Most people think English is mainly a Germanic language with some Latin sprinkled on top. In everyday speech, that's roughly right: the commonest words, like "the", "is", "water" and "eat", are Germanic. But open a science textbook, a legal document or a newspaper, and the longer words are mostly Latin or Greek, often by way of French. Learn the 30 Latin roots in this deck and you can take apart a great many of them.
How a root works
Latin verbs come in several forms, and English often borrows two of them. Ducere means "to lead", and its past participle ductus means "led". That's why English has both "produce" (from duc-) and "conduct" (from duct-). Many cards in this deck give both forms.
A word is usually built from a prefix, a root and a suffix:
- inter- (between) + rupt (broken) = interrupt
- trans- (across) + port (carry) = transport
- in- (into) + spect (look) = inspect
Roots for the body and the senses
Manus (hand) gives manual and manuscript. Pes, pedis (foot) gives pedal and pedestrian. Videre (to see) gives video, which in Latin simply means "I see". Audire (to hear) gives audience. Sentire (to feel) gives sensation and sentiment.
Roots for moving things
Six roots move things in different ways, and they're easy to mix up:
| Root | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| port-, fer- | carry | transport, transfer |
| duc-, duct- | lead | conduct |
| tract- | pull, drag | tractor |
| mit-, miss- | send | transmit |
| ject- | throw | eject |
Roots for thinking and speaking
Credere (to believe) gives credible and credit: a bank that gives you credit believes you'll pay. Dicere (to say) gives dictionary and predict, "to say beforehand". Loqui (to speak) gives eloquent, "speaking out" well. Vocare (to call) gives vocation, a calling, and advocate, someone "called to" help. Vocal is a cousin rather than a child: it comes from vox, "voice", a word related to vocare.
Look-alikes that aren't Latin
Not every root that looks Latin is. Greek gave English a second set of roots, especially in science: bio (life), graph (write), tele (far), phon (sound). Sometimes the two collide. Pedal and pedestrian come from Latin pes, "foot", but pediatrician comes from Greek pais, "child". A pediatrician treats children, not feet.
Common mistakes
- Assuming every ped- word means foot. Check whether it's about children (Greek) or feet (Latin).
- Treating graph and scrib as the same root. They both mean "write", but graph is Greek and scrib is Latin.
- Expecting the meaning to stay fixed. Roots give the starting point. "Mortgage" contains mort-, "death", through Old French "dead pledge", but it isn't about dying.
Frequently asked questions
What are Latin roots?
They're the core parts of Latin words, such as port (carry) or spect (look), which English uses to build words like transport and inspect.
How many English words come from Latin?
Estimates vary depending on how you count, but a large share of English vocabulary, especially longer and more formal words, comes from Latin directly or through French.
What's the difference between a Latin root and a Greek root?
They come from different languages. Latin gives roots like scrib (write) and vid (see); Greek gives roots like graph (write) and scop (look).
What does the root "port" mean?
To carry, from Latin portare. It's in transport, portable and export.
Try it
Say each meaning before you flip the card. Then cover the table above: which root would you use to build a word meaning "to pull something back"?