Grammar Rules-How To Undo - My Thoughts Exactly!

Grammar is a piano I play by ear. ~ Joan Didion, Joan Didion: Essays & Conversations

Well, not exactly, but I come closer to playing that instrument naturally than any other. For some people, rules are constraints and are therefore to be cast aside like a flip-flop with a broken strap. Not me. Rules are guardrails that make writing easier. Note I said easier. Not easy. I get tripped up occasionally, too, and a few days ago I began to wonder whether there was a rule for prefixes that indicate a reverse meaning. Let’s go. Yes, I know I may be the only person on the planet who finds this curious. It isn’t the first time I’ve been in this position, and it won’t be the last.

Un is the most likely

At a young age, we all learned that “un” is the opposite of whatever it precedes. Well, that’s the way we thought it would work. Sadly, English* is not that straightforward. As an example, consider the word material. Why is the opposite immaterial and not unmaterial? Here is a little detail for the use of ‘un’, according to EC English: Apply to adjectives and past participles when no other prefix “fits”. That is not helpful. Nonetheless, or maybe because of that, “un” is the most frequently used negative prefix. *In fairness, many languages have irregular patterns. We just don’t always know enough to realize the intracacies.

Did I mention an "ir" word?

Yes, there are irregularities and we all understand that when “ir” precedes a word, it reverses the meaning. The standard is to use “ir” when a word begins with “r” to blend in with the root word, as is the case with irrational and irresponsible. This same rule works for words that begin with “l”, but the prefix is “il” to change the meaning of, for example: legal, literate, legitimate. Same for “im”, which precedes words that begin with “m” and “p”, again for ease of pronunciation.

However, this rule does not apply to the word irritating, which is an annoying abnormality. Yes, that’s another one, but it has other meanings as well. Membean tells us that when “ab” is a prefix, it may be opposite, but it might also mean away from, as illustrated by the words abduct, abdicate, and absent.

Then there's dis

Dis is a little messy, since it doesn’t always mean the opposite. It might mean the absence of or a reversal of. As EC English explains in a summary, some proper usage simply has to be memorized, because it is irrational and an unmitigated irritant. Ok. The last words were mine. The article suggests the best way to learn proper usage is to practice. Isn’t that always the way? Sounds tedious, doesn’t it? And yet. That’s how we learn the right way to do anything. Funnily enough, as we learn more about any topic and improve our skills at any task, the more enjoyable those topics and tasks become. Well, probably.

I will not live long enough to become enamored of geometry or geography or probably anything else with that prefix (geo). And you may never be intrigued with insurance forms. Fair enough. But I wasn’t interested in history 20 years ago, and I thought I hated writing. Maybe I didn’t know what I was missing. Maybe I’m not the only one who has had this kind of experience. Or perhaps I’m an irredeemably slow learner, and a reader will share an unmitigated opinion. We’ll see.