College for farmers' kids? Adjective suffixes and negative prefixes

Q: What are negative prefixes?

Negative prefixes go at the front of a word and turn an adjective into its opposite : affordable → unaffordable , possible → impossible , honest → dishonest . The usual ones are un- , in- , im- , il- , ir- and dis- . The B2 lesson College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai teaches them through a law that made college more accessible to working people.

Q: What are adjective suffixes?

Adjective suffixes are endings that make adjectives from verbs and nouns : -able / -ible ( afford → affordable , access → accessible ), -al ( practical ), -ful and -less ( careful , careless ), -ive ( creative ) and -ous ( dangerous ). Each one adds a meaning, such as “can be done” or “without.” The scheme in College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai gives all six with their meanings.

Q: When do you use un-, in-, im-, il- or ir-?

Un- is the most common negative prefix: unaffordable , unfair , unusual . Im- , il- and ir- are forms of in- that are easier to say: im- before m and p ( impossible ), il- before l ( illegal ), ir- before r ( irregular ). Some words take un- anyway, like unpopular and unreliable , so learn each adjective with its opposite. A column sort in College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai groups twelve of them.

Q: What's the difference between -able and -ible?

Both mean “can be done,” but -able is the common one , and it often joins a whole word: affordable , acceptable , enjoyable . -ible comes in a smaller group of words you learn by heart: accessible , possible , responsible , visible , sensible . That's why accessable and irresponsable are mistakes. College for farmers' kids? , a B2 lesson on edio.ai, has a quiz on which word is spelled correctly.

Q: Is it “unpossible” or “impossible”?

It's impossible : possible starts with p, so it takes im- , like impatient and impractical . Two other made-up forms trip learners up too: inaffordable (say unaffordable ) and accessable (say accessible ). In the chat of College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai, each wrong reply hides a form like these, such as It's not an unpossible choice .

Q: What was the Morrill Act?

The Morrill Act is the act of July 2, 1862, which President Lincoln signed , named for Senator Justin Morrill of Vermont. It gave each state federal land to sell, or “land scrip,” certificates to sell, if it had no federal land. The money went into a permanent fund for colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and each state had five years to open one or lose the grant. College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai tells the story.

Q: What is a land-grant college?

It's a college paid for through the Morrill Act , meant to give working people a practical education in agriculture and the mechanic arts, without excluding other studies. Cornell University and Washington State University are two of them. Cornell opened in 1868 with 412 students, the largest entering class at any American college up to then; Washington's college opened in 1892 and charged no tuition in its first year. College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai compares the two.

Q: How do I teach adjective suffixes and negative prefixes to B2 students?

Build each word in two steps : first the adjective from a verb students know ( afford → affordable ), then its opposite ( unaffordable ). Teach the meanings before the spelling rules, and save the made-up forms for the end. College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai moves from Isaiah's explainer and his archive visit to the scheme, a table of adjectives and opposites, a prefix sort and a spelling quiz.

Q: What's a good game for practicing negative prefixes?

Play opposites tennis : one student serves an adjective ( legal , honest , possible ), and the partner returns its opposite with the right prefix ( illegal , dishonest , impossible ). A made-up form such as unpossible loses the point. For speaking, the wheel in College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai asks questions like Is a degree in poetry or history useless, or is it valuable?

Q: What's good homework for adjective suffixes and prefixes?

Good homework gives the base word and lets the sentence decide : It's ___ (possible) to read this old letter needs a prefix, while The map was really ___ (help) doesn't. Add a spelling table, such as notice + -able . All ten homework tasks in College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai check themselves, ending with a college brochure and Isaiah's answer to a farmer from Iowa.

This B2 ESL lesson plan teaches negative prefixes and adjective suffixes through the Morrill Act of 1862, which paid for land-grant colleges such as Cornell and Washington State.

Grammar: Suffixes that make adjectives (-able, -ible, -al, -ful, -less, -ive, -ous), the prefixes un-, in-, im-, il-, ir- and dis- for opposites, and the spelling changes.
Topic: How the act paid for colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and how two of them began, with words such as tuition, curriculum and vocational.
Activities: An explainer, an archive visit and a farmer's voice memo, self-checking drills, a chat about choosing a program, a debate sort and a question wheel.

