Most English words are made up of word parts. Sometimes, however, letters at the beginning of a word may look like a prefix, but they aren’t. If you take away these letters, you are not left with a base word.

Follow these steps to figure out if a word truly has a prefix.

• 1. Cover up the part of the word that you think is the prefix. uncle

• 2. If you can’t identify the word part left, it’s not a true prefix.

Analyze Prefixes Identify the word parts in each word. Not all words have a real prefix. Then write a sentence using each word.

• 1. desperate

• 2. uneasy

• 3. review

• 4. enemy

• 5. encircle

In fiction writing, the narrator tells the story. As you read, you see events from the narrator’s point of view. When the narrator is a character, this is called a first-person point of view.

In “The Lotus Seed,” the narrator is Bá’s granddaughter. Notice how she refers to herself using the pronouns we and my.

Analyze Point of View Rewrite the passage above from Bá’s point of view. Use the pronouns I, me, we, and my to refer to Bá instead of to her granddaughter. Then use these questions to analyze the point of view:

• • As the narrator, what could Bá tell you that her granddaughter couldn’t?

• • How would the whole story be different?