Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Yvonne Chen]

Dear teachers,

I am a student of national Central University from Taiwan,

Some words such as (im)moral and (in)secure means the opposite of the word

is there a way to distinguish when we use "im" or "in"?

Thank you:)

Yvonne

[pugachevV]

No. You have to learn them.

[Lorikeet]

I thought it was related to the consonant it appeared before. That is, usually "im" appears before "m" "p" or "b", as in impractical, impossible, immoral, imbalance, etc. Also, before "l" you get "il" as in illegal, illegible, illiterate.

[lotus]

There are no set rules. But then, there are a lot of guidelines which cover over 90% of the words.

http://esl2000.com/grammar/negprefixes.html


--lotus
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