Vocabulary Terms

Below is a list of vocabulary terms used in teaching English.

Antonym - Words that have the opposite meaning.

  • old - new
  • hi - goodbye
  • fast - slow

Synonym - Words that have a similar meaning.

  • bag - sack
  • little - small
  • shut  - close

Homophone - Words that sound the same, but have different meanings.

  • by - buy
  • ate - eight
  • no - know

Homonym - Words that are spelled the same, but have different meanings.

  • can (metal) - can (able to)
  • bark (dog) - bark (tree)
  • right (correct) - right (direction)

Collocation - A pair or group of words that are habitually juxtaposed by native speakers of the language. There are different types of collocations.

  • Adjective + Noun -  black coffee, deep sleep
  • Noun + Noun - round of applause, cup of coffee
  • Noun + Verb - dog barks, time flies
  • Adverb + Adjective - completely satisfied, 
  • Verb + Noun - make a mistake, give a speech
  • Verb + Adverb - whisper quietly
  • Verb + Preposition/Prepositional Phrase - worry about, care for

Base Word - A base word can stand alone and is a free morpheme. Prefixes and suffixes can be attached to a base word.

  • play - player, replay
  • see - seeing, seen
  • harm - harmful, harmless

Root Word - A root word cannot stand alone and comes from a Greek or Latin word. Prefixes and suffixes can be attached to a root word.

  • cent (100) - century, cents
  • fac (do or make) - factory, manufacture
  • mit (send) - transmit, permit, admit

MORPHEME - a meaningful unit of language.

1. Free Morphemes - These can stand alone and give meaning to the message conveyed. There are two types of free morphemes: Lexical and Functional.

A. Lexical Morphemes - Nouns, adjectives, and verbs that we think of as words and carry the content of the message. 

  • Nouns - box, flower, car
  • Adjectives - big, beautiful, red
  • Verbs - eat, walk, cry

B. Functional Morphemes  - These morphemes connect the ideas of the lexical morphemes. They include conjunctions, prepositions, articles, and
pronouns.

  • Conjunctions - and, or, but
  • Prepositions - in, of, to, about
  • Articles - a, an, the
  • Pronouns - one, those, he

2. Bound Morphemes - These must be attached to impart meaning. These include inflectional morphemes, prefixes, and suffixes.

A. Inflectional Morpheme - When added to root or base word, these morphemes modify the tense, aspect, mood, person, or number of a verb or the number, grammatical gender, or case of a noun.

  • Plural Noun (-s and -es)
    • cats, chairs, boxes, churches
  • Possessive Noun (apostrophe and 's)
    • cats'  food, boys' restroom, John's book, Sue's mom
  • Third-Person Singular Present Verb (-s and -es)
    • finds, plays, washes, crushes
  • Regular Past Tense Verb (-ed)
    • helped, added, laughed
  • Irregular Past Participle Verb (-en)
    • written, broken, given
  • Present Participle Verb (-ing)
    • reading, sleeping, talking
  •  Comparative Adjective/Adverb (-er)
    • bigger, happier, fewer
  • Superlative Adjective/Adverb (-est)
    • biggest, happiest, fewest

B. Derivational Morpheme - When combined with a root or base word, these affixes change the semantic meaning or the part of speech of the word.

  • Affix - a prefix or suffix.
  • Prefix - These are attached before the root or base word.
    • un, re, non, pre, dis, in
  • Suffix - These are attached after the root or base word.
    • able, ful, ment, ness, ly, tion