###Using knowledge of word parts to deconstruct words
When you’re reading and you come across an unfamiliar word, you can use your knowledge of roots and affixes to infer the word’s meaning. Follow these steps:
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Deconstruct the word by breaking it into its parts (roots and affixes).
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Recall the meaning of each part.
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Use those meanings to determine the meaning of the whole word.
Example:
At the Museum of Contemporary Art, I saw a number of monochromatic paintings.
[[☃ explanation 1]]
[[☃ explanation 2]]
[[☃ explanation 3]]
###Using knowledge of word parts to construct words
Related words may have the same root or base word but have different endings that show each word’s part of speech. You can use your knowledge of common word endings, particularly endings that change a word’s part of speech, to form new words.
[[☃ explanation 4]]
Example:
The word infect is a verb that means “to give someone an illness or disease.” If you know what infect means, you can probably construct these related words:
Word | Ending| Part of speech | Definition
- | - | -
infection | -tion | noun | an illness; the act of catching an illness
infectious | -ous | adjective | able to cause an illness
infectiously | -ly | adverb | in a way that can cause an illness
###Remember!
Use your knowledge of word parts to deconstruct unknown words and determine their meanings or to construct new words. The more word parts you know, the easier it will be to deconstruct and construct words.