It's All Greek to Me: Learning the Root of our Language

If you are serious about studying English, it's wise to invest time learning the root words, prefixes and suffixes. This comes in especially handy if you are preparing for exams such as the SAT, TOEFL or other standardized tests where you are often asked to make educated guesses about the meanings of words that you may never have heard before.



Better yet, start early.



It's wise to begin teaching children about word origins. While phonics helps them to learn how to sound out words, it affords the child no greater understanding of the word's actual meaning. As a native English teacher, I have come across many kids who could read a story perfectly, but on further probing it became obvious that they have no idea what they are actually reading. The child has mastered a system, but has no understanding of the language they are using. Scary stuff.



Most English words have Latin, Greek or German origins. A root is essentially the part of the word you are left with once it has been stripped of its prefix and suffix (beginning and ending). This word part tells the meaning in its Latin or Greek form. Teaching your child root words will greatly enhance their comprehension of the English language and at times, also languages derived from Greek, Roman, and German. These include many of today’s European and South American languages.




So what are roots, prefixes and suffixes?



Essentially, English words are broken up into three parts:

The root is the basic meaning or definition of a word. Its base. It stands alone as a word. Sometimes root words have several different meanings.


The prefix is the word element placed in front of a word. It changes the meaning of the root, or creates a new word altogether. They are not words themselves, and usually have only one distinct meaning.


The suffix is the word element placed after the root and changes the meaning. but most importantly they show how a word will be used in a sentence and what part of speech (e.g. noun, verb, adjective) the
word belongs to.


For example, 'comfort' is a root word. By adding the prefix 'dis' and the suffix 'able' you can make new words such as 'discomfort' and 'comfortable.'



I recommend buying a good root word dictionary and beginning to systematically learn them as one would with any vocabulary.


Here is a list of the most common roots, prefixes and suffixes.