If you’re the parent of a new student in the fourth grade, then you know how important it is to include things like Greek and Latin Roots in their worksheets. But what exactly is a Root?
The word Root comes from Latin, where the root is the central piece in the stem of a plant or an animal. For example, the Latin name for a typical tree is Fagus. This means ‘fruit tree’. Many Plant Names are derived from Latin because the common Latin ancestor was found in Greece.
While you can usually tell the Plant’s family or genus based on the Latin for the Root, it’s important to note that it doesn’t necessarily mean what you think it means. The Latin for Root is Heterocotylus. This may sound like a Plant, but it’s a type of lizard. We’ll talk more about the Latin root later in this article.
There are a few ways to use the Latin roots when filling out worksheets. Many teachers will have written out Greek and Latin Roots for many different subjects, so it makes sense to use those Greek and Latin Roots. However, many teachers do not teach in these ways, so it’s important to be creative when picking words for your worksheets.
The most obvious Greek and Latin Roots that can be used in a worksheet are the ones that refer to the Animals and Plants. The more creative you are with this, the better the results will be. Instead of writing “foxes”, you can write “foxes (in animal form), and instead of “herbs”, you can write “herbs (in plant form).
There are plenty of English verbs that can be written as Roots, such as: To Hate, to Complain, to Hate Again, to Think Evil, to Do the Wrong Thing, to Swear, to Know Something, to Learn, to Take the Ball in Your Hand, to Be a Giant, to Play Badly, to Spy, to Meet, to Complain About, to Dream, to Be Confused, to Regret, to be Confused Again, and so on. There are even more English verb Roots than there are Greek and Latin Roots!
It’s also very important to make sure that you are familiar with the vocabulary that you are learning in grammar class. You’ll be able to ask your teacher to teach you the more difficult words, but you won’t be able to learn the less difficult words if you don’t understand them. In a worksheet filled with Latin and Greek Roots, you can either have them write out English words that are Greek and Latin Roots, or you can write in English words that are Latin Roots.
I’ll end with this little tidbit. To answer the question, the Latin Root that we’ve been talking about so far is ‘Heterocotylus’, which means “Fruit Tree”. Of course, it isn’t hard to remember that one…
