Hello and welcome to my new lesson, may name
is Emmelda and this lesson will be useful
to all those who are trying to learn English.
You are probably at the beginner’s stage
or at the intermediate stage, wanna know how?
We will be talking about vocabulary. Now you
see, English has four and a half million words,
that's correct. Each year approximately 25,000
words are added to your dictionary. It’s
practically impossible to learn all the words
and their meanings. so today's lesson is all
about trying to break the words and see or
gain some clues out of those words, right?
How are we going to do it? It’s very simple,
every time you break the word, the word will
give you clues. Let’s break a word, how
about duration? Duration, the word dur has
to do something with time. So during or duration
has to do something with time. Alright, that's
what we have for today. So let's break the
word. When you break the word, the first thing
you see is a prefix. Prefix is that portion
of the word that comes at the beginning of
the word. So let's say if your word is like
this, this portion will be your prefix. Let’s
take a look at a few examples. The first example,
I have is pre. Pre as I said, it's the beginning
or it happens early. So anytime I'm sorry
rather most of the time if you see a word
that has pre, you automatically get the hint,
it has to do something with early, for example,
prepone. What is prepone? You plan to do something
ahead of its scheduled time that is you bring
forward or bring ahead certain actions. You
prepone your meeting, you prepone your assignment
date. Prepone, predate. Predate means it is
dated ahead of the regular time. It could
be last year or it could be last century.
So pre actually has to do with early. So next
time, if you see a word with pre at the beginning,
understand that word may mean early or has
something to do with early. Moving on to another
prefix, we have auto. Auto means self or independent.
You noticed some word or you remember the
word? Automatic, a lot of people use gadgets
which are automatic. How about your washing
machine? Or your microwave? They automatically
cook the food for you or the washing machine
washes the clothes for you. Your car is an
automobile. You don't have to pedal it but
you just turn on the engine and it starts
running automatically.
The next I have for you is, ex. ex means out
of. You will see the word, ex in words such
as exit or exception. Both means out of. Exit
means out of a room or a chamber or a building.
Exception means out of the norm for example,
a penguin is an exception because it's a bird
that cannot fly.
The next I have for you is, mis. now mis means
wrong so if you hear or read certain words
which have mis at the beginning, you automatically
know, it has something to do with wrong or
an error. For example, a mistake. It is something
that you did not desire for. It’s a mistake
or a misfortune, where perhaps yu may have
lost your money in a casino or you met with
an accident. It’s a misfortune. Similar
to mis, we have mal. Mal means ill or error
now you will use mal in words such as malfunction.
Your laptop is malfunctioning that means your
laptop is showing an error. Or if you don't
take food properly, you become malnourished.
You become ill, so mal, malfortune, malnutrition.
Mal and mis are very similar but you cannot
interchange them. You cannot say, misfucntion,
no. it will still be called, malfunction.
Here, practise is essential because you need
to practise a lot to understand where you
have mis and where you have mal.
So now we see how prefixes give you the clues
of what the word could mean, right? Got it?
Moving on to the root. It’s not possible
that all the words, the prefix will give you
the meaning. So the next thing you may wanna
do is, find out the root word. Certain words
will have a root word and some additional
words. The root word will tell you the meaning,
for example, fort, fort means strength. What
kind of words, will have fort? Effort, effort
means you have the strength, you do something
with your own strength. So you take effort
or you make effort.
The next I have for you is fortitude. Fortitude
means strength of mind. It means your endurance,
right? So anytime you see fort, understand
the word is actually talking about strength,
got it? Right?
Let’s see another example, script, script
means write. It’s a written form. So the
moment you see, script or scribe, you know
it has something to do with writing. For example,
the transcription which is running through.
Transcription is the written version of the
audio file or the video you're listening to.
You have a manuscript. Manuscript is a written
version of the story or an action that's happening.
So script means write. It can come in words
such as transcript, manuscript, encryption,
alright, got it? Sure can we go on to another
word? Great.
The next word I have is photo. Now photo actually
means light. You see how the camera captures
different lights and it will give you into
a picture. Photograph means a diagram of light.
Yeah, that's cool, isn't it? Yes so photograph
means a diagram of light. Photo means light.
The next word that we use quite commonly is,
a photocopy that means it captures the same
light that the original photo or the picture
or the paper has. So it's photocopy, copying
the light. Another word I have for you is,
photosynthesis. Now photosynthesis is a process
where the plant captures the light of the
sun and uses it to produce leaves, fruit and
vegetables. So photo actually means light.
So you see friends, a root word can tell you
what the word can actually mean. Okay we have
fort, we have script, we have photo.
Moving on to, the end of the word. Again you
may not be able to find the meaning using
a prefix. You may not understand what the
root word is.so sometimes try to see the end
or the ending of the word. We have what we
call as, suffix. Suffix is that part of the
word that comes at the end. Let’s see a
few suffixes. The first one I have is,al.
al means related to. Now when I say related
to, let's take an example, the first example
I have is historical. Okay, here history is
the base word but you have al that means it
is related to history. So let's say, you want
to say, this book is historical because you
may have found that book sometime in history
and trying to read through, you're trying
to understand what may have happened in history
or in the past. So historical, rehearsal.
Rehearse means to practise. So when you say,
I’m going to rehearsal that means it has
something related to your practise or the
word rehearse. So al means rehearsal. Or al
means related to, example is historical, rehearsal,
rhetorical, parental, something related to
your parents, emotional something related
to the emotion. Right, so it's historical,
rehearsal, rhetorical, emotional, parental.
So the next time of you see, al, you know
it has something related to the base word.
Okay the next suffix I have for you is, ful,
ful means full of. You will use this ful specially
with emotions. For example, awful that means
I'm full of awe, I'm full of regret or I’m
shameful, I'm shameful, I'm regretful of whatever
happened to me or however I behaved. Or if
I'm in a better mood, I'll be grateful. Probably,
I'm thankful to my boyfriend, my partner,
my father, my sister, my mother for whatever
they have done for me. So I am thankful, I
am full of gratitude. I am full of thanks
that I have for them. Now ful usually comes
with an emotion, okay. So that's ful. Moving
on to the last suffix, I have for you is,
on. On means at or process. So anytime you
see a word that ends with on. For example,
action. Action is a process of acting, moving.
So on, process, on is a process, action is
a process of acting. How about rejection?
You know you may face rejection that means,
you are facing the process of being rejected.
So you have rejection. The last I have for
you is, administration. Now to administer
means you oversee things, you supervise things
but let's say, if you are the person who is
doing it, how do you do it? It’s an administration.
The act of overseeing things the act of supervising
things. The act of making things perfect or
checking on what is happening is administration.
So these are the three suffixes I have for
you that will help you tell what the word
could actually mean. I hope I have given you
some great formulas, some great tricks to
understand the meaning of the word using your
prefix, your roots or your suffix, you will
be able to expand your vocabulary and learn
what the word could actually mean. I will
be coming back with a new lesson, until then
stay tuned, have fun learning English and
stay beautiful, see you, have a wonderful
time.
