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Haida has instrumental prefixes that are attached to a verbal root in order to denote the instrument (such as “with ears” or “with lips”) and the manner (such as “by pulling” or “by poking”) whereby an action is performed. Morphologically, instrumental prefixes are not added to all verbal roots; their versatility varies from the ones that can be applied to a relatively limited number of roots to those that can be added to a fairly high number of roots. Instrumental prefixes of low versatility appear to be restricted to bound roots that require instrumental prefixes and/or classifiers, while those of high versatility can be added to free roots that can be used without these prefixes. Syntactically, instrumental prefixes are concerned with verb valence. When added to a two-argument verb, they do not affect the verb valence. When added to a one-argument verb, however, some instrumental prefixes affect the verb valence to derive a two-argument verb. This depends on the transitivity implied by the instrumental prefixes; thus, those instrumental prefixes that can imply the target of action increase the valence, while those that do not imply it do not affect the valence.