UOL - Decoding words

Un

happiness

By Ale Osorio

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Decoding words

Acquires interest in the background of words.

Identify word roots, suffixes and prefixes.

Learn how to break apart words into digestible and understandable pieces.

Today's objectives

Take the Latin root “ject,” for example. We see it in reject, eject, and interject. Those words can mean, respectively, throw away, throw out, and throw in between. We can see that “ject” has something to do with throwing things. In fact, it comes from Latin “jec,” which was a form of the verb “jacere” (to throw). Root words don’t have to be simple or obvious at all, but they are still well worth studying and learning.

Root words, especially those from other languages, tell us a lot about how a language evolved, how it is related to other languages, and what major historical influences caused it to change.

Word roots

a- [no/without] anti- [againts/opposing] mid- [in the middle] self- [directed toward oneself]

Prefixes are one- to three-syllable affixes added to the beginning of a base word to slightly change its meaning. For example, adding the prefix im- to the base word possible creates a new word, impossible, which means “not possible.”

What are prefixes?

quick [adjective] quickness [noun] quicken [verb] quickly [adverb]

Suffixes are letters added to the end of a base word to change its conjugation, word type, or other grammar properties like plurality. For example, take the noun strength: You can add the suffix –s to make it plural (strengths) or the suffix –en to change it into a verb (strengthen). You can then add the suffix –ed to make that verb past tense (strengthened).

What are suffixes?

do

un

rest

kind

hope

date

less

ing

less

re

ly

man

ness

read

ful

il

able

use

Build words

Activity

legal

trans

tele

port

over

react

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