English Words
from Latin and Greek,
Increase spelling, vocabulary, and
reading comprehension
Adapted from Susan Ebbers
Susan Ebbers 2005
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Developing content-specific,
academic vocabulary
depends on a basic
understanding of Greek
and Latin
Sixty percent of the words
in English texts are of Latin
and Greek origin
Bear et al., 1996; Henry, 1997
Susan Ebbers 2005
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phobos
http://www.phobialist.com/
phobos
Definition: unusual fear
Examples:
claustrophobia: fear of closed places
acrophobia: fear of heights
arachnophobia: fear of spiders
myctophobia: fear of darkness
suriphobia- fear of mice
testophobia- fear of taking tests
Look Inside—Look Outside—Pull the Word Apart
pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
1. Look inside the word for known word parts:
prefixes, roots or combining forms, suffixes.
2. Use the analogy strategy—“I don’t know this word,
but I know pneumonia and I know volcano, so by
analogy, this word might have something to do with
lungs and heat.”
3. Look outside the word at context clues, visuals
The coal miners, coughing and wheezing, suffered
from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
Susan Ebbers 2005
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Romance
Romance Languages (e.g., Spanish, Portuguese, French,
Italian, etc.) share the same Latin roots as English does,
so don’t be afraid to use your other language skills.
Morta: Roman goddess of death
Example: The Latin root for the word death is mort.
The French spell it morte and the Spanish, muerte.
In English, we have a whole network of related
words: mortal, immortal, mortality, mortician,
mortuary, postmortem, etc.
CFU:
Can you think of some other English, Spanish and French words
that share the same root?
Susan Ebbers 2005
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Latin: Some Common Roots
trans port
able
to carry
dis
rupt
ion
to break
pre
script ion
to write
re
tract
or
to pull
inter cept
ion
to take
pro
ject
ile
to throw
de
struct ion
to build
con duct
or
to lead
dis
miss
al
to send
sub vers
ive
to turn
e
dict Susan Ebbers 2005
to speak
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Basic Terms
root form: inspector, thermal
base word: unlikely
prefix: re-, un-, dissuffix: -able, -ive, -ly
Derivation--a word formed from an existing word,
root, or suffix/prefix: electric, electricity
Susan Ebbers 2005
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Prefixes: Meaning and Connotation
Often Negative
Somewhat Positive
dis-,
de-
non-
sub-
pro-
co-
bene-
in-
un-
mis-
super-
com-
be-
mal-
anti,
contra
a-
en-,
em-
ad-
Susan Ebbers 2005
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Suffixes Are Like Units
• The letters work as a unit or team to add meaning.
•
•
•
•
words ending with –tion are often nouns
words ending with –ive are often adjectives
words ending with –ish are often adjectives
words ending with –ity are often nouns
What about -ment, -ous, -ness?
Susan Ebbers 2005
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philia
Philadelphia
-- city of brotherly love
Rocky actor
Sylvester Stallone
at the Philadelphia
Museum of Art
Philia (“feel-ya”)
Definition: love, friendship
Examples: Philadelphia,
philosopher, Philip, philharmonic,
philanthropist
Syn (or sym)
syn
Definition: with, together
Examples:
synonyms: words that go together
symphony: sounds that go together
synchronize: do things at the same time
synagogue: to bring people together for
Jewish worship
thesis
Thesis (3 Ps)
Definition: put, place, position
Examples:
thesis: position taken in a
persuasive argument
parentheses: symbols grouping
words placed inside a sentence
synthesizer: instrument that puts
sounds together
Draw a word tree. Select a root. Grow words.
Write words that
contain your root on
the branches of the
tree. Include
definitions.
television: box to see distant things
telethon: long fundraising event
telephone: sound from far away
telekinesis: making things move
from a distance
telescope: device for seeing distant
objects
Write the root word on
the bottom near the
roots of the tree.
Check for Understanding
Use one of the following
roots to create your own
tree:
Anim--life
Flex--bend
Aud--hear
Astr--star
Cide--kill
Struct--build
Dem--people
Susan Ebbers 2005
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Counting in Greek and Latin
mono
uni
di
bi
du, duo
tri
tetra
quadri
penta
hexa
sept
oct
nove
deca
deci
cent
milli
poly
multi
semi
hemi
Susan Ebbers 2005
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grammar school
grammar books
rules of grammar
grammatical
grammatically
ungrammatical
ungrammatically
grammatology
grammar
photograph
polygraph
mimeograph
phonograph
telegraph
paragraph
gram, graph
to write,
written
Greek
graph
telegram
mammogram
histogram
gram
anagram
cryptogram
monogram
electrocardiogram
graphite
grapheme
graphologist
graphic
graphically
Susan Ebbers 2005
photographer
cartographer
geographer
cryptographer
autobiographer
xylographer
paleographer
biographer
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Checks for Understanding
Create your own word.
Don’t use a real word.
Make it up and make it fun
based on your knowledge of
roots, suffixes and prefixes
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