What's inside

Chapter 1Warm-up: who gets to go to college?
- PictureUnlock
- Open a box and answerOpen the boxUnlock
- Study the words: college for everyoneVocabularyTry it
- Look at the pictures and choose the wordChoose by pictureUnlock
Chapter 2Let's read: land, scrip and 412 students
- Look at the picture: a small college on the prairiePictureUnlock
- Read Isaiah's explainer on The Why DeskArticleUnlock
- Read and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
- Read again and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
- Match the paragraphs and the headingsMatchUnlock
Chapter 3Let's listen: free or affordable?
- Listen to Isaiah and EsmeListeningTry it
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and choose the correct answerQuizUnlock
- Listen to the Reader's Rebuttal: Ike's voice memoListeningUnlock
- Transcript, for the teacherUnlock
- Listen and mark true or falseTrue or falseUnlock
Chapter 4Grammar: from afford to unaffordable
- Study the scheme: affordable, accessible, impossibleGrammar schemeTry it
- Choose the correct optionChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: make adjectives from the words in bracketsFill in the gapsTry it
- Fill in the table: make the adjective and its opposite with a suffix or a prefixFill in the tableUnlock
- Sort the words: which prefix makes the opposite?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Choose the correct answer: which word is spelled correctly?QuizUnlock
Chapter 5Let's talk: pick a program
- Choose the right replies: help Consuelo pick a programChatTry it
- Sort the arguments into the correct columns: free or affordable?Sort into columnsUnlock
- Spin the wheel and answer: the great college debateSpin the wheelUnlock
Chapter 6Homework
- Match the words and the meaningsMatchUnlock
- Unscramble the wordsAnagramUnlock
- Fill in the gaps with the lesson's wordsFill in the gapsUnlock
- Find the matching pairs: words and meaningsMemory gameUnlock
- Choose the correct option: new sentencesChoose the optionUnlock
- Fill in the gaps: make adjectives from the words in brackets, new sentencesFill in the gapsUnlock
- Fill in the table: add the suffix and watch the spellingFill in the tableUnlock
- Choose the correct answer: what does the word mean?QuizUnlock
- Choose the correct option: a college brochureChoose the optionUnlock
- Drag the words into the gaps: Isaiah answers IkeDrag and dropUnlock

Education vocabulary

12 words and phrases from the lesson, each with a picture and audio in edio.

+9 more with pictures and audio in the lessonMore words

tuition
curriculum
higher education
land-grant college
major
archivist
ledger
creamery
vocational

Grammar: adjective suffixes and negative prefixes

A suffix turns a verb or a noun into an adjective, and a negative prefix turns the adjective into its opposite: afford → affordable → unaffordable. A law that set out to make college affordable, practical and accessible gives each new word a job. Learners add the suffix first, then the prefix that fits, and watch the spelling on the way.

Word formation: afford → affordable → unaffordable

Add a suffix to a verb or a noun to make an adjective. Add a prefix to an adjective to make its opposite.

Six suffixes, six meanings

-able / -ible means it can be done (affordable), -al connected with (practical), -ful full of (helpful), -less without (useless), -ive tending to do (creative) and -ous having (dangerous). Each base word takes its own suffix: it's practical, never practicful.

Suffix	It often means…	Examples
-able / -ible	can be done	afford → affordable, rely → reliable, access → accessible
-al	connected with	practice → practical, agriculture → agricultural, nation → national
-ful	full of, with a lot of	help → helpful, care → careful, beauty → beautiful
-less	without	care → careless, use → useless, speech → speechless
-ive	doing or tending to do	create → creative, attract → attractive, exclude → exclusive
-ous	full of, having	danger → dangerous, fame → famous, mystery → mysterious

-able or -ible?

-able is the common one, and it joins many whole words: affordable, acceptable, enjoyable. -ible belongs to a smaller group you learn by heart: accessible, possible, responsible, visible, flexible. So it's accessible, never accessable.

-able or -ible?

-able is the common one, and you can add it to many whole words: affordable, acceptable, enjoyable. -ible is in a smaller group of words that you learn by heart: accessible, possible, responsible, visible, flexible, sensible. So it's accessible, never accessable, and irresponsible, never irresponsable.

