Tag Archives: foreign languages/linguistics

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word root trans. It means, variously, across, through, change, and beyond. You recognize it, I am confident, as the root of such words–all included on this document–as transact, transcribe, transfer, and transit. And of course you’ll find it in all kinds oc commonly used English words like transport and transcend, both of which indicates one of this roots connotations: not just across, but to move across.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word root tract. It means draw and pull. You will recognize this as a particularly productive root in English: attract, contract, detract, extract, and retract all grow from this root, and all are included in this document (and I haven’t mentioned distract–to pull attention away from–which is not on this worksheet).

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Here is a worksheet on on the Greek word roots soph and sophy. They mean wise and wisdom. As you probably see, these are productive roots in English that yield words such as sophisticated, theosophy, sophistry (a good word, I would argue, for high school graduates to know in our intellectually benighted age) and, of course, philosophy.

In fact, philosophy is one of those exemplars of ancient Greek culture, containing both sophy and philo, which means love, attracted to, affinity for, and a natural liking. Philosophy, then, means “love of wisdom.”

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word roots scop,-scope, and scopy. They mean to view, examine, and to observe. And I doubt you’ll be surprised to hear that you’ll find these roots at the base of such high-frequency English words as (and yes, these are on the worksheet itself) horoscope, kaleidoscope, and periscope. Microscope isn’t here, but if you want to add it you can; this, like almost everything else on Mark’s Text Terminal, is a Microsoft Word document that you can alter to your classroom’s needs.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Here is a worksheet on the Latin word roots spect, spec, and spic. This productive root in English means “to look” and “to see.” You’ll find it in such high-frequency words as aspect, prospect, respect, and inspect–all of which you’ll find on this worksheet; you’ll also find specious, a less-used adjective but a useful one nonetheless. It means “having deceptive attraction or allure” and   “having a false look of truth or genuineness.”

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.

Here is a worksheet on the Greek word root rupt. It means “to break, burst.” This productive root yields in the English language a number of high-frequency words like disrupt, corrupt, bankrupt, and rupture. I suppose there is really nothing more to say than that.

If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.