiJing
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