¡Prefijo importante!

Using 'Mal'.

Like its English counterpart, the Spanish prefix mal- is added to word roots

to indicate that something is bad, abnormal or otherwise undesirable.

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Since the prefix is part of both languages, it shouldn't be surprising that the prefixcomes from Latin, specifically from the words male (badly) and malus (bad). The prefix can be parts of nouns, verb, adjectives and adverbs.

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In most cases, you can easily guess what a mal- word means

if you know the root word means.

A few examples:

• malcomer, to eat poorly
  • malentendido, misunderstanding
  • malformación, malformation
  • malhablado, foul-mouthed
  • malherir, to injure badly
  • malintencionado, with bad intentions
  • malnutrición, malnutrition
  • maloliente, bad-smelling
  • malsano, unhealthy
  • maltratar, to mistreat, to abuse
  • malvivir, to live poorly

Here are some mal words whose meanings may be less obvious.

• malasangre, evil-minded (from sangre, blood)

• malcriado, spoiled (said of a child, from criar, to raise a child)

• maldad, evil

• maldecir, to curse (from decir, to speak)

• maleado, corrupt

• maleducado, rude (from educar, to educate or to raise a child)

• malestar, uneasiness, unrest

• malgaster, to waste (from gastar, to spend)

• malhabido, ill-gotten

• malhumor, bad mood, foul temper (from humor, mood or temperament)

• malicia, wickedness, malice

• malignidad, maligno, malignancy, malignant

• malograr, to waste

• malosante, rude

• malpagar, to underpay

• malparado, in a bad state (from parar, to stop)

• maltraer, to mistreat

• maltrecho, battered

• malversar, to embezzle (from versar, to have dealings)

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Try to form simple sentences in English and Spanish

using some of the examples above.