Roots words and creating combinations I want you to take this part slowly but do not be intimidated by this. Remember how the alphabet represents sounds? These sounds (made up in the alphabet) are put together and make small units of meaning. We speak or right to each other so we can communicate something and allow others to understand our thoughts. So the alphabet and these sounds are put together to create small units of meaning and here you begin to build words, ideas. Think of this like building blocks; one block next to another, next to another and soon you have a whole wall – words. Remember that words in the English language are born from other languages? Do not be intimidated by this because you know these words more than you think you do. Now we will look at how small seemingly strange sounds are put together to form many different types of word Prefixes (at the beginning) + word root + suffixes (at the end) WORD ROOT These are the smallest units that form a word and can stand alone; each word needs a root. Root is a word from which other words grow; usually by adding prefix or suffix Words that can stand alone = FREE ROOT Free root + free root = COMPOUND ROOT (a word can have more than one free root) Free roots do not have to be in the middle of the word; they can occur in the beginning, middle or end of the word. BOUND ROOT Are roots that cannot stand alone but rely on a free root to make sense Prefixes and suffixes are often bound roots Learning roots It may feel as if you are learning another language, remember how many relatives the English language has? You will also be surprised how many of these Latin and Greek words you already know. Once you know these roots you will be able to spell longer words that seem complicated. Learning these roots will also help you figure the meaning of word you may not have heard before so take it one step at a time and have fun discovering and inventing words. Here are a few roots to start with. See how many words you can find in creating combinations with these units of meaning or roots. Root arch archaeo aster/astra audi bene bio Biblio brev chloro chrono cine, kine derm dic/dict fer fix gen geo Graph or gram hemo herb hydro hyper hypno jur/just Lex log/logue mania manu mega meta meter micro Meaning chief, primary or first ancient/primitive Star Hear good/well Life Book Short Green Time Movement Skin Speak Carry Fasten Birth Earth Write Blood Plants Water over, above, excess Sleep Law Word word/thought mad, crazy, obsession Hand Large or excessive Besides, after, later, beyond Measure Small neg neo ocu olig op/oper osteo path ped phil phys pod Polis. Pol proto pseudo scrib/script Scope sect sol struct tact tele ter/terr theo thermo or them vac ver verb vid/vis zoo No New Eye Few Work Bone Feeling or emotion Child Love body/nature Foot City or government First False Write To watch or to see Cut alone or sun Build Touch far off Earth God Heat or hot Empty Truth Word See Animal There are many more roots you will learn over time; it takes time to learn any language. By using these roots, you can make combination: auto(self)+bio(life)+graphy(write)= writing about your life (autobiography) tele (far)+phone(hear)= to hear far (telephone) zoo(animal)+ology(study of)= study of animals (zoology) Using these roots you can create many words; even the long intimidating words can be simply created and learned in this way. You can them add bound roots (prefixes and suffixes) to your roots and you can start to create new words. you can give gender to words, give tense, make the negative of words and give an impression of time using prefixes and suffixes so have with them. Let me show you what I mean: take the word account change tense: account (present tense) > accounted (past tense) change part of speech: accounts (verb) >accountant (noun) giving form to a word: accountant Let us try something with the word capitalism Capit (head - root) +al (suffix – bound root) = capital (most important) and (adjective) What about audio create a new word: audio (hear) +ology(the study of) =audiology (the study of hearing) a root can have both a prefix and suffix added: in+audio+able = inaudible (not able to be heard) In the next chapters we will look at prefixes and suffixes. I cannot say enough that you should not be intimidated by the simple, single sounds that seem to make no sense. Remember that when you put, roots together and then add prefixes or suffices you can have a lot of fun creating countless number of words. This is a great way of expanding your vocabulary.