particle
mis- (prefix meaning ''wrongly'' or ''badly'')
B1
miss- is an inseparable German prefix meaning 'mis-/wrongly' or 'badly', used to form verbs and adjectives (e.g., missverstehen, Missbrauch). It negates or indicates incorrect action or failure. As an inseparable prefix it does not detach in conjugation and does not take its own stress; the root is stressed.
Examples
Die Lehrerin erklärte, dass viele Verben mit dem Präfix 'miss-' gebildet wurden, weil sie einen negativen Sinn erhielten.
The teacher explained that many verbs were formed with the prefix 'miss-' because they carried a negative meaning.
Das Präfix miss- verändert die Bedeutung vieler Verben, zum Beispiel missverstehen.
The prefix miss- changes the meaning of many verbs, for example 'misunderstand'.
Details
Mnemonics
Imagine stamping a red 'mis' over a verb to mark that its meaning is 'wrong' or 'incorrect'.
Think of English 'mis-' as in 'misunderstand' — the meaning is similar.
Notes
The prefix miss- is non-separable and gives verbs a negative or erroneous meaning (e.g., missverstehen, misslingen). It's similar to the English mis- prefix but doesn't always correspond directly to English.