Base word + affix

bake – baked, baker, bakery, unbaked
care – careful, careless, uncaring, carefully
happy – happiness, happily, unhappy, unhappiness
spell – respell, spelling, spelled, misspell

Examples of Latin Roots

dict (to say)  – predict, diction, dictate, dictation, unpredictable, predictable, contradict
ject (throw) – subject, object, deject, project, reject, inject, eject
port (to carry) – transport, report, deport, import, export, portable
spect (to look) – spectator, inspect, prospect, suspect, inspector, speculation

Examples of Greek roots

graph (writing) – photograph, autograph, biography, graphic, telegraph, phonograph
chron (time) – chronology, chronological, chronicle, synchrony, chronic
photo (light) – photograph, photosynthesis, telephoto, photography
meter (measure) – metric, kilometer, barometer, thermometer, geometry, symmetry

When students know the meanings of some common Latin and Greek roots, they can determine the meaning of new words. Let's look at some of these words and discover the meaning.

Auto (self) + bio (life) + graph (writing) + y = autobiography (writing about one's own life)

Tele (far) + phon (sound) = telephone (device to hear sound from far away)

Thermo (heat) + meter (measure) = thermometer (device that measures heat)