Reposted from 8/9/2009:
One of the best things that ever happened to me in high school was Mr. Bini, the English teacher who gave we freshmen a list of Greek and Latin roots and forced us to memorize them. Worse (to everyone else but me, it seemed) he made us use them, figure out what new words meant and other such 'tortures' in order to drum them into our heads.
I've never had a better tool handed to me (except perhaps the multiplication tables, which I can at least still remember, unlike all the capitals of Europe or the location and misc info about all the 50 states.)
A quick search online can net you some pretty good word roots. And, if you memorize them, you will have an incredibly powerful tool to help you increase your understanding of English and broaden your vocabulary.
I find it particularly useful to know roots in order to build new vocabulary in my speculative fiction. People may not understand the root consciously, but they generally do absorb a general sense of what a root can mean and get a sort of subliminal hint when the word I create is based on some appropriate Greek, Latin or other foreign word/root.
A few important roots to know:
- a/an: not, without
- a: on
- ab/s, a: from, away, off
- andr/o: male, man
- ante: before, in front
- anti: away, against
- co: with, together
- com: together
- de: reduce, away, down, remove
- di/s: apart, away, not
- dia: through, between, apart, across
- ex: from, out
- extra: out, about, beyond
- gyn: female, woman
- infra: beneath, below
- intra/intro: between, among
- ir: not
- ject: throw
- mis: bad, wrong, to hate
- non: no, not, without
- pan: all, any
- re: again, back, backwards
- self: of, for, or by itself
- serv: save, keep
- un: not, opposite of, lacking
- vers/vert: turn
- xen: foreign
There are many more of these, and it is a good idea (for your vocabulary's sake) to get familiar with the ones on the Espindle list. It really is the best one I've found so far.
Random grammar and vocabulary stuff:
Did you know about the "phrasal verb"? It's basically a compound verb, such as "down from," although there are other multi-word verb structures out there. A good example of these is on EnglishClub.com here.
EnglishClub.com also has a great page that lists and defines Latin phrases commonly used in English, which includes many of the abbreviations. Also good stuff to have memorized. Some of my favs (which all of you should learn if you don't know them already):
e.g. (exempli gratia): for example
et al. (et alii, et alia): and others
etc. (et cetera): and the rest, and so forth
et seq. (et sequens, et sequentes, et sequentia): and the following
id. (idem): the same
i.e. (id est): that is
Links:
Espindle "Word Root Quick Reference" page.
(Please see the writing resources page in the top right sidebar, where other useful links are located.)
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