Business English: A Practice Book by Rose Buhlig

CHAPTER IV

WORD ANALYSIS To learn English words thoroughly we must spend some thought on the way in which they are made up, on the language from which they have been derived, and on the changes in meaning made by adding prefixes and suffixes. Three important influences in building the English have been the Anglo-Saxon, the Greek, and the Latin languages. The simplest words in the language are Anglo-Saxon. The following exercises illustrate how words have been multiplied by Anglo-Saxon prefixes and suffixes. =Exercise 46= Name as many words as you can that make use of each of the following prefixes. Give only such as are recognizable English words without the prefix. _a_--aboard _mis_--misjudge _be_--becalm _un_--unknown _fore_--foretell _up_--uproot Give the meaning of each of the prefixes used above. What part of speech does each prefix make? =Exercise 47= Using the following Teutonic suffixes, form English words. Be careful that the root taken alone is an English word. _dom_--kingdom _ness_--goodness _hood_--manhood _ship_--friendship What does each suffix mean? What part of speech does it make? =Exercise 48= As above, form words using the following suffixes: _en_--darken _ful_--fearful _en_--golden _ly_--smoothly _ish_--sweetish _like_--childlike _less_--fearless _some_--lonesome Define each suffix. What part of speech does it make? =Exercise 49--Greek Roots= Below is given a list of common Greek roots with the English meaning of each. Form words using one or more of the roots for each word, and define the words you make. For instance, give the meaning of _telephone_, _telegraph_, and _monarch_. _Greek_ _English_ _Greek_ _English_ _phon_--hear _chron_--time _tele_--far _cycl_--circle _graph_--write _geo_--earth _scop_--see _polit_--government _micro_--small _cra_--rule _mono_--one _demo_--people _arch_--chief _hydro_--water _metr_--measure _poly_--many _baro_--pressure, weight _pluto_--riches How many names of modern inventions have you made? =Exercise 50= What words belonging to your vocabulary end in the following suffixes? Choose only such as have an English word for the root. Adjective Suffixes