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a- prefix
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F_idάνι:
Do you think that it would be right to say that, as a rule, an ''a-'' prefix (as in ''alike'', ''aboard'', ''alight'' etc) converts a noun or an adjective into an adverbial phrase?
banned8:
I'm afraid you can't make a hard-and-fast rule out of this. Apart from the fact that you have the negative prefix a- (from the Greek language, as in asexual and agnostic) or the a- in "The times they are a-changing" (a preposition in origin), this a- may have been either 'of' or 'on' and forms both adverbs (e.g. alike in "Great minds think alike"; ashore; anew) and adjectives (e.g. alike in "They're so alike yet so different"; asleep; alive).
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