In- Prefix

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Le préfixe in– et ses variantes

The French prefix in– and its variants are added to adjectives, adverbs, and nouns to create antonyms. The English equivalents are un– and in-.

Par exemple…

français	English		ajouté à	added to
inachevé	unfinished		achevé	finished
incapacité	incapacity		capacité	capacity
indéfini	undefined		défini	defined
inélégant	inelegant		élégant	elegant
innommé	unnamed		nommé	named

IPA pronunciation

• [in] in front of a vowel or n
• [ɛ̃] in front of another consonant

Variants

While in- is the most common spelling, it can only be added to words that begin with

• a vowel
     or
• a consonant other than b – l – m – p – r

For words that start with one of those five consonants, you need a different spelling.

1) im-

This prefix is for words that begin with b, m, or p

français	English		ajouté à	added to
imbuvable	undrinkable		buvable	drinkable
immobile	immobile		mobile	mobile
impair	uneven		pair	even

IPA pronunciation:

• [ɛ̃] in front of b or p, and in the words immangeable, immanquable, immariable, and immettable
• [im] in all other imm- words

2) il-

This spelling is for words that begin with l

français	English		ajouté à	added to
illégitime	illegitimate		légitime	legitimate
illettré	illiterate		lettré	literate

IPA pronunciation: [il]

3) ir-

This prefix is added to words that begin with r

français	English		ajouté à	added to
irréaliste	unrealistic		réaliste	realistic
irréparable	irreparable		réparable	repairable

IPA pronunciation: [iʀ]

 Related lessons

• Adjectives
• Adverbs
• Negation
• Nouns
• French prefixes

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