Antonymy 2 (Stein)
Activity 1
Explain to learners that they will continue to look at antonyms, but this time by looking at adjectives. Make sure they understand these key terms by discussing the three example pairs.
In the next slide, show the learners the five sentences. Each sentence has a gap which can be filled with an adjective or its antonym. Have learners copy the sentences and fill the gap with two possibilities. Reveal the answers and accept any other reasonable options.
Activity 2
Remind learners that they have already seen how prefixes can be used to form antonyms. Use the two example sentences to explain how the same antonym can be formed in different ways.
Show the learners the four sentences in the next slide. Each sentence has an adjective that can be replaced by an antonym combined with a negative prefix. Ask. learners to copy the sentences and think of a word they could use to replacce each adjective. Use the 'Adjectives' button to reveal some possible solutions.
Feedback the answers and show the four possible solutions in the next slide.
Activity 3
Move on to the next slide. Explain these patterns that can help learners with the spelling of words with different origins. Have them copy down the rules.
Ask learners to copy down the list of 12 adjectives. For each one, they must add the appropriate prefix to form the antonym, and then write a sentence for both the orgiinal and antonym word. Once they've finished, encourage them to share their answers in pairs or small groups and feedback the best answers to the whole class.
This lesson is adapted (with permission) from Words and Meanings: A Systematic Guide for the Teaching of English Vocabulary, by Gabriele Stein.
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Antonymy 2 (Stein)
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.
- Brian lifted his backpack. It was light/heavy
- The train journey had been very long/short
- His grandfather left him a large/small sum of money.
- The slice of bread was too thick/thin
- The towels in the bathroom were wet/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' box to see a list of possible antonyms.
- That was a very mean remark
- The children can be very naughty in this class
- I thought her speech was boring.
- The substitute teacher is a little naive.
kind, obedient, inspiring, experienced
Here are the sentences with some antonyms with prefixes you could use:
- That was a very unkind remark
- The children can be very disobedient in this class
- I thought her speech was uninspiring.
- 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.
- visible
- similar
- equal
- legible
- content
- loyal
- animate
- interesting
- aware
- courteous
- partial
- fair