Prefixes in Russian

Russian grammar: Prefixes in Russian

Prefixes are syllables that are attached to the beginning of words and usually serve to create new words. Prefixes are commonly used in the Russian language.

There are various prefixes in Russian, some are of Russian origin and others are borrowed from foreign languages. Some prefixes are more common than others.

Today, let’s look at some of the most common Russian prefixes and how they change the meaning of Russian words.

Keep in mind that the connection between the overall meaning of the prefix and the word it creates is not always obvious. While in many cases you will be able to understand the logic, other words just need to be memorized.

Common Russian prefixes

Below we offer you to practice common Russian prefixes with 4 different words. You can listen to the audio and follow:

Other Russian prefixes

There mare many other prefixes in Russian that did not fit in the previous table due to the fact that they are not used with the words we selected as examples.

• НЕ- (negative prefix)

  By adding it to a word you get the opposite meaning:

  – пого́да – непого́да
  weather – bad weather

  – здоро́вый – нездоро́вый
  healthy – unhealthy

• БЕС- / БЕЗ- (without)

  This prefix does not work with verbs.

  – поле́зный – бесполе́зный
  useful – useless

  – зву́чный – беззву́чный
  sonorous – soundless

• ПРЕД- (pre-)

  – исто́рия – предысто́рия
  story – pre-story (background)

• ПРЕ- (excess, trans-)

  – восходи́ть – превосходи́ть
  to ascend – to surpass

  Here, there are actually two prefixes added to the word ходить: пре- and вос-.

  – дава́ть – предава́ть
  to give – to give up (to betray)

  – подава́ть – преподава́ть
  to serve – to teach

  Here, there are two prefixes as well, added to the verb давать: по- and пре-)

• РАС- / РАЗ- / РАЗО- (spreading, unfolding, etc.)

  – раствори́ться
  to dissolve

  – разбежа́ться
  to scatter or to take a run

  – зли́ться – разозли́ться
  to be angry – to get angry

Foreign prefixes in Russian

There are many prefixes adopted from foreign languages. Those you will be able to recognize yourself:

– контра́кт – субконтракт
contract – subcontract

– информа́ция – дезинформа́ция
information – misinformation

– конституцио́нный – антиконституцио́нный
constitutional – unconstitutional

How to use Russian prefixes

As you noticed, prefixes are not universal: you can’t just add a prefix to a word to get a new meaning. Some combinations simply don’t exist in Russian. And vice versa: some words don’t exist without prefixes (like in the previous examples разбежа́ться and раствори́ться).

But when you understand the meaning of Russian prefixes, making sense of the words you did not know before becomes much easier.

Changing prefixes

You noticed that many prefixes have a few forms and you might be wondering why one form is used and not the other one. It pretty much depends on ease of pronunciation and the letters following the prefix.

For example, for such prefixes as БЕС-/БЕЗ-, РАС-/РАЗ- and ИС-/ИЗ-:

– If the following letter is voiced, we use БЕЗ-, otherwise we use БЕС- (see the examples above).

– If a word becomes not easy to pronounce, O is added: разозли́ться. However, it is not always the case (беззву́чный).

And this is it for this lesson. Practice the Russian prefixes and words that you learned today with the audio file.

• 096. Particles "-то" and "же" in Russian
• 098. Time in Russian