USES OF

PREFIXES

Notice the prefixes “En- Em-” and “Be-”. They convert nouns (like
“slave” and “power”) and adjectives (“able” and “little”) into
verbs. Sometimes native speakers of Spanish will have to look for
alternative translations not always similar to the particles
placed before or after a root word in English. In the first two
examples of the above table, the word Enslave corresponds to
the Spanish word “Esclavizar” while the word Empower
corresponds to the term “empoderar”. Notice the other prefixes
in the table have a more flexible role, not only for verbs, but
mainly to indicate “contrary to”, or “the opposite of” something,
which can affect also nouns, adjectives and adverbs.