Irish/Prefixes

Lessons

More Irish language resources can be found at
Wikiversity's Department of Irish Studies

As in many other languages, Irish adds prefixes (réimíreanna) to words to create new words. If you become familiar with the prefixes below, you may double your vocabulary!

Note that some prefixes are separated from the base word by a hyphen, and some prefixes cause lenition.

prefix	meaning	examples
ain-	negation (in-, un-, not-) over-	ceart (right) becomes aincheart (unjust). fios (knowledge) becomes ainfhiosracht (overcurious).
an-	very	maith (good) becomes an-mhaith (very good).
ard-	high, arch-	rí (king) becomes ardrí (high king). deagánach (deacon) becomes ard-deagánach (arch-deacon).
ath-	re-	déan (do, make) becomes athdéan (redo, remake).
ban-	female (-ess, -ix)	údar (author) becomes banúdar (authoress).
breac-
ceann-	chief, main -headed	litir (letter) becomes ceannlitir (capital letter).
comh-	mutual, joint	ceol (music) becomes comhcheol (harmony).
dea-	good, well	scéal (news, story) becomes dea-scéal (piece of good news).
dearg-	red-, real, utter	gráin (hatred) becomes dearg-ghráin (intense hatred).
dé-	bi-, di-, two-	taobh (side) becomes déthaobhach (bilateral).
di-	de-, dis-, in-, un-	scéal (news, story) becomes díscéil (uninformative).
do-	in-, un-, not-	déanta (done, complete) becomes dodhéanta (impossible, hard to do),
droch-
dú-
for-	overly, more than pro- (in various senses)	daonna (human) becomes fordaonna (superhuman). dubh (dark, black) becomes fordhubh (gloomy). ainm (noun) becomes forainm (pronoun).
gar-	near; rough, approximate great- or grand- (for relations)	amharc (sight, view) becomes gar-amharc (close-up). meastachán (estimate) becomes garmheastachán (rough estimate) uncail (uncle) becomes garuncail (grand-uncle).
il-	many, multi-	eochair (key) becomes ileochair (master key).
in-	capable of	creidte (believed) becomes inchreidte (believable).
iar-
íos-
lán-	total	cead (permission) becomes lánchead (full permission).
leath-
meán-
mí-
mion-	small, micro-	insint (telling) becomes mioninsint (detailed report).
neamh-
oir-
os-
príomh-	of importance, main focus	cathair (city) becomes príomhchathair (capital city)
réamh-	pre-, preliminary	feiceáil (seeing) becomes reamhfheiceáil (foresight).
ró-	over-	minic (often) becomes rómhinic (too often).
sár-	exceeding, ultra-	riail (rule) becomes sár-riail (golden rule).
sean-
so-	easy	briste (broken) becomes sobhriste (fragile, easily broken).