Dreams In Life

The study of words is very interesting. On the knowledge of how words are formed depends much of the ability to use the correct words needed at a given time. A knowledge of the origin of words will greatly help the student of English learn the meaning of a big of words.

A word can be separated into its elements--root or stem, suffix and prefix. The root or stem is the basis out of which words are formed. The prefix is the part placed before a root word to form a new word. The suffix is the part added after the stem to form a new word.

Knowing the meaning of a root word gives one the clue to the meaning of a number of words. Take the root word graph derived from the Greek verb Graphein which means to write. From it several words have stemmed like photograph, autograph, biography, geography, paragraph, telegraph, phonograph.