Vocabulary

 

 

Vocabulary is vital to communicating with others and understanding what one is reading.

In learning your vocabulary you need to know: 

1. the roots in which words derived from.
2. Synonyms and Antonyms
3. Sentence Completion

Knowing the Roots

At least half of the words in the English language are derived from Greek and Latin roots. Knowing these 

roots helps us to grasp the meaning of words before we look them up in the dictionary. It also helps us to see how words are often arranged in families with similar characteristics.

 Some common Greek and Latin roots:

	Root (source)	Meaning	English words
	aster, astr (G)	star	astronomy, astrology
	audi (L)	to hear	audible, auditorium
	bene (L)	good, well	benefit, benevolent
	bio (G)	life	biology, autobiography
	dic, dict (L)	to speak	dictionary, dictator
	fer (L)	to carry	transfer, referral
	fix (L)	to fasten	fix, suffix, affix
	geo (G)	earth	geography, geology
	graph (G)	to write	graphic, photography
	jur, just (L)	law	jury, justice
	log, logue (G)	word, thought, speech	monolog(ue), astrology, biology, neologism
	luc (L)	light	lucid, translucent
	manu (L)	hand	manual, manuscript
	meter, metr (G)	measure	metric, thermometer
	op, oper (L)	work	operation, operator
	path (G)	feeling	pathetic, sympathy, empathy
	ped (G)	child	pediatrics, pedophile
	phil (G)	love	philosophy, Anglophile
	phys (G)	body, nature	physical, physics
	scrib, script (L)	to write	scribble, manuscript
	tele (G)	far off	telephone,television
	ter, terr (L)	earth	territory, extraterrestrial
	vac (L)	empty	vacant, vacuum, evacuate
	verb (L)	word	verbal, verbose
	vid, vis (L)	to see	video, vision, television

Click on Video for further information on Roots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8HEhp36ueY

  Learning Prefixes and Suffixes

Knowing the Greek and Latin roots of several prefixes and suffixes (beginning and endings attached to

words) can also help us determine the meaning of words.

Prefixes showing quantity
	Meaning	Prefixes in English Words
	half	semiannual, hemisphere
	one	unicycle, monarchy, monorail
	two	binary, bimonthly, dilemma, dichotomy
	hundred	century, centimeter, hectoliter
	thousand	millimeter, kilometer
Prefixes showing negation
	without, no, not	asexual, anonymous, illegal, immoral, invalid, irreverent, unskilled
	not, absence of, opposing, against	nonbreakable, antacid, antipathy, contradict
	opposite to, complement to	counterclockwise, counterweight
	do the opposite of, remove, reduce	dehorn, devitalize, devalue
	do the opposite of, deprive of	disestablish, disarm
	wrongly, bad	misjudge, misdeed
Prefixes showing time
	before	antecedent, forecast, precede, prologue
	after	postwar
	again	rewrite, redundant
Prefixes showing direction or position
	above, over	supervise, supererogatory
	across, over	transport, translate
	below, under	infrasonic, infrastructure, subterranean, hypodermic
	in front of	proceed, prefix
	behind	recede
	out of	erupt, explicit, ecstasy
	into	injection, immerse, encourage, empower
	around	circumnavigate, perimeter
	with	coexist, colloquy, communicate, consequence, correspond, sympathy, synchronize

Suffixes, on the other hand, modify the meaning of a word and frequently determine its function within a

sentence. Take the noun nation, for example. With suffixes, the word becomes the adjective national, the

adverb nationally, and the verb nationalize.

See what words you can come up with that use the following suffixes.

• Typical noun suffixes are -ence, -ance, -or, -er, -ment, -list, -ism, -ship, -ency, -sion, -tion, -ness, -hood, -dom

• Typical verb suffixes are -en, -ify, -ize, -ate

• Typical adjective suffixes are -able, -ible, -al, -tial, -tic, -ly, -ful, -ous, -tive, -less, -ish, -ulent
• The adverb suffix is -ly (although not all words that end in -ly are adverbs—like friendly)

Click on link for further information: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/vocabulary.htm

Synonym and Antonym

Click on Link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96J8P2XpL1U

Synonyms

Synonyms are words that mean about the same thing. They are important for building 
vocabulary and enhancing reading comprehension.

For example, a synonym for beautiful is stunning:

She is a beautiful girl.

She is a stunning girl.

Lesson by Caroline Devane

• 1. The sofa is too BIG for the living room.

• Large
• Pretty

• 2. Mice are really TINY animals.

• Small
• Nice

• 3. I HATE spiders, they are horrible.

• Loathe
• Kill

• 4. This lesson isn't very HARD!

