Prefixes in Hebrew

There are several prefixes in the Hebrew language which are appended to regular words to introduce a new meaning. In Hebrew, the letters that form those prefixes are called "formative letters". Eleven of the twenty-two letters of the Hebrew alphabet are considered Otiyot HaShimush. These letters are Aleph, Bet, He, Vav, Yud, Kaf, Lamed, Mem, Nun, Shin, and Tav. A mnemonic to remember these letters is rtl=yes, which translates to "Ethan, Moses, and Caleb."

Otiyot HaShimush

Prefixes in Hebrew serve multiple purposes. A prefix can serve as a conjunction, preposition, definite article, or interrogative. Prefixes are also used when conjugating verbs in the future tense and for various other purposes.

Conjugation of verbs

Prefix	Meaning	Comment	Examples
	I will	When prefixed to a verb stem, indicates first person, singular, future tense. I will.	'osamak
	He/They will	When prefixed to a verb stem, indicates third person, future tense. He will or They will.	yosamak yosamaku
	We will	When prefixed to a verb stem, indicates first person, plural, future tense. We will.	nosamak
	She/You/They will	When prefixed to a verb stem, indicates one of the following: third person, singular, feminine, future tense. She will second person, future tense. You will In biblical Hebrew, third person, plural, feminine, future tense. They 'will	tosamak tosamaku to'samakna sarot

Non Otiyot HaShimush

European languages had a large stock of prefixes for technical terminology mostly taken from Greek and Latin. While Hebrew traditionally did not use this kind of prefixes, professionals in the Yishuv who started to teach and work in Hebrew were used to this terminology, and incorporated most of these prefixes into Hebrew. Meanwhile, people working on revitalising the language coined some Hebrew parallels, so today those foreign and Hebrew prefixes are used interchangeably.

Prefix	Origin	Hebrew	Meaning	Examples
ex-	Latin	-	former	eqspozitzya exposition
un-/non- /	English/ Latin	i al	negation	i-alimut non-violencenonqonformizm nonconformismal-matechet nonmetal
in-/il-/im-/ir-	Latin	i	not, opposite of	iratzyonali irrational
a-	Greek	-	lacking in, lack of	apoliti apoliticala-mini asexual
prae-	Latin	trom qdam	before	prehistori prehistoricterom-ledati prenatalqedam-soqratit Pre-Socratic
post-	Latin	aḥar batar	after	batar-miqra'i post-old-testamental
pro-	Greek	-	for, on the side of	prognoza prognosis
inter-	Latin	ben	between, among	internatzyonal internationalbenle'umi internationalinternet internet
intra-	Latin	tokh pnim	inside	intranet intranet
para-	Greek	-	beside, beyond	parapleg paraplegic
homo-	Greek	-	same	homoseqsualiyut homosexuality
hetero-	Greek	-	different	heteroseqsualiyut heterosexuality
di-/bi-	Greek/Latin	du	two	du-tachmotzet dioxidedu-leshoni bilingualbiseksual bisexual
geo-	Greek	-	relating to the earth or its surface	geotermi geothermal
retro-	Latin	-	backwards	retroaqtivi retroactive
semi-	Latin	dmui- ḥatsi-	half, similar to-	semitreyler semitrailer
hemi-	Greek	ḥatsi-	half	hemisfera hemisphereḥatsi-sfera hemispherehaḥlafat ḥatsi mifrak hemi-arthroplasty
electro-	Greek	-	electric, electricity	eleqtroentzfalograf electroencephalograph
anti-	Greek	-	opposite	antikrist Antichristanti-chomer antimatter
infra-	Latin	tat	below, beneath	infra-adom infrared
mono-	Greek	chad	one, sole, only	monolog monologuechad-leshoni monolingual
uni-	Latin	chad	one, whole	chad-ofan unicycle
poly-	Greek	rav	many	poligamya polygamy
multi-	Latin	rav	many	multimedya multimediarav-leshoni multilingual
tele-	Greek	-	at a distance	telesqop telescope
super-	Latin	al	over, above, more than, better	supernova supernovaal-tiv'i supernatural
hyper-	Greek	-	extra specially, over, high	hiperaqtivi hyperactive
tri-	Greek	tlat	three	triatlon triathlontlat-Ofan tricycle
re-	Latin	-	again, back	reorganizatzya reorganizationre-irgun reorganizationrevizya revision
sub-	Latin	tat	under, lower than, less than	tat-muda subconscious
extra-	Latin	chutz	outside	chutz-tai extracellulareqstrateritoryali extraterritorial
neo-	Greek	-	new	neologizm neologism
proto-	Greek	av qedam	first, original, father	avtipus prototype
socio- sots'io	French	-	society, social, sociological	sotzyolingvistiqa sociolinguistics
hydro-	Greek	-	relating to water, or using water	hidroeleqtri hydroelectric
hypo-	Greek	-	under or below something, low	hipogliqemya hypoglycemia
iso- / izo/''iso	Greek	-	equal	izotop isotope
meta-	Greek	-	after, along with, beyond, among	metabolizm metabolism
mega-	Greek	-	very large, million	megahertz megahertz
micro-	Greek	-	minute size, 1/1,000,000	miqrosqop microscope
trans-	Latin	-	across	transatlanti transatlantic
idio-	Greek	-	individual, personal, unique	idyomati idiomatic
pyro-	Greek	-	fire	pirometer pyrometerpiroman pyromaniac
re-		she	again	shechtuv rewrite
auto-	Greek	-	self	otomati'' automatic