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Gowher Ahmad Naik, Lovely Professional University Unit 19: Vocabulary and Usage – Noun and Verbs

Unit 19: Vocabulary and Usage—Noun and Verbs Notes

CONTENTS
Objectives
Introduction

19.1 Knowing the Roots
19.2 Nouns
19.3 Adjectives
19.4 Same Words used in different parts of Speech: Noun and Verbs

19.5 Summary
19.6 Keywords
19.7 Review Questions
19.8 Further Readings

Objectives

After studying this unit, you will be able to:
• Build another word from a given word
• Know the roots of the given words

• Use in different parts of speech.

Introduction

English is a very flexible language and you can build on your vocabulary and learn how to
make new words. One way of doing this is to add prefixes (such as dis, pre or co) before the
word.

19.1 Knowing the Roots

At least half of the words in the English language are derived from Greek and Latin roots.
Knowing these roots helps us to grasp the meaning of words before we look them up in the
dictionary. It also helps us to see how words are often arranged in families with similar
characteristics.
For instance, we know that sophomores are students in their second year of college or high
school. What does it mean, though, to be sophomoric? The “sopho” part of the word comes
from the same Greek root that gives us philosophy, which we know means “love of knowledge.”
The “ic” ending is sometimes added to adjectival words in English, but the “more” part of the
word comes from the same Greek root that gives us moron. Thus sophomores are people who
think they know a lot but really don’t know much about anything, and a sophomoric act is
typical of a “wise fool,” a “smart-ass”!

Let’s explore further. Going back to philosophy, we know the “sophy” part is related to
knowledge and the “phil” part is related to love (because we know that Philadelphia is the

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