• Exhausting
• Difficult

Antonym

An antonymis a word that is the opposite meaning of another. It comes from the Greek words “anti”

for opposite and “onym” for name. Since language is complex, people may at times, disagree on

what words are truly opposite in meaning to other words.

Working with Antonyms

Sometimes you need to take two steps to enlarge your findings when doing antonym research:
Step 1:

Search for the antonyms for a word.
Here is an example of antonyms for the word "good" from

• bad, badly, badness, evil, evilness, ill, malevolent, malicious, poorly, wicked

Step 2:

Search for synonyms of the antonyms identifed in step one.

If you take the first antonym listed, “bad,” and search for synonyms, you would be shown 73

synonyms for “bad.” That would give you a lot of antonyms to choose from when looking for that

perfect antonym for good, including words such as: awful, dreadful, hard, hopeless, inferior, lousy,

painful, rotten, severe, stale, terrible, and tough.

Categories of Antonyms

There are three categories of antonyms:

1. Graded antonyms deal with levels of the meaning of the words, like if something is not “good”, is may still not be “bad.” There is a scale involved with some words, and besides good and bad there can be average, fair, excellent, terrible, poor, or satisfactory.

Examples include:

• Joy and grief
• Dark and light
• 
  
• 1. 2.Complementary antonymshave a relationship where there is no middle ground. There are only two possibilities, either one or the other.

Examples include:

• Wet and dry
• Sharp and dull
• Raise and lower
• Fantasy and reality

3. Relational antonymsare sometimes considered a subcategory of complementary antonyms. With these pairs, for there to be a relationship, both must exist.
Examples are:

• Lost and found
• Left and right
• Give and get
• Employer employee

Adding a Prefix

Sometimes, an antonym can be easily made by adding a prefix.
Examples of antonyms that were made by adding the prefix “un” are:

• Likely and unlikely
• Able and unable
• Fortunate and unfortunate
• Forgiving and unforgiving

By adding the prefix “non” you can make these pairs:

• Entity and nonentity
• Conformist and nonconformist
• Payment and nonpayment
• Combatant and noncombatant

Lastly, adding the prefix “in” can make the following pairs:

• Tolerant and intolerant
• Decent and indecent
• Discreet and indiscreet
• Excusable and inexcusable

Sentence Completion

A completion is a set of words or a phrase that makes the meaning of the verb clear phrase that

makes the meaning of the verb clear. For example, "The woman stopped to take her hanky from her

bag"

Completing Sentence Rules

Rule 1:It is time + for +personal object + to + verb (present form) + ……….

Examples:

It is time for us to attack the enemy.

It is time for them to start the work.

Rule 2:It is time + subject +verb (past form)+ ………

Examples:

It is time we went home.

It is time they earned their livelihood.

Rule 3:Present Indefinite + as if/as though +past indefinite.

Examples:

He tells the story as if he knew it.

He runs fast as though he were a mad man.

They donate money as if they were rich man.

Rule 4:Past Indefinite + as if/as though +past perfect.

Examples:

He told the story as if he had known it.

She proceeded as though I had not spoken.

Click on link below for further information on sentence completion sentence rules:

http://english-education-world.blogspot.com/2012/12/completing-sentence.html

Video on Sentence Completion
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbhLKwZz5Ls

Please download attached documents on Sentence Completion
References
Click link worksheet on Sentence Completion
Worksheet on sentence completion

Click on link below for more activities on Vocabulary
http://www.ecenglish.com/learnenglish/lessons/10-synonyms
http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Synonyms-and-Antonyms.htm
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/vocabulary.htm
This link above tells you the step to follow how to building your vocabulary.
http://www.vocabulary.co.il/Games on vocabulary
Games on Sentence Completion
Synonym and Antonym Worksheet

http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Synonyms-and-Antonyms.htmThis URL above is based on synonyms and Antonyms included worksheet

Synonym and Antonym Worksheet
http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Synonyms-and-Antonyms.htm
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/vocabulary.htm

This link above tells you the step to follow how to building your vocabulary.
http://www.vocabulary.co.il/Games on vocabulary

 http://www.englishforeveryone.org/Topics/Synonyms-and-Antonyms.htmThis URL above is based on synonyms and Antonyms included worksheet

http://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-antonyms.html

http://bogglesworldesl.com/synonym_worksheets.htm
Games on vocabulary
clink on link
http://www.vocabulary.co.il/antonyms/
http://edhelper.com/synonyms.htm#12
Click link worksheet on Sentence Completion

Worksheet on sentence completion

Games on Sentence Completion

 Click on link to view my Wiki Page