Lesson 6 - Stems ( Vocabulary Skills)

Vocabulary Skills



Let's learn more words:
                       In gaining access to meanings of sentences, paragraphs or texts, you have to decipher unfamiliar words, compounds, homonyms, heteronyms, idioms, and figures of speech. You can do it by consulting a teacher or a dictionary. But reading becomes more efficient of you do the task with a minimum of interruptions. Hence, you need to learn the meanings of as many words and expressions as possible to avoid looking them up in the dictionary every now and then or use context clues or the meaning of other words in the same sentence or paragraph.

1. Identifying the components of a word

    a. Stems
                 A stem is a part of a word to which inflectional ending is added or in which inflectional phonetic change is made.

Examples:

          learn                  veil                    large
          point                  commend          turn
            prove                  sect                   nation
            quest                  state                 diction
             opt                     suggest          thought

Exercise:

Activity 1:
   Write the stem of each of the words below.

     1. vigilant ______________________
     2. maladroit ____________________
      3. theoretical ___________________
      4. effective ______________________
      5. information ___________________
      6. research ______________________
      7. subscription ___________________
      8. relative _______________________
      9. importance ____________________
     10. accusation ____________________
Activity 2:
   Enumerate three words which are built on the same stem written on the first column.

     1. act           _____________  __________________  ____________________
     2. respond  _____________  __________________  _____________________
     3. graph      _____________  __________________  _____________________
     4. secret     _____________  __________________  _____________________
     5. part         _____________  __________________  _____________________
     6. plant       _____________  __________________  _____________________
     7. coast       _____________  __________________  _____________________
     8. colon       _____________  __________________  _____________________
     9. final         _____________  __________________  _____________________

2. Affixes
           An affixes may be a prefix or a suffix added to a root word or base in order to vary function, modify meaning or form a new word. A prefix is a syllable or a group of syllables added to the beginning of a word while a suffix is joined to the end of a word. Most suffixes change the part of speech of a word.

Prefix	Suffix
anti- (against) anti-war, anti-hero, antithesis	-able (able to, capable of being) memorable, irreparable, flammable
ante- (before) ante-Bellum, ante-chamber, ante-meridian	-ate (verb ending) active goes to activate, initial goes to initiate
con- (with) consult, connect, conversation, community	-atory (adjective ending) migrate goes to  migratory, inflame goes to inflammatory
de-, dis- (not) deflate, desensitize, disappear, disembark	-er (one who) teach goes to teacher, design goes to designer
geo- (earth) geography, geometrical	-ial (adjective ending) biaxial, primordial
im-, in- (not) immature, impossible, incredible, ineligible	-ion (noun ending; changes another form, usually a verb to a noun) act goes to action, decide goes to decision
im-, in- (into) import, immerse, intake, innate	-ious, -ive, -uous ( adjective endings) rebel goes to rebellious, vacuum goes to vacuous, relate goes to relative
im-, em-, in- (cause) improve, empower, insure, ensure	-iary incinerate goes to incendiary
inter- (between) international, intercollegiate	-ism (a belief or philosophy) monotheism, Romanticism
intra- (within) intra-mural sports	-ist (one who practices art, science, belief) psychiatrist, artist, humorist
micro- (small) microscope, micron	-ity (noun ending; often changes adjectives to nouns) equal equality
multi- (many) multi-faceted, multimillionaire	-less (without) weight goes to weightless, care goes to careless
photo- (light) photography, photosensitive	-ly (adverb ending) happy goes to happily
pre- (before) prefix, preamble, pre-natal	-ment (noun ending, act of) amusement, government, amendment
post- (after) post-partum, post-meridian	-ness (noun ending, also usually affixed to adjectives) happy goes to happiness
re- (again) reheat, recall, re-activate	-ology (the study of) chronology
retro- (back) retrospect, retrogate	-ous (adjective ending) populous, amorous
un- (not) uninteresting, uncertain	-tion (noun ending) act goes to action
	-ty (noun ending) eternity, beauty

 
 
Exercise:

Activity 1:
        Match the words in the second column with the appropriate prefix in the first column.

      1. com  ________________                        a. material
        2. de    ________________                        b. compatible
        3. dis    ________________                        c. motion
        4. em    ________________                       d. lapse
        5. il      _________________                       e. fault
        6. im    _________________                       f. content
        7. in      ________________                        g. essential
        8. ir      ________________                        h.  courage
        9. mal  ________________                        i. brace
        10. non ________________                        j. legible
                                                                              k. tie
Activity 2:
       Write the appropriate suffix for each of the words below. Spell the words correctly.

      1. alien     _____________________
       2. abhor    _____________________
       3. abolish  _____________________
       4. arrive    _____________________
       5. base      _____________________
       6. busy      _____________________
       7. caprice  _____________________
       8. catch     _____________________
       9. change  _____________________
      10. cohere  _____________________





Reference: Developmental Reading 1 by Aida S. Villanueva, Ph.D. and Rogelio L. Delos Santos pp. 94-100