English Words

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English Words from Latin Greek Increase
spelling, vocabulary, and reading comprehension
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How many words are there in the English Language?

• The Second Edition of the Oxford English
  Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476
  words in current use, and 47,156 obsolete words.
  To this may be added around 9,500 derivative
  words included as subentries. Over half of these
  words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives, and
  about a seventh verbs the rest is made up of
  interjections, conjunctions, prepositions,
  suffixes, etc.

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Yea, yea, so get to the point

• This suggests that there are, at the very least,
  a quarter of a million distinct English words,
  excluding inflections, and words from technical
  and regional vocabulary not covered by the OED,
  or words not yet added to the published
  dictionary, of which perhaps 20 per cent are no
  longer in current use. If distinct senses were
  counted, the total would probably approach.

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Are you ready for this?

• Three quarters of a million
• 750,000

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Basic Terms root form a word with no prefix or
suffix added may also be referred to as a base
word inspector, thermal affix meaningful part
of a word attached before or after a root or base
word to modify its meaning prefix an affix
which is placed before the stem of a word re-,
un-, dis- suffix an affix which is placed after
the stem of a word -able, -ive, -ly
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root suffix

• We Do
• biology
• bio life
• -logy study of
• So it means
• the study of life

• I Do
• astrology
• astro stars
• -logy study of
• So it means
• "the study of stars

How did we know biology meant the study of
life? Frame We knew that biology meant the
study of life because _______________________.
P/S NV
How did I determine the meaning of
astrology? Frame We determined the meaning of
astrology by ______________.
P/S NV
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prefix root

• We Do
• enamor
• en- having
• amor love
• What does enamor mean?
• having love
• How do you know that? P/S NV

• I Do
• empathy
• em- having
• pathy feeling
• So it means
• having feeling
• The soldier had empathy for the prisoner.

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root root

• I Do
• pseudonym
• pseudo false
• nym name
• false name
• Samuel Clemens wrote under the pseudonym Mark
  Twain.

• We Do
• aqueduct
• aque water
• duct to lead/pull
• What is an aqueduct used for?
• How do you know that?
• P/S, non-volunteer

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prefix root suffix

• I Do
• retrospective
• retro backwards
• spect look
• -ive having quality of
• quality of looking backward
• History is a retrospective way of looking at life.

• We Do
• carnivore
• carni meat
• vor eat
• -e one who
• one who eats meat
• What does carnivore mean?
• How did you know?
• P/S, volunteer

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20 Most Frequent Prefixes in School Texts
1. unable 2. review inedible (impotent, illegal, irresponsible) inedible (impotent, illegal, irresponsible) inedible (impotent, illegal, irresponsible)
distrust enlighten (empower) nonsense inside, implant overcome
misguided submarine prefix interrupt forewarn
derail transfer supersonic semicircle antitrust
midterm underfed Analysis White, Sowell, and Yanagihara 1989 Analysis White, Sowell, and Yanagihara 1989 Analysis White, Sowell, and Yanagihara 1989
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Meanings

• Un-not
• Re-Again
• Dis-Not/Opposite
• Mis-wrongly
• De-Opposite/Reverse
• In/Im/Il/Irr-Not
• Ante/Pre-Before
• Semi-Partially
• Non-Not

• Sub-Under/Below
• Mid-Middle
• Inter-InAmong
• En-Made of/ Related
• Trans-Across/ Through
• Fore-Before
• Anti-Against

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Derivational Suffixes

• Derivational suffixes change the part of speech
• 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?

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Common Suffixes

• Able/ Ible-can be done
• Ial/Ic-Characteristic of
• En-Made Of
• Er-Comparative/ one who
• Ful-full of
• Ion/Ition/Ation/Ition-act/ process

• Ity-State of
• Less-Without
• Ment-Action or Process
• Ness-State/Condition of
• Ous/Eous/Ious-Having the qualities of

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Whats the Meaning

• Unmanageable
• Redo
• Transsiberian
• Antebellium
• Misbehave
• Unafrid
• Precook

• Admirable
• Blacken
• Cheerful
• Collectible
• Infection
• Nervously
• Thicknes

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Greek Combining Forms
Hydro-water Geo-earth
Pyro-fire Polis-city Neuro-nerve
Ortho-straight Scope-See/ look Photo-light
Therm-heat Psych-the mind
Chron-time Phobe-fear Pseud-fake
Onym-name Crypt-hidden Helio-sun
logy-to talk Sphere-ball the, theo
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Counting in Greek and Latin
Mono-1 Uni-1 Di-2
Bi-2 du, duo-2 Tri-3
Tetra-4 Quadri-4 Penta-5
Hexa-6 Sept-7 Oct-8
Nove-9 Deca-10 Deci-10
Cent-100 Milli-1000 Poly-many
Multi-many Semi-half Hemi-half
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Find the Meaning

• Monotheism
• Bicycle
• Pentagon
• Chronology
• Pyromania

• Hydrophobic
• Anapolis
• Pseudonym
• Hexagram
• Semicircle

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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
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Content-Specific Greek Terms Anatomy and Medical
Terms esophagus, thyroid, diagnosis, psoriasis,
dyslexia Studies and Sciences biology,
seismology, morphology, geochronometry Animals
and Plants arachnid, amphibian, chlorophyll,
dinosaur, nectar Theatre and the Arts charisma,
drama, chorus, muse, symphony, acoustics
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• Look InsideLook Outside
• pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
• Look inside the word for known word parts
  prefixes, roots or combining forms, suffixes.
• Use the analogy strategyI dont 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.
• Look outside the word at context clues, visuals
• The coal miners, coughing and wheezing, suffered
  from pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
  .

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Activity

• In groups of 2 you will play memory with prefixes
  and suffixes.
• As we do this, groups will be called to the front
  table to go through magazines to find pictures
  representing an affixed word. Put the picture and
  your word on the poster board along with your
  initials.
• Example Pyromaniac-fire