Roots and Affixes
Aligned to L.4.4 — Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts.
What this lesson teaches
You can unlock unknown words by breaking them into parts. A root carries the main meaning, a prefix adds meaning to the front, and a suffix adds to the end. Many roots come from Greek and Latin. Context clues and a dictionary help too.
Worked example
The word 'unbreakable' splits into 'un-' (not), 'break,' and '-able' (can be). Put together, it means 'not able to be broken' — you figured it out without looking it up.
Practice questions
- Break a word like 'rewrite' into its prefix and root and tell what it means.
- Explain what the prefix 'un-' does to a word.
- Use context clues to guess a hard word, then say how you could double-check it.
Watch the lesson
Every lesson comes with a video taught in English and Spanish — the same video the QR code in the printed workbook opens.
▶ Watch this lessonEn español
Raíces y Afijos
Puedes descifrar palabras desconocidas separándolas en partes. Una raíz lleva el significado principal, un prefijo agrega significado al inicio, y un sufijo agrega al final. Muchas raíces vienen del griego y el latín. Las pistas del contexto y un diccionario también ayudan.
Ejemplo: La palabra 'irrompible' se separa en 'i-' (no), 'romp' (romper) y '-ible' (que se puede). Junta, significa 'que no se puede romper' — lo descifraste sin buscarla.
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