Past Hokudai/Cast Entries

Thursday, June 04, 2009

Hokudai/Cast 112: What Are Cheerful Pains

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I've said it before and I will probably say it again, but if you learn about roots, prefixes, and suffixes - about what they are, what they mean and how they are used to make English words - you will probably be able to improve your vocabulary - and spelling - quickly and easily.

In Hokudai/Cast 112 we have great possbilities. We use the prefix im - it means 'not' - to learn three words. Start with plausible, probable, possible. Add the prefix im and we get impossible, improbable and implausible.

With just two letters - i and m - we learn the antonyms of plausible, probable, and possible. And now, we can learn synonyms of these three words, too. They are all synonyms (although they carry a slightly varying degree of meaning).

By the way, antonym is made up of a prefix (ant) and a root (onym). Ant means opposite and onym means name. Similarly synonym is made up of a prefix (syn) and the same root (onym). Syn means same. So, what does synonym mean? That's right: the same name or the same meaning. See, roots, prefixes, and suffixes are fun!
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Mirai Sozo is the School of Future Learning at Hokuriku University. The primary focus is on language (English and Chinese) and management (hospital administration, sports, and business).
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