Using word roots to learn new vocabulary in a foreign language

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Recipes

Using word roots to learn new vocabulary in a foreign language
Home > Guide > Vocabulary > Memorizing > Roots

Recipes

P>Foreign language vocabulary is not made of random combinations of letters. Many words in a language are derived from other words in the same language. These words can often be grouped around a common root. If you learn the root and recognize it in new words, it will considerably help you to remember the new word.

For instance, with the old Latin word root 'pater' - father, you can learn many words in Romance languages. In French you could learn patrimoine (estate of the father), patrie (fatherland), patronyme (name of the father), etc... These words roots work in different ways in each language. For important languages, you can often find a book that presents the most common word roots and lists examples of words that use these roots.