This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.
Verbal prefixation: how one prefix grows a root into a whole family
You have met prefixes already. In the lesson “Aspect pair formation” they made a verb perfective: pisati “to write” → napisati “to write (and finish)”. Which prefix gives a verb its plain perfective cannot be guessed; you learn it with the verb: raditi → uraditi “to do”, piti → popiti “to drink (up)”, učiti → naučiti “to learn”, kuvati → skuvati “to cook”. But many prefixes also carry a meaning of their own, often a direction in space, and make a new word. From pisati “to write” grow potpisati “to sign”, prepisati “to copy out”, opisati “to describe”, upisati “to enrol”, ispisati “to write out”: a whole constellation.
This lesson is about that side: what each prefix usually adds to a verb. English does much the same with little words after the verb (go in, write down) and with Latin prefixes (subscribe, describe, prescribe). The map of prefixes is a second key to unfamiliar words, after the suffixes of the previous lessons: when you see pro- or raz-, you can often guess the sense before you open a dictionary.
The map of prefixes
Here are the main prefixes and what they usually mean; many have a direction in space at their core:
The remaining prefixes complete the map:
Posedeli smo malo u kafiću.We sat in the café for a while.
Watch the figurative meaning sprout from the spatial one: od- “back” gives odgovoriti “to answer” (speech sent back), uz- “up” gives ustati “to get up”. English does the same: oversee is nadgledati (“over” + “look”), underline is podvući (“draw under”). But a prefix’s meaning is a tendency, not a rule. In one verb a prefix brings a meaning, in another only the aspect: u- in ući is “in”, in uraditi just perfective; po- in poći is “setting off”, in popiti just perfective. And some verbs cannot be added up from their parts at all (propisati “to prescribe”). The map suggests; the dictionary confirms.
Cheat sheet
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Verbal prefixation
A prefix either only makes a verb perfective (the “empty” one: pisati → napisati, raditi → uraditi, piti → popiti, učiti → naučiti, kuvati → skuvati; learn it with the verb) or makes a new word: pisati “to write” → potpisati “to sign”. Its meaning is a tendency, not a rule.
The prefix map
But u- in uraditi, po- in popiti: aspect only; propisati “to prescribe” cannot be guessed.
The constellation of pis-
Own imperfective with -iva-: prepisati → prepisivati, potpisati → potpisivati.