ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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A “root word” is like… well, it's like a root. Why? Because it's a word from which [Word falls off branch of a tree]

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lots of other words come from.

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Kind of like how lots of different branches can come from one tree root.. Get it?

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Someone did a really good job naming this thing. We hope they got a promotion. [Man presenting root words to group of people]

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From a root word, we get more words that might have similar sounds or meanings, all of which

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make up one big, happy “root family.” Aww.

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Root words are similar to prefixes and suffixes in that they can’t be broken down into any [Dino explaining root words]

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smaller words.

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And by that, we mean they’re super strong. They’re unbeatable.

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They’re basically the Superman of words. [Man shoots at Superman and man runs away]

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So let's check out some examples!

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In the word “swimming”, the root word is… you guessed it - “swim.”

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And swimming is an “activity” whose root word is “act”, from a Latin word meaning

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“to do”.

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And an “activity” is “something that you do.”

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Cool, huh?

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And here's a list of root words you can check out. [Examples of root words listed on sheet of paper]

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Can you figure out what words are hidden in them?

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A root word can also be a word that we don’t normally use in English, like the Greek word

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“phon”, meaning sound.

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From which we get the word “cacophony”…

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…as well as the word “symphony”… [People playing violin]

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…and the word “phone.”

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Whoops… we forgot to tell you to silence your cell phone before this feature presentation. [Person shines flash light on girl in theater]

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And a word family is a group of words that share the same root and are related in meaning.

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Word family members of “cacophony” and “symphony”, includes the words “microphone”

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and “megaphone”. All of them are related to that same root word, “phon.”

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And you know what they say, the family that shares root words together stays together. [Family at the table sharing root words]

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…do they not say that? Well, they should.

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Knowing root words is helpful when you’re trying to figure out the meaning of a new word.

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Like if you came upon the word “desolate.”

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You might recognize part of the word, which is related to a word you do know.

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And from there you could figure out that “desolate” describes a place where you feel alone. See? [Girl reading The Lonely Sensei book]

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You did that all by yourself. No dictionary… or dictionary app… necessary.

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That being said, it's always a good idea to check with a dictionary. [Dictionary book opens up to page of desolate meaning]

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But context clues can also confirm that definition.

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And using context clues in combination with a root word is what we’d call… branching out.

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Get it? Branching? Like…trees? [Boy falls off chair in class]

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Man, how do we make you guys laugh? We're positively….stumped. [Man stood on a tree stump]

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