HOW CAN YOU EASILY GET THE MEANING OF A WORD?

Words and their Meanings

Reading in a foreign language is not easy. As

you read, you can recognize the structures used
in the statements with the help of some
vocabulary items that are common in both
English and your native language. The exact
meaning of all words is not absolutely necessary
to understand the ideas they1 contain. When a
specific word is essential for you to understand
a sentence and you do not know it, you should
guess its2 meaning.
Guessing the meaning of words is possible with several strategies, but one of the
most useful is recognizing affixes (prefixes and suffixes) which define the function of
words. They3 are particles added to base words –roots that tell us about their origin
- to create new lexicon.
As the particle pre denotes, Prefixes precede the root words, and suffixes go after
them4. Prefixes can have other functions related to root words, like indicating the
opposite of something. The most used prefixes to form antonyms are: Un-, Dis-, De-
, Il-, In-, Im-, and Non-. Other prefixes convert adjectives or nouns into verbs, like
En-, and Be- in the words Enslave and Belittle.
Suffixes have a very flexible role and some endings can be used for different
grammatical categories, for example –ING can be part of a verb in present
progressive, as in the sentence “She is studying French.”-ING is also part of a noun
as an activity itself, as in the sentence “Going to the movies is my favorite thing to
do on weekends.” –ING is also part of an adjective that describes the effect of
something on a subject, as in the sentence “That movie was really boring.”
To illustrate the previous topics, let’s take a word like PREDICT. We can split it in
two to find a prefix meaning “before” or “in advance” and the root word “dict” which
comes from the Latin “dicere” that means “to tell.” Thus, we get the meaning “To tell
in advance” or “foretell.” Add a prefix UN, and the suffixes, IVE+LY, to make it5 into
another new word: UN-PREDIC7T-IVE-LY.
How can you guess the meaning of this new word? Well, you know that the root
word, DICT, means “to tell,” when you see it with the prefix PRE it must mean “to tell
in advance” or “to talk about something before it happens.” The other prefix UN- is
the opposite of the new root (-PREDICT), and by adding the suffixes -IVE, which
converts nouns into adjectives (the quality or ability of things, or people) and -LY,
(description of how the action is done) we know that the new word is an adverb and
must mean IN AN OPPOSITE WAY TO PREDICTIVE or its synonym
“unexpectedly.” In this way, if you understand the function of a number of common
affixes and prefixes both in English and your native language, you will be able to
discover the meaning of new words.
If you understand the function of a word in a sentence, you can provide a synonym
for it6 (a word with a similar meaning or a similar expression). For example, read the
following sentence: “Claudia is so lazy that nobody hires her because she works very
undonely”. Undonely is a non-existent word created for this explanation and it7 does
not exist in English; however, from its function in the sentence, and its context we
can guess a meaning for it. –LY is a suffix which denotes an adverb of manner which
describes verbs or adjectives, so it8 must describe how Claudia works. She9 does
not get anything done or ended. All her tasks are never-ending, so UNDONELY is
similar to “in an unfinished way”, or its10 synonyms “neverendingly” or “endlessly”
(i.e., without an end). That is the way to use prefixes and suffixes to get the meaning
of words in a context.