Solution 27

This exercise illustrates the complexity of the system, and students can be forgiven for not getting all the right forms.

  1. unfriendly
  2. indefinite
  3. dishonest
  4. undo
  5. insecure
  6. disconnect
  7. unconscious
  8. unjust*
  9. injustice*
  10. uninterested**
  11. non-inflammable
  12. dislike***

* Although the general rule seems to be in- for Latinate words (insecure) and un- for Germanic words (unfriendly), this pair shows that it is not a hard and fast rule.

** A second possibility here is disinterested. In theory, the meaning is different,uninterested meaning ‘bored’, disinterested meaning ‘impartial’, ‘objective’. Many native speakers, however, use disinterested in the same sense asuninterested .

*** This is the form if you take like to be a verb. If it is understood to be an adjective, the form would be unlike .