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The English language is composed of layers of influence and shares similarities with many other international languages. This comes from centuries of changes and progression, but we can still trace certain words to several different roots.

Anglo-Saxon (or Old English) is what English sounded like when it first began. We still use a lot of words from Old English today to show numbers, colours and body parts. Examples are ‘father’, ‘mother’, ‘sky’, ‘sea’, ‘earth’, ‘happy’ ‘thank’ and more. These root words don’t usually use prefixes.

Latin - About 55% of the English language borrows from Latin and understanding it even a little bit can go a long way.

Latin builds on a root word by adding either a prefix or a suffix. Prefixes change the definition (re, dis, mis) whilst suffixes will change the word type or meaning (-tion, -ous, -ing). Here are some very common Latin root words and suffixes that we can see each day!

Greek - Greek uses word forms to add meaning on top of other meanings. Most of this book will focus on prefixes when we use mathematical terms like ‘cent’ or ‘milli’ or ‘pent’ to talk about shapes, unit conversions or percentages, and suffixes to show the type or category of something. We can also find quite beautiful meanings when word forms are used as prefixes and root words as we’ll see below.

Let’s take the Greek word amphibian.
If amphi/ambi means both kinds, (ambiguous, ambidextrous), bio means life (biology, biography, biohazard), and ian means related to something (librarian, pedestrian), we can decipher that an amphibian would mean related to both kinds of life.

Amphibians are animals like frogs or newts that can live on both land and water. In Greek, amphibian translates somewhat to ‘to live a double life’ in English!

By using word form combination or ‘morphology’ we can understand how these words interact with one another, and start to learn about what these prefixes, root words and suffixes all mean separately.

Can you think of any other words with the same root words but different suffixes? You’re already on your way to expanding your vocabulary dramatically...

Get in touch via DM, phone call or on our website - www.getin-tuition.co.uk for more information on starting your child's 11+ journey. We currently have a handful of spaces left for weekly tuition and our holiday workshops over Easter and Summer.

We wish all our practising students a Happy Diwali!

We wish all our 11+ students good luck for their entrance exam today! You've all worked so hard, so remember that this is the time to show off what you can do. Make sure you reach your designated grammar school early and have a hearty breakfast to start the day off right.

Another school year, another chance for new opportunities and experiences for your child to discover 🕵️🕵️‍♀️🕵️‍♂️

Our inspirational quote for the new year is from Denise Witmer - an established writer and columnist for new parents and parents of teens since 1997.

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