Un-, in-, im-, il-, ir- or dis-?

Un- is the most common (unaffordable, unfair). Im- comes before m and p (impossible), il- before l (illegal) and ir- before r (irregular); in- and dis- go with words you learn (inexpensive, dishonest). Not every word with those letters takes them: unpopular, unreliable.

Negative prefixes: the opposite

Prefix	When?	Examples
un-	the most common one	unaffordable, unusable, unfair, unusual
in-	with many words: learn them	inaccessible, inexpensive, incorrect
im-	before m and p	impossible, impractical, impatient
il-	before l	illegal, illogical
ir-	before r	irregular, irresponsible, irreplaceable
dis-	with some words: learn them	dishonest, disloyal, disrespectful

un-, in- or im-?

un- is the most common negative prefix: unaffordable, never inaffordable. im-, il- and ir- are forms of in- that are easier to say: im- before m and p (impossible, never unpossible), il- before l, ir- before r. But not every word with those letters takes them: unpopular, unlawful, unreliable. Learn each adjective together with its opposite.

Spelling changes

Drop the final -e before -able, -ive, -ous or -al (creative, famous), but keep it before -ful and -less and after a soft c or g (careful, noticeable). A y after a consonant becomes i (reliable), and a prefix before the same letter makes a double letter: illegal, unnecessary.

Rule	Examples
drop the final -e before -able, -ible, -al, -ive, -ous	create → creative, fame → famous, value → valuable, nature → natural
keep the -e before -ful and -less	care → careful, use → useless, hope → hopeful
keep the -e after a soft c or g	notice → noticeable, replace → replaceable, courage → courageous
y after a consonant → i	rely → reliable, beauty → beautiful, mystery → mysterious (but enjoy → enjoyable)
-de → -s- before -ive	exclude → exclusive, include → inclusive, decide → decisive
a prefix + the same letter = two letters	il + legal → illegal, ir + regular → irregular, un + necessary → unnecessary

-ful, -less and four common mistakes

-ful and -less are often opposites (useful, useless), but not always: helpless means you can't help yourself, so the opposite of helpful is unhelpful. The four common mistakes are all made-up words: unpossible, inaffordable, accessable and irresponsable.

-ful and -less

They are often opposites: careful / careless, useful / useless, hopeful / hopeless. Not always: helpless means you can't help yourself, so the opposite of helpful is unhelpful. And priceless and invaluable both mean very, very valuable. -ful has one l: careful, never carefull.

Common mistakes

It's unpossible to read this old letter.
It's impossible to read this old letter.
im- before p
Four years of tuition is inaffordable for us.
Four years of tuition is unaffordable for us.
un- with affordable
The campus is accessable by bus.
The campus is accessible by bus.
access → accessible, with -ible
Skipping every class is irresponsable.
Skipping every class is irresponsible.
responsible, with -ible

Land-grant colleges and The Why Desk

Washington's college charged no tuition in its first year: it was affordable.
Before 1862, higher education was inaccessible to many farmers and working people.
The act wanted a practical education for working people.
The fund was unusable for buildings.
Isaiah wants college to be affordable, not free.
Harper's shelf is full of useless but wonderful objects.

More lessons on this grammar: Word formation lessons and exercises

Try the negative prefixes exercises

Try them yourself: these are the same exercises your students do in edio.

What's in the lesson

21 auto-checked exercises
4 games
1 article
1 grammar scheme
1 set of word cards
2 audio clips
2 pictures
2 transcripts

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

make adjectives from verbs and nouns: afford → affordable, practice → practical, danger → dangerous, care → careful or careless
choose the negative prefix that fits: unaffordable, inaccessible, impossible, illegal, irresponsible, dishonest
spell the new words correctly: accessible, not accessable; creative, noticeable, reliable, unnecessary
argue whether college should be free or only affordable: Unaffordable tuition closes the door. Easy money makes people careless.

Lesson 1 opens Learning reimagined, unit 1 of English B2.2 · Culture and Society, and follows B2.1 lesson 32. B2.1 lesson 26 built verbs with prefixes and suffixes (misspell, simplify); this lesson builds adjectives and their opposites. Lesson 2 moves on to mixed conditionals. A law meant to open college to farmers and working people, by making it affordable, practical and accessible, needs exactly these words.

Students open boxes of questions about who gets to go to college, then learn twelve words, from afford and exclude to ledger and creamery, with pictures and audio. They read Isaiah's explainer on the act and two land-grant colleges, then hear him argue with Esme, a university archivist, about free college, and Ike, a farmer from Iowa, say practical skills matter more than a degree; both are AI-voiced. The grammar chapter has the scheme and five self-checking drills, among them a table of adjectives and their opposites. In the speaking chapter, students help Consuelo pick a college program in a chat, sort arguments for free or affordable college and spin a debate wheel.

All ten homework tasks check themselves: a word match, an anagram, gaps with the lesson's words and a memory game, then adjectives to choose and to build in new sentences, a spelling table, a quiz on what words like priceless mean, a college brochure with forms to choose and Isaiah's answer to Ike with words to drag in.

Grammar:: word formation · adjective suffixes · -able and -ible · negative prefixes · un-, in-, im-, il-, ir-, dis-
Topic:: the Morrill Act · land-grant colleges · Cornell University · Washington State University · free college · learning reimagined · The Why Desk

Teaching tips

Start from three verbs on the board: afford, access and exclude. Students make an adjective from each, then the opposite of the first two, before they open the scheme: unaffordable, inaccessible.
Ask who could go to college in 1860 before the explainer. Students guess, then read to find what the act changed and what the sources still can't say.
Play the archive dialogue twice: first to decide who wants free college and who wants it affordable, then to catch every adjective with a suffix or a prefix, from speechless and careless to impractical and unimaginative.
Keep four columns of opposites on the board: un-, in-, im- / il- / ir- and dis-. Each new adjective in the lesson goes in with its opposite, and students say both aloud.

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The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

32 more lessons for adults at B2 in American English, with the same Why Desk team in Pittsburgh. Each lesson answers one question about how Americans learn, work, travel and remember, from the law behind the 40-hour week to the oral histories of StoryCorps. Learners link ideas in formal writing, report what is said and believed, and pack more into a sentence with participle and relative clauses. The practice exercises check themselves.See the course

Unit 1 Learning reimagined
adjective suffixes and negative prefixes, mixed conditionals, provided that and on condition that
1. Lesson 1 · you're hereCollege for farmers' kids?Adjective suffixes and negative prefixes
2. Lesson 2One cousin, one video, millions of learnersMixed conditionals: a past cause, a result now
3. Lesson 3A college that says yesConditional linkers: provided that, on condition that, assuming, otherwise
4. Lesson 4School in the woodsMixed conditionals: a present state, a past result
Unit 2 Work-life balance
be required to and be entitled to, present and perfect participle clauses, participle clauses after conjunctions
Unit 3 Turning points
reduced relative clauses, preposition + which and whom, which for a whole clause, noun + preposition
Unit 4 News and truth
although, whereas and while, the impersonal passive, despite and however, is said to have
Unit 5 Travel that gives back
so as to, in order to and so that, modifying comparatives, linkers of reason and result, verb + object + preposition + -ing
Unit 6 Sport and society
verb + noun collocations, what phrasal verb particles mean, a for-and-against essay, nouns from phrasal verbs
Unit 7 Buildings and heritage
past participle clauses, quantifier + of which and of whom, report language, turn out and prove
Unit 8 Generations
adverb + adjective collocations, three-part phrasal verbs, negative and echo questions, prepositional phrases

Questions about this lesson

What are negative prefixes?

Negative prefixes go at the front of a word and turn an adjective into its opposite: affordable → unaffordable, possible → impossible, honest → dishonest. The usual ones are un-, in-, im-, il-, ir- and dis-. The B2 lesson College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai teaches them through a law that made college more accessible to working people.

What are adjective suffixes?

Adjective suffixes are endings that make adjectives from verbs and nouns: -able / -ible (afford → affordable, access → accessible), -al (practical), -ful and -less (careful, careless), -ive (creative) and -ous (dangerous). Each one adds a meaning, such as “can be done” or “without.” The scheme in College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai gives all six with their meanings.

When do you use un-, in-, im-, il- or ir-?

Un- is the most common negative prefix: unaffordable, unfair, unusual. Im-, il- and ir- are forms of in- that are easier to say: im- before m and p (impossible), il- before l (illegal), ir- before r (irregular). Some words take un- anyway, like unpopular and unreliable, so learn each adjective with its opposite. A column sort in College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai groups twelve of them.

What's the difference between -able and -ible?

Both mean “can be done,” but -able is the common one, and it often joins a whole word: affordable, acceptable, enjoyable. -ible comes in a smaller group of words you learn by heart: accessible, possible, responsible, visible, sensible. That's why accessable and irresponsable are mistakes. College for farmers' kids?, a B2 lesson on edio.ai, has a quiz on which word is spelled correctly.

Is it “unpossible” or “impossible”?

It's impossible: possible starts with p, so it takes im-, like impatient and impractical. Two other made-up forms trip learners up too: inaffordable (say unaffordable) and accessable (say accessible). In the chat of College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai, each wrong reply hides a form like these, such as It's not an unpossible choice.

What was the Morrill Act?

The Morrill Act is the act of July 2, 1862, which President Lincoln signed, named for Senator Justin Morrill of Vermont. It gave each state federal land to sell, or “land scrip,” certificates to sell, if it had no federal land. The money went into a permanent fund for colleges of agriculture and the mechanic arts, and each state had five years to open one or lose the grant. College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai tells the story.

What is a land-grant college?

It's a college paid for through the Morrill Act, meant to give working people a practical education in agriculture and the mechanic arts, without excluding other studies. Cornell University and Washington State University are two of them. Cornell opened in 1868 with 412 students, the largest entering class at any American college up to then; Washington's college opened in 1892 and charged no tuition in its first year. College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai compares the two.

How do I teach adjective suffixes and negative prefixes to B2 students?

Build each word in two steps: first the adjective from a verb students know (afford → affordable), then its opposite (unaffordable). Teach the meanings before the spelling rules, and save the made-up forms for the end. College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai moves from Isaiah's explainer and his archive visit to the scheme, a table of adjectives and opposites, a prefix sort and a spelling quiz.

What's a good game for practicing negative prefixes?

Play opposites tennis: one student serves an adjective (legal, honest, possible), and the partner returns its opposite with the right prefix (illegal, dishonest, impossible). A made-up form such as unpossible loses the point. For speaking, the wheel in College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai asks questions like Is a degree in poetry or history useless, or is it valuable?

What's good homework for adjective suffixes and prefixes?

Good homework gives the base word and lets the sentence decide: It's ___ (possible) to read this old letter needs a prefix, while The map was really ___ (help) doesn't. Add a spelling table, such as notice + -able. All ten homework tasks in College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai check themselves, ending with a college brochure and Isaiah's answer to a farmer from Iowa.

How do you practice negative prefixes one-to-one?

Compare two places to study: the teacher lists facts about a college or a course (cheap, far from the bus, no labs), and the student sums each one up with an adjective or its opposite: affordable, inaccessible, impractical. The chat in College for farmers' kids? on edio.ai works without a partner: Consuelo can't choose between food science and graphic design, and the student helps her pick.

Are there interactive exercises for negative prefixes?

Yes. This page plays three parts of College for farmers' kids?, a B2 lesson on edio.ai, with no account: Isaiah's debate with Esme in a university archive, a gap-fill that builds adjectives from words in brackets and Consuelo's chat about her college program. Everything else needs an account.

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About this lesson

What's inside

Education vocabulary

Grammar: adjective suffixes and negative prefixes

Six suffixes, six meanings

-able or -ible?

Un-, in-, im-, il-, ir- or dis-?

Negative prefixes: the opposite

Spelling changes

-ful, -less and four common mistakes

Common mistakes

Land-grant colleges and The Why Desk

Try the negative prefixes exercises

What's in the lesson

The main objectives of this lesson are to:

Teaching tips

Teach the whole lesson in edio

Start a free trial

Open the lesson

Teach it live or as homework

The whole course: English B2.2 · Culture and Society

Unit 1 Learning reimagined

Unit 2 Work-life balance

Unit 3 Turning points

Unit 4 News and truth

Unit 5 Travel that gives back

Unit 6 Sport and society

Unit 7 Buildings and heritage

Unit 8 Generations

Questions about this lesson

Teach this lesson